Well everyone, as of this blog post, we have officially reached 2 weeks out of the country. My family and I have also reached our point of exhaustion. We all just want to go home to our beds and be lazy again until school starts (for my brother, I am on the quarter system so I have another MONTH!) Even with this in mind, we all still found the energy to explore London yesterday and today. It is a really weird combination of both old and new and I am really weirdly into it. Keep reading to find out how we experienced living royally!
Sunday, August 4th, 2019
This morning, we woke up at around 7 or 8 and went downstairs to our lounge for a breakfast of sausages, croissants, and fruit. Then, we walked to the subway to take it to St. James’s Park station and then walked to Buckingham Palace, the home of Queen Elizabeth the II and Prince Philip.
Our tickets included the Queen’s Gallery, Royal Mews, and access into a few of the staterooms within the palace. (Do not worry! The Queen does not live there during peak tourist season, which is two months out of the year) The first place we went to was the Queen’s Gallery which was housing an exhibition full of a lot of Leonardo Da Vinci’s original drawings and sketches! It was so amazing to hear about how much of a genius and how ahead of his time he was! (via audio guide) He knew and could draw with such detail accurate depictions of the human body and knew complex geographical features about 200 years before every one else developed the technology! Another highlight was seeing his sketches for his world famous “The Last Supper”. I found it interesting how he took the delicate time to plan out where Jesus and his apostles would be at the table before going to paint it.
Next, we went to the Royal Mews which is where the horses, state coaches, limos, and cars are kept. The horses are also on vacation, running in the fields, for two months during tourist season! It was interesting to see the different types of state coaches used and two of the horses that are used to pull the carriages. (Their names are Riga and Rui) Each state coach served a different use and purpose such as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the State Opening of the Parliament, and her coronation. My personal favorite was the extravagant Gold State Coach which is used for every coronation since George IV.
After the Royal Mews, we got to go into Buckingham Palace which is just as extravagant and grandiose as you would think it would be! This summer, the exhibition within the palace was on Queen Victoria, the person who is responsible for making the palace what it is today. (Fun fact: It has 774 rooms in total!) No photos were allowed inside however. We got to see different drawing rooms, the gallery hall full of paintings, the grand staircase, Queen Victoria’s dining room, and the Grand ballroom, amongst others. It is really humbling to know that you are one of the palace’s millions of visitors each year that get to go into the home of the Queen.
After Buckingham Palace, we walked through the long yard and found the ice cream shop towards the exit. It is said to be made from the milk of the royal cows. My dad and I got Mint chip, Alex got vanilla, and my mom got mango. The ice cream was really tasty and just what we needed after walking through the hot palace. (I do not think there was AC because they needed to preserve all the valuables and if there was, it was not very good)
After Buckingham Palace, we walked to where Westminster Abbey was but was unable to visit the entire area because of a bike race going on. Instead, we just decided to hop back on the subway and just went back to our hotel for snack time in the lounge as we were all tired and hungry from skipping lunch. I enjoyed popcorn and other small plates offered as well as juice. Afterwards, we went back to our room and hung out for awhile until dinner. (Naps were taken)
Dinner consisted of walking to Fishcotheque, one of the best restaurants and fish and chip places in the city. My dad, mom, and I all got a medium cod whereas Alex got a large cod. The fish and chips were great! It was not as fried or double battered as America and was not as greasy either, but still very tasty! The fries were thick too.
Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel, stopping at another local grocery store (did not get anything this time) and got ready for bed. Good night everybody!
Thanks for reading everyone! It was cool to see and to get to be in the presence of royalty! I also loved that the Royal Mews had a couple horses cause I was not expecting to see any and got kick out of that. Stay tuned to tomorrow where we explore an old fortress, prison, and dungeon amongst the new high rises in the area!
Ashley's Travel Diaries 