Wednesday, June 12, 2019

London - Day One - Kensington Palace

I arrived in London in the evening of May 31, having taken the 8:15 a.m. United Flight from Dulles, which arrives about 8:50 p.m.  I took a cab from the airport to my Air Bnb in Battersea.  (The total cost for eight nights (with breakfast) was under $600. )

I spent the day at Kensington Palace to take in the superb new exhibitions commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria.  Thank you, Clair, for letting me in :)

The entrance to the Young Victoria exhibit begins with the tiaras, including the Fife tiara.   I also spent time in the State apartments and was "invited" to help Victoria prepare for her move to Buckingham Palace.

I had lunch at the Kensington Palace cafe - skipped the healthy salad for Victoria Sponge cake and tea (and water.)   Absolutely to eat Victoria Sponge cake after seeing the Victoria exhibit.

Take your time to scroll through the photos.  I have included links to the places I visited.

After finally leaving the exhibit, I walked through the gardens and toward the the pond to see the Swans.  I hear my name, which surprised me ... it was Andrea Camano, the editor for Hello magazine's website.  We follow each other on Twitter and she had seen my tweets earlier that day.  No, she was no stalking me -- she and her husband and young son were walking through the park ... pure coincidence  .. and it made my day.

Dinner was at the Garrick Arms, a pub on Charing Cross Road and then saw a performance of Waitress with Katharine McPhee.  Excellent.






I was looking for twitching curtains at the Cambridges' residence



















Carl Prince of Leiningen - half brother

Feodora



















William IV



Dress Victoria wore at age 10




















Victoire

Duke of Kent

This is the room where Victoria was born.  The furniture is not original.  It was last opened to the public in the late 1980s - early 1990s before being used as an office.  





Sons of George III























at the Accession council


Victoria's Coronation robe















and then a visit to the State Apartments







and then the other Victoria exhibit




























Victoria's mourning clothes
















OOPS .. hope this has been corrected



Worn by Queen Alexandra








Sculpted by Lady Feodora Gleichen


















dress worn by Diana, Princess of Wales


Lunch at Kensington Palace .. Victoria Sponge cake

Bird walking off with a grape.  Wonderful colors.  Don't know the type of bird







The Cupola room where Victoria was baptized
















went back to see the tiaras again











Victoria's travel bed 




Baroness Lehzen





















Helping the queen pack to move to Buckingham Palace






























On sale in the Kensington Palace shop














































































Andrea Camano , online editor for Hello, and myself.



This is how you do a Hula hoop





Charing Cross





where I catch the 345 or 49 to Battersea



https://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/


https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/pubs/greater-london/garrick-arms/


https://waitressthemusical.co.uk/


Day 2:  Blenheim Palace

6 comments:

JohnF said...

What a feast of photographs. Thank you for sharing them with us. I hope you managed to get to the V&A where Queen Victoria's sapphire coronet is on display in the new jewellery gallery.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

of course I did

Diane Brown said...

Thanks for sharing!

Helen said...

Fabulous photographs. Thank you so much.

Helen said...

Fabulous photographs, thank you so much for sharing.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

Diane have you been able to sort out the twitter issue?