After whinging about how the weather always turns cold when I come back to London, the clouds decided to spite me and disappear for most of the week and the autumn weather was a lot warmer than it has been all summer. Now I finally understand what the term 'An Indian Summer' means. So what does one do in the last days of ‘summer’ in London? Well you go to visit the Buckingham Palace before it closes for the winter.
Buckingham Palace is quite a lot like the other palaces/castles I’ve visited but as it is actually used by the Royal Family it’s kept in a lot better shape. I like the fact that Queen keeps all the presents that she received from other countries all over the palace (mainly in the State Rooms so all the foreign dignitaries can see that she hasn’t put them away in the garage/attic), because it stops the Palace from looking like every other stately home.
Of course not every stately home as the Dutchess of Cambridge's wedding dress on display in the midddle of the ballroom. I wish now I hadn't seen the dress up close because it's not as impressive as I thought it would be. It looks great from far away, but when you can see the lace draped over the satin and the five individual pieces of materials used for the train, it looks like a dress made by by a student. Just goes to show that you shouldn't judge a dress until you try it on! :P
There are also the Royal Mews and the Gallery to visit at Buckingham Palace. The Mews are a glorified name for stables which house all the fancy carriages that the Royal Family use on special occasions. Honestly I feel sorry for the horses that have to pull the gold carriages with over fed Royal family members in it. Must be hard work being a Royal horse. You’d spend most of your time being groomed and exercised and then the other times trotting around entertaining the tourists during the Changing of the Guard or by pulling a Royal Carriage.
What else do Londoners do when the weather is warm? Well for the Londoner that can’t go down to the seaside, they pretend they are at the seaside by sun ‘baking’ (I use the term lightly, because I don’t think it’s possible to bake in the UK) in their bathers at Commons, Heaths and Parks. The Parks etc in London are all impressively large, so when you walk into one, it’s like stepping into another world where you leave the city completely behind - the greyness, the noise and the pollution. Well you can’t leave the noise behind if you have a railway track running through the Common. . .
I also went to see the Lion King this week. It’s quite different to the most of the other shows I’ve been too. The puppeteering and the choreography of the scenes are amazing!! And I liked the music despite it not being the traditional musical music, but more African (I’m assuming) based music. It was quite impressive.
With one more week of sun left for the year in London and tourist attractions starting to close, I'm not sure what to do with myself. Maybe I'll go over to the Continent again, maybe I'll get off my backside and look for a new place to stay once I get kicked out at the end of the month or may I should just go fly a kite!
After whinging about how the weather always turns cold when I come back to London, the clouds decided to spite me and disappear for most of the week and the autumn weather was a lot warmer than it has been all summer. Now I finally understand what the term 'An Indian Summer' means. So what does one do in the last days of ‘summer’ in London? Well you go to visit the Buckingham Palace before it closes for the winter.
Buckingham Palace is quite a lot like the other palaces/castles I’ve visited but as it is actually used by the Royal Family it’s kept in a lot better shape. I like the fact that Queen keeps all the presents that she received from other countries all over the palace (mainly in the State Rooms so all the foreign dignitaries can see that she hasn’t put them away in the garage/attic), because it stops the Palace from looking like every other stately home.
Of course not every stately home as the Dutchess of Cambridge's wedding dress on display in the midddle of the ballroom. I wish now I hadn't seen the dress up close because it's not as impressive as I thought it would be. It looks great from far away, but when you can see the lace draped over the satin and the five individual pieces of materials used for the train, it looks like a dress made by by a student. Just goes to show that you shouldn't judge a dress until you try it on! :P
There are also the Royal Mews and the Gallery to visit at Buckingham Palace. The Mews are a glorified name for stables which house all the fancy carriages that the Royal Family use on special occasions. Honestly I feel sorry for the horses that have to pull the gold carriages with over fed Royal family members in it. Must be hard work being a Royal horse. You’d spend most of your time being groomed and exercised and then the other times trotting around entertaining the tourists during the Changing of the Guard or by pulling a Royal Carriage.
What else do Londoners do when the weather is warm? Well for the Londoner that can’t go down to the seaside, they pretend they are at the seaside by sun ‘baking’ (I use the term lightly, because I don’t think it’s possible to bake in the UK) in their bathers at Commons, Heaths and Parks. The Parks etc in London are all impressively large, so when you walk into one, it’s like stepping into another world where you leave the city completely behind - the greyness, the noise and the pollution. Well you can’t leave the noise behind if you have a railway track running through the Common. . .
I also went to see the Lion King this week. It’s quite different to the most of the other shows I’ve been too. The puppeteering and the choreography of the scenes are amazing!! And I liked the music despite it not being the traditional musical music, but more African (I’m assuming) based music. It was quite impressive.
