I Don't Think I Ever Want to Leave London

So I have begun to realize keeping up with a blog is very similar to doing schoolwork – it is very easy to get behind and really hard to catch back up.  I am now on a seven-hour train ride back to Oxford from Edinburgh, so it is time for me to sit down and finally catch myself back up.

Once I got back from Wimbledon I went online and booked tickets to Kensington Palace for the next morning.  After waiting so long in the queue for Wimbledon,  did not want to have to queue again for anything else while I was still visiting London.  Tip: booking tickets online for the palaces/ museums/ attractions in London not only saves time but you can book with student concessions (discounts) and save a few extra pounds. 

Saturday morning I headed off to Portobello Market – Europe’s longest street side market.  It was a massive mix of vendors and people, and useful junk and rubbish.  It was however enjoyable to see the mix of tourists and locals.  There was also a section of the street that reminded me of Rainbow Row in Charleston, one of my favorite places.

After slowly walking through the crowd I then headed down Kensington Park Road and saw some beautiful English town houses on my way to Kensington Palace.  When I finally reached Hyde Park I was struck with how cool it must be to be part of English Royalty… The Orangery around the palace is beautiful.  The Orangery is famous for its high tea restaurant that overlooks the gardens.  Even though many sites recommended the high tea, I could not bring myself to spend 20 pounds and sit there for the long tea all by myself, plus I had other places I wanted to go see.  I hope to get a group to go with me at some point while I am over here though.

Kensington Palace is currently hosting a fantastic exhibit where they have invited seven artists from around the world to come and design rooms in the palace based on the seven princess and queens that lived there.  The artists too the information about the royal members they found interesting and redesigned the whole rooms to tell the story about each individual. Every six months new artists will come in and redo the rooms on how they picture the Queen. The next notables to come in October are Ralph Lauren and Oscar de la Renta. The first room was all about Queen Mary and was one of my favorites of all the rooms. Queen Mary could not produce an heir for her husband William and soon after their marriage died of small pox. 

The artists filled tables with little bottles that represent the bottles that Greeks and Romans cried in during the funeral of a loved one.  When the tears evaporated from the bottle the period of mourning was over.

The other photo represents Mary rising from her bed after her death towards heaven in an angelic fashion.  She has wings of blue and white luxury silk whose colors represents the sadness in her passing and the Chinese silk symbolizes the expensive luxury cloth she used to have brought to her from China.

After finishing the two-hour tour of the palace, (which I recommend to anyone who goes to London) I headed over to Harrods department store. Harrods was having its annual month long blowout sale. Prices were drastically reduced, but crowds increased tenfold.  There were some great deals, but it was just impossible to move around.  All six floors of the square block store were packed.

It didn’t take long before I had gotten my fill of the crowds and went into the city.  I went to get tickets to Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theater.  It was a full house and I could not get a seat, but they had 10 pound standing tickets.  I figured for a savings of at least 40 pounds I could manage to stand for three hours.  The show was wonderfully done and I am anxious now to read the novel when I get a chance.

On Sunday I decided to go to the Tower of London.  I had booked tickets for this as well online and bypassed the queues and picked my ticket up when I got there on Sunday.  I went on one of the free tours offered every ninety minutes by on of the Beefeaters that guard the Tower.  After his interesting tour I walked around the buildings and saw the various exhibits.  It was really interesting, and I wish I had given myself more time to explore.  It also inspired me to take a a British history class and learn more about the English Revolution, transfer of power between the monarchs, and the rise of traitors to the crown.

Part of the exhibit in the Tower of London is the vaulted display of all the crown jewels.  It was by far the touristy thing I had done on my tour of London, but it truly was an impressive collection of gold, diamonds, and other rare stones.  There was also a container inside that held 144 bottles on wine that was used for dinner parties, which is really cool and extremely excessive.  I then headed back to pack up for my weeklong holiday in Biarritz, France.