Friday, October 10th
Today’s itinerary started off with Kensington Palace and Gardens. Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British royal family since the 17th century. Today it is the official residence of The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke and Duchess of Kent; and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Kensington Palace is also used on an unofficial basis by Prince Harry, as well as his cousin Zara Phillips. Until 1997, it was the official residence of Diana, Princess of Wales and of Princess Margaret until 2002. (thank you Wikipedia…)
First, we went through the exhibit of the Last Debutantes. For a select group of aristocratic and upper class families, ‘coming out’ had long been a rite of passage. The London Season began with the girls’, or debutantes,’ formal presentation at court: dressed in all their finery, they would file into Buckingham Palace to curtsey to the king or queen. We got to see fancy prom dresses and swingin’sixties clothing and accessories, along with learning some hands on rules of ettiquete, and watlzing lessons.
We also got to see many of the gowns that Princess Diana wore to select events, including the premiere of ‘Back to the Future.’
The next part of the palace was the King and Queen’s state rooms. It was smaller than I expected, but still quite impressive. I didn’t really realize how huge and amazing the Palace of Nymphumburg was until touring several others. I absolutely cannot wait for the palace of Versailles.
Cody, Rachael, and myself ate lunch in the gardens in front of a huge pond, and watched geese, swans, and all kinds of birds. Cody kept encouraging the pigeons to come and eat her bread crumbs… I swear, I’m going to kill that girl and her overfriendliness toward these rats of the sky one day…
We walked around the gardens and saw the memorial fountain of Princess Diana, the Peter Pan statue, a monolith dedicated to Speke (the first European Explorer), beautiful gardens, open fields, lots of swans, and the Sunken Gardens.
I was also SUPER excited because when we came to the edge of the park, we ran into none other than ROYAL ALBERT HALL!!! It was so cool, and the architecture reminds me of ancient Greek pottery, with the attic black/red figure friezes. I will be going here on October 25th for the incredible performance of Carmina Burana! Prepare for lots of geeking out in that entry…
We walked through town a little bit, window shopping and such, and then went into the most amazing grocery store in the world! This two floor organic food market had fresh bread, cheese, fruit, and the most amazing deserts and food bars. There were chefs baking bread and other foods at stands throughout the store, and everything looked so fresh and smelled so good! I wanted to buy so much, but settled for a boring 39pent bottle of water out of necessity… Yes, just to clarify, I was just freaking out about a grocery store. It was amazing.
We continued down the Kensington area in attempts to view Notting Hill, since Cody loves that movie. I have yet to see it, but she assures me it is wonderful. Unfortunately, we were unable to go inside because it is only open to the residents that live in the flats surrounding that area. Oh well…
We left back to our rooms to get some work done, eat dinner, and get ready to head out for the night. Cody and I went to a concert at St. Martin’s Church in Trafalgar Square. It was a violin concerto, by candlelight. They played several pieces by Mozart, Teleman, and Vivaldi. The interior of the church was very pretty, and had extravagantly decorated vaulted ceilings. My favorite part was the encore, composed by one of the musicians. Very unique. At the end, Cody and I chipped in and bought a cd after the show with this composition on it.
After the show, we left to go back home, and try to get some rest since we had to wake up early the next morning to head out to Stratford- aka- Shakespeare Land.
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