Travels and Thoughts
Sunday, 9/8/19
We were up and off to a full breakfast at the hotel dining room by 7am. Today would be Buckingham Palace, the Mews, a state room tour, an unsuccessful attempt to board the HMS Belfast WWII battleship (entry closed at 5pm, and we arrived at 5:15), a visit to the Tower Bridge, diner in a great outdoor cafe, and nightcaps at our hotel.
To get from our hotel to Buckingham Palace, we had to head west down the Mall Road which is closed to traffic on Sundays (left). We passed St. James Park and St. James palace on our way.
Above: Statue of Bartle Frere, a colonial administrator in India, Africa, and other places in the British Empire during Queen Victoria's rule. He is the subject of a movie, Zulu Dawn in which Sir John Mills played Frere.
The building in the background of both photos is the Institute of Contemporary Arts. The ICA contains galleries, a theatre, two cinemas, a bookshop and a bar.
Left: Statue of William Tyndallan, English scholar who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execution. He is well known for his (incomplete) translation of the Bible into English. He made the error of disagreeing with Henry VIII's divorce (just like Sir Thomas More). Tyndale "was strangled to death while tied at the stake, and then his dead body was burned". His final words, spoken "at the stake with a fervent zeal, and a loud voice", were reported as "Lord! Open the King of England's eyes." His death occured Oct 6, 1546.
Right: Buckingham Palace, the principle residence and administrative headquarters of the Queen. It's open to the public when the Queen is vacationing. There are 775 rooms, including 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, 78 bathrooms, 52 principal bedrooms, and 19 state rooms. It also has a post office, cinema, swimming pool, doctor's station and jeweller's workshop.
Above: Statue of Queen Victoria. Below her are statues of an enthroned Queen Victoria facing The Mall, and of Motherhood facing Buckingham Palace with Justice facing NW towards Green Park and Truth facing SE. These were created from solid blocks of marble with Truth being sculpted from a block weighing 40 tons!Mall)
The Changing of the Guard ceremony was not what I expected. The crowds were huge, we waited nearly an hour, and this is as close to the changing as we could get! The actual changing occurred behind the horses and behind a large fence. I once caught a glimpse of one of those huge black hats they wore, but that was it. The horse thing was impressive, and a really good marching band played as they marched in somewhere behind the fence.
Above: Pam in the courtyard/quad of the Mews.
Right: Two of the pampered royal horses used to pull the Queen's carriage on state occasions.
The Mews
The horses, carriages, cars, etc., are all housed in an area called "The Mews" which is around the corner from Buckingham Palace.
There were lots of carriages and cars to see, but this is a small sampling only. You can only look at so many carriages before they all seem like one.
We had a 2:15 time slot for viewing the state rooms of Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed in the palace. However, you can get an idea by clicking on this link: https://www.rct.uk/visit/the-state-rooms-buckingham-palace This is a video that shows some of what is contained in the state rooms. It was truly breathtaking to see Rembrants next to Raphaels next to Rubens, etc., etc. There were hundreds of original oils from the masters worth, I'm sure, billions of pounds!
In the Queen's Gallery of Buckingham Palace, there was a special showing of the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. These, too, were absolutely breathtaking. There were hundreds of drawings all of which proved the genius of the man. Most of the drawings at the website https://www.leonardodavinci.net/drawings.jsp were on display in the gallery! I was especially taken with the studies he did of horses and the studies of the human anatomy.
There were a number of studies he did in preparation for the Last Supper (you can see the painting on the same website above if you click on Masterpieces. The drawings show how much time and effort he spent deciding how to arrange the diciples, where to have them looking, etc. Of course, both the State Room and the da Vinci tours had books that you could buy, but they were expensive.
He lived from 1452 to 1519. He was the embodiment of the Renaissance. I especially enjoyed reading some of the many profound quotes:
"Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”
"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”
"Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else. ”
"Learning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age; and if you understand that old age has wisdom for its food, you will so conduct yourself in youth that your old age will not lack for nourishment. ”
I ceratainly wish I had focused more on wisdom in my early years, Perhaps my old age would be better nourished, although I am most certainly enjoying the present! I easily could have spent days in both the gallery and the da Vinci drawing exhibit. I am even more aware today that there is so little time and so much to know.
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Top left: When we walked back to the Thames, we found a quaint restaurant with outdoor seating in view of the tower bridge. Pam was in the sunlight when I took the photo, so she is squinting.
Top Right: The Tower bridge. We walked across and back. It's an amazing structure!
Bottom Left: This was the HMS Belfast battleship which we missed touring by 15 minutes. It is docked on the quay on the Thames river.
After dinner, we took an uber back to the Amba hotel. After freshening a bit, we walked around the area doing some shopping.
Finally, we ended the evening with a nitecap at the Amba bar. I had a Birra Moretti, an Italian brew that was really refreshing.
Both of us slept well Sunday night! We had seen a great deal in just 48 hours! And, I have left lots of stuff out either because I didn't have photos or because I simply forgot.
