Stately Buckingham Palace from the Palace gardens
Yup, today I did a tour of Buckingham Palace. My little royalist in me wanted to go there to walk the same halls of famous people. To try to envision William and Kate on their wedding day. To pretend what it might be like to live such a life. And I have visited many a castle and many a beautiful place, and this is definitely a place of grandeur.
The Palace from the front
The works of art, not just paintings, but sculptures and statues, furniture and furnishings, are all breathtaking and beautiful (you can’t take any pictures inside). If you look closely as some things you can see their age and their shifting in time. Large tapestries which are framed upon the wall are fading and their frames are not perfectly lined up. Close inspection of some of the walls shows cracks or things that have broken. This can only be expected of a place so heavily used and so old.
The Palace seen through the trees and over the waterway of the gardens
It would be absurd to expect it to be perfect. It is so big. The sheer cost of running this place, let alone trying to keep it up to perfections, is likely astounding. But I cannot criticize that cost because here I am visiting and fascinated by it and its history. By its past and present residents. It is a place of fairytales and of tough times.
Palace details
My biggest criticism, which cannot be helped, are the sheer number of people. There is a set limit of visitors everyday and everyday it sells out. Yet still you are tripping over people as you listen to your audio guide and move through the state rooms. I would most love to wander the rooms alone without all the others, but that is an impossibility. At 16 pounds a pop, and I am guessing easily 1,000 + people a day, probably more, you would think that the income does help support its existence. But as I always say, nice things come at a cost.
The Scottish Carriage
I really did enjoy the tour and also the tour of the Royal Mews. I even got to see the car and carriage that Princess Kate was in for the wedding and one of the horses that pulled the carriage. The horses stalls are clean, shiny, tiled. They are the 5 star of horse haven.
Pristine clean tiled horse stalls
So I take with me my dreams of a world I will never know personally. I always feel as though somehow I missed that boat and yet was supposed to be on it. But that is not my life and in reality, I am not complaining. How many of the Royal family get to do what I have done this year, with such freedom and impulse. That to me is the greatest gift of all.
The opulent gold coach built sometime in the 1600s - can't remember exactly - and still in use
One of the horses that pulled Princess Kate in her wedding carriage.