Sunday, August 18, 2013

A Royal day out






Don't you just love over-running engineering works? A journey that can take 30 minutes in the week, took 2 hours! We had a Royal appointment to keep. First, a trip to the Mews, aka carriages and horses. We saw the Australia Coach, Irish Coach, Scottish Coach, Glass Coach and the Golden State Coach. I couldn't belie how big it was, the wheels are huge! It doesn't look that big on the tv. Interestingly, they have to remove a wall to get it out of the Mews, it takes 2 days. Then onto the Queen's Gallery. I'm not one for art, but the touch screen with video was amazing! I'd get into art if it included a touch screen and video. The film on lace making was amazing.

Then onto the State Rooms. Instead of walking through the middle and into the Quadrangle, you enter the side entrance, up the stairs that you see on all the postcards, through the long picture gallery, drawing rooms (with secret passageway), music room, dining room and halls. Due to it being the anniversary of the Coronation, the gowns they wore were displayed, including tiny Prince Charles and Princess Anne's dress. Thre dress was so ornate.

Tea on the terrace, unfortunately you couldn't explore the gardens, and the grass was worn from the tea tents from the garden parties. At £4.95 for a cake, £2.95 for a coffee, it had to be eaten slowly and savoured. 

What I forgot to mention was that in the Queen's Gallery and the Mews, they had dressing up rooms. Guess what happened :)

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Cambridge by bus




Having done the Cambridge bus tour multiple times now, I always learn something new. The old fashioned sweet shop with it's rows and rows of sweets you measure, is always a must.