Palace Visit

Only very few days  in a year public are allowed inside the Buckingham Palace.  We had planned our trip at such a  time  when we could visit the Palace.
This was 22nd August and our first visit was to the Queens Gallery and we had  the booking for  9.30 a.m.  There are exhibitions held in this Gallery and when we went the Original Manuscript  of drawings (Anatomy) of Leonardo da  vinci.  The Anatomical drawings were very  amazing .  

As usual like any tourist place, there was a curio shop which was very cute at the same time very expensive.

We proceeded to Buckingham Palace and exchanged our Internet bookings for the tickets.    We had entry to Royal Suites, Ball Room,  State Rooms.   Many Paintings were on the hall.  There was a short Welcome speech by the Prince of Wales when we switched on the audio they had given us to explain the things in the Palace. 

 The Green Room, White Room (Suite!) were exquisite. We walked on Red Carpets.   The Big Quadrangle where the dignitaries including  High Commissioners, Ambassadors ,enter    the Palace, when they visit the Palace was huge.

These Halls and Suites are used by the Royalty and these are open to public when the Royalty spend their time in another palace.   We saw huge Dining Hall/ Banquet Hall where the Queen entertains the dignitaries.  We saw a concealed door behind an ornate mirror  from where the Queen enters the Hall from her  Private  Quarters.   

The year being the Diamond Jubilee year of the Queen's accession to the throne, there was an exhibition of Crown Jewels specifically the diamonds , The Tiara,(s), Necklace(s) and what not which are all being used by the Queen.

We saw the famous Culinan Diamonds a set of 7 Diamonds,  2 of which we had seen in the London Tower. Here we saw the  remaining 5 Culinan.  which  have such cut and dazzle.    I understood why Diamonds are considered as THE GEM.    I bought a book which was for sale which had the pictures of all the diamonds which were on exhibition.

We came out to the big Lawns where our tour ended.   There was a small cafeteria where we bought cheese cakes and  coffee prepared in the Palace Kitchens.  (That is what they said).  It was really tasty.  We missed out on the tour of Royal Gardens as we were not aware that there was a tour and had not bought tickets for that.  We should have done that earlier while getting inside the Palace at the ticket booth.

From here we proceeded to the Royal Mews.  This is where the Royal Coaches are being kept.  Since we had known about this,   we had the tickets bought in advance  and this is situated very near the Palace.  It was wonderful.  The Coaches used by Queen, the Coach in which Lady Diana  came for her Wedding and the ceremonial Golden Coach beautifully carved are all kept here .

We saw two of the Horses which were used to draw these Coaches. 

It was 2 p.m. when we were done with these visits.  We took the tube back to our room.   I made my ready to eat food in a jiffy and had it with yogurt.

Again we started back in the  tube and this time I wanted to see the  Hyde Park Corner where   people used to give  inspiring speeches.  I had imagined it to be a platform where any body can go up and talk about anything under the sun.  I was warned by my niece saying  that now there are no inspiring speeches, but only some uninspiring Religious propaganda.   This was just an  ordinary place near one of the gates and  the volunteer whom we met there  (there were many volunteers in London to help the tourist because of Olympics.  It was just weeks after the Olympics and Para Olympics were to be held the next week of our visit) also said that the speeches on Sundays are  not at all inspiring.   She only helped me in locating the place which was so insignificant.

We took a train to Waterloo and from there to Woking to Deepa's place for dinner and had a good time with her family.

We returned after dinner back to the Hotel.