Palace Hunting
Hello! I am back, having performed another successful laptop surgery! I think I entered the wrong field!
Anyhoo - much dissertating lately. I have not very many days left and very much left to write. But I think I can manage it. Unfortunately, my supervisor has disappeared and I have not had ANY help from him at all. This makes me worry that I will fail because I've done it wrong. But I haven't had anyone around to tell me if that's so! So...all I can hope is that I'm doing ok, because this is quite ridiculous.
In other news, I have not yet decided whether I want to stay in this Jolly Olde Countrie yet. It is quite nice, and I like it lots, but can I honestly make it through another Veruca Salt tour without being there to rock along beside them? It's been 5 years people! I miss them!
But just in case, I have started looking at potential residences to take up once I've been forcefully removed from my glamorous student flat. First up, Hampton Court!
Claire's mother was visiting to help her in her move to Oslo, and the two of them were doing lots of sightseeing beforehand. Last Wednesday, they made a trip out to Hampton Court and invited me along. So together we embarked bright and early from Camden Town tube station and then took the District Line alllll the way to Richmond. From Richmond, we took a bus alllll the way to Hampton Court Palace. This was the slow, but cheap way of doing things, and it took about 2 hours from door to door.
It ended up being a gorgeous day, warm and sunny, and the first in a long stretch of grey, cool and rainy days we've been having. Hampton Court Palace was a present for Henry VIII (in so much as a "present" might mean "an action that might hopefully keep one from being executed"), because when it was built it was better than anything the King owned and he was jealous. Then William and Mary came along and built a grand addition that looks nothing like the Tudor half of the building, and so it's like two palaces in one.
They put on lots of tours of the place, and each one is led by a costumed actor who pretends they are from that time period as they show us the various parts of the palace and gives us a lesson in English history. We took four such tours!
The first was an introduction to the palace, led by a very nice lady who looked a bit like King Charles.
She showed us the cool clock tower which not only tells time, but the phases of the moon and what zodiac symbol we are under.
This is what the Tudor part of the palace looked like.
Then we took a tour by given by two separate actors of Henry VIII's part of the palace. One of the actors was Anne Boleyn's cousin and the other was her brother. Apparently, on this day, the cousin was trying to publically distance himself from the brother because he feared Anne's days might be numbered as she had miscarried a son. Oh the drama!
So, we were shown around the various rooms by one tourguide or the other, each pretending to look for or avoid the other. Anne's brother was quite good-looking, but we feel he might have been a little too enchanted by Anne's beauty. Ickiness. In the final room, the two men met and it was great soap opera-y fun as they badly acted like they were falling out. We missed the end though, as we wanted to catch the next tour of the kitchen led by a court jester! What fun!
The kitchens were the best part as they were huge! And there were rooms and rooms of them. Rooms for baking pies, rooms for chopping meet, rooms for cooking with giant fireplaces. I would not want to clean them though.
After this, we went over to the newer part of the palace and took a tour with a nice lady from 1700 who told us all about William and Mary, and how people used to come visit the king just to watch him eat.
Then we headed back to catch the tail end of the tour we took of the Tudor half to see if we missed any juiciness. Apparently, we did not, but we got to sit through about another 10 minutes of the painfully acted drama unfolding. We couldn't keep from falling all over ourselves with laughter this time!
After all our tours, we wandered around a bit more looking at the other parts of the Palace. Then we took a stroll outdoors to look at the gardens, which are beautiful. They are also strangely green in comparison to the rest of London where the working class peons have been suffering through a drought and unable to use a garden hose for fear of a £1000 fine.
No such problems here!
This is what the William and Mary side of the Palace looked like.
You can see a bit of the Tudor stuff sticking out to the left. It's easier to see if you click on the photo to enlarge it.
Hampton Court is also famous for having a maze, which our ticket gave us access to. We all spent a good half hour getting lost in there until we finally found the center!
Photographic proof!
Then we wandered around the gardens some more. We saw the Guinness World Book Recordholder for the world's longest grape vine! Then, finally, exhausted, we found our bus and took the long journey home.
By the end, I had a massive headache and my face was nice and pink from a day in the sun. But it was my final day with Claire, as she was heading off to Oslo very shortly after! So Danielle invited Claire and her mother over for dinner, and we all feasted on pasta and garlic bread and some lager with an insane 9% alcohol level that Claire was trying to get rid of before leaving. This did not help my headache!
So we wearily hung out for the rest of the night until no one could take it anymore, and even though it was my last time seeing Claire until I can manage to find my way to Oslo (*sniff sniff*), we said our goodbyes fairly early.
And she was off and that was that.
I took a break from househunting after that. Hampton Court was quite nice, but a bit too drafty and mismatched. Plus, I think all the tourists would annoy me.
Sunday I met Christine at Oxford Circus and together we travelled down to Brixton. Some band she liked was playing at a pub that was also having a free barbeque. Free food and bands are a good enough reason, I think, to get out of the house. Plus, both of us had been mopey homebodies lately and were sick of it. So we went out to be mopey together, but out in the world doing things.
It was mostly a success. The food was good, although it was on-and-off pouring rain. We didn't really realize how many bands were supposed to be there, though, and since her favorite was headlining, and there were seven (!) bands beforehand, we finally decided we didn't have the energy to make it through the end of the night, especially since she had work the next day, and cut out about halfway through. She felt bad as this was the third time she had tried to take me to see this band, and not once has it ever worked out. Fourth time's the charm, though, I feel!
Tuesday I recommenced my tour of local palaces, and Danielle and I headed down to the Palace of Westminster. I had recently discovered that it is only open for tours by non-UK residents two months of the year - August and September. So, we nabbed some £5 student tickets to take a turn around the centre of UK government.
It was all good fun. We got a tour of the House of Lords (fancy schmancy!) and the House of Commons (accurately named!). Parliament is not in session at the moment, so no Tony Blair sightings or anything. We saw where the Queen comes in on the one day of the year she's allowed, although there is a line she cannot cross! I sneakily rubbed Lloyd George's toe, though you're not allowed to anymore. I also finally learned what exactly the two houses do, as it was very confusing to me before.
Westminster Hall, the big fancy part of the tour, was unfortunately having its floor replaced, so we only got to peak at it for a moment. All in all, it was a good tour, but I don't think I'll be putting any offers in, though. Too high profile.
So that's been life in London lately. Saying goodbye to good friends, occasionally palace touring, and the lonely act of solitary confinement as I twitter away trying to create something that in someway resembles what I can only assume a dissertation might look like. Hard to tell as no one wants to help me do it right!
Few more weeks left! Send me lots of luck!
Anyhoo - much dissertating lately. I have not very many days left and very much left to write. But I think I can manage it. Unfortunately, my supervisor has disappeared and I have not had ANY help from him at all. This makes me worry that I will fail because I've done it wrong. But I haven't had anyone around to tell me if that's so! So...all I can hope is that I'm doing ok, because this is quite ridiculous.
In other news, I have not yet decided whether I want to stay in this Jolly Olde Countrie yet. It is quite nice, and I like it lots, but can I honestly make it through another Veruca Salt tour without being there to rock along beside them? It's been 5 years people! I miss them!
But just in case, I have started looking at potential residences to take up once I've been forcefully removed from my glamorous student flat. First up, Hampton Court!
Claire's mother was visiting to help her in her move to Oslo, and the two of them were doing lots of sightseeing beforehand. Last Wednesday, they made a trip out to Hampton Court and invited me along. So together we embarked bright and early from Camden Town tube station and then took the District Line alllll the way to Richmond. From Richmond, we took a bus alllll the way to Hampton Court Palace. This was the slow, but cheap way of doing things, and it took about 2 hours from door to door.
It ended up being a gorgeous day, warm and sunny, and the first in a long stretch of grey, cool and rainy days we've been having. Hampton Court Palace was a present for Henry VIII (in so much as a "present" might mean "an action that might hopefully keep one from being executed"), because when it was built it was better than anything the King owned and he was jealous. Then William and Mary came along and built a grand addition that looks nothing like the Tudor half of the building, and so it's like two palaces in one.
They put on lots of tours of the place, and each one is led by a costumed actor who pretends they are from that time period as they show us the various parts of the palace and gives us a lesson in English history. We took four such tours!
The first was an introduction to the palace, led by a very nice lady who looked a bit like King Charles.
She showed us the cool clock tower which not only tells time, but the phases of the moon and what zodiac symbol we are under.
This is what the Tudor part of the palace looked like.
Then we took a tour by given by two separate actors of Henry VIII's part of the palace. One of the actors was Anne Boleyn's cousin and the other was her brother. Apparently, on this day, the cousin was trying to publically distance himself from the brother because he feared Anne's days might be numbered as she had miscarried a son. Oh the drama!
So, we were shown around the various rooms by one tourguide or the other, each pretending to look for or avoid the other. Anne's brother was quite good-looking, but we feel he might have been a little too enchanted by Anne's beauty. Ickiness. In the final room, the two men met and it was great soap opera-y fun as they badly acted like they were falling out. We missed the end though, as we wanted to catch the next tour of the kitchen led by a court jester! What fun!
The kitchens were the best part as they were huge! And there were rooms and rooms of them. Rooms for baking pies, rooms for chopping meet, rooms for cooking with giant fireplaces. I would not want to clean them though.
After this, we went over to the newer part of the palace and took a tour with a nice lady from 1700 who told us all about William and Mary, and how people used to come visit the king just to watch him eat.
Then we headed back to catch the tail end of the tour we took of the Tudor half to see if we missed any juiciness. Apparently, we did not, but we got to sit through about another 10 minutes of the painfully acted drama unfolding. We couldn't keep from falling all over ourselves with laughter this time!
After all our tours, we wandered around a bit more looking at the other parts of the Palace. Then we took a stroll outdoors to look at the gardens, which are beautiful. They are also strangely green in comparison to the rest of London where the working class peons have been suffering through a drought and unable to use a garden hose for fear of a £1000 fine.
No such problems here!
This is what the William and Mary side of the Palace looked like.
You can see a bit of the Tudor stuff sticking out to the left. It's easier to see if you click on the photo to enlarge it.
Hampton Court is also famous for having a maze, which our ticket gave us access to. We all spent a good half hour getting lost in there until we finally found the center!
Photographic proof!
Then we wandered around the gardens some more. We saw the Guinness World Book Recordholder for the world's longest grape vine! Then, finally, exhausted, we found our bus and took the long journey home.
By the end, I had a massive headache and my face was nice and pink from a day in the sun. But it was my final day with Claire, as she was heading off to Oslo very shortly after! So Danielle invited Claire and her mother over for dinner, and we all feasted on pasta and garlic bread and some lager with an insane 9% alcohol level that Claire was trying to get rid of before leaving. This did not help my headache!
So we wearily hung out for the rest of the night until no one could take it anymore, and even though it was my last time seeing Claire until I can manage to find my way to Oslo (*sniff sniff*), we said our goodbyes fairly early.
And she was off and that was that.
I took a break from househunting after that. Hampton Court was quite nice, but a bit too drafty and mismatched. Plus, I think all the tourists would annoy me.
Sunday I met Christine at Oxford Circus and together we travelled down to Brixton. Some band she liked was playing at a pub that was also having a free barbeque. Free food and bands are a good enough reason, I think, to get out of the house. Plus, both of us had been mopey homebodies lately and were sick of it. So we went out to be mopey together, but out in the world doing things.
It was mostly a success. The food was good, although it was on-and-off pouring rain. We didn't really realize how many bands were supposed to be there, though, and since her favorite was headlining, and there were seven (!) bands beforehand, we finally decided we didn't have the energy to make it through the end of the night, especially since she had work the next day, and cut out about halfway through. She felt bad as this was the third time she had tried to take me to see this band, and not once has it ever worked out. Fourth time's the charm, though, I feel!
Tuesday I recommenced my tour of local palaces, and Danielle and I headed down to the Palace of Westminster. I had recently discovered that it is only open for tours by non-UK residents two months of the year - August and September. So, we nabbed some £5 student tickets to take a turn around the centre of UK government.
It was all good fun. We got a tour of the House of Lords (fancy schmancy!) and the House of Commons (accurately named!). Parliament is not in session at the moment, so no Tony Blair sightings or anything. We saw where the Queen comes in on the one day of the year she's allowed, although there is a line she cannot cross! I sneakily rubbed Lloyd George's toe, though you're not allowed to anymore. I also finally learned what exactly the two houses do, as it was very confusing to me before.
Westminster Hall, the big fancy part of the tour, was unfortunately having its floor replaced, so we only got to peak at it for a moment. All in all, it was a good tour, but I don't think I'll be putting any offers in, though. Too high profile.
So that's been life in London lately. Saying goodbye to good friends, occasionally palace touring, and the lonely act of solitary confinement as I twitter away trying to create something that in someway resembles what I can only assume a dissertation might look like. Hard to tell as no one wants to help me do it right!
Few more weeks left! Send me lots of luck!
posted by Lauren Matson | 12:58 PM
1 Comments:
If I had to househunt outside of London, naturally I would start in Hampton Court. But I think you may have made the right decision, letting it go. You'll find your palace yet.
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