Hello to all
We started our day today with two train journeys to get us to see The Royal Mews, it was very wet, but we ended up at our destination in not too bad condition. We were very fortunate yet again just in time for a guided tour of The Mews. What they keep at The Mews are all Royal Carriages and the horses that are used from day to day. The Mews had an extremely interestng beginning,it was originally paddocks, the King and Queen of the time lived at St James' Palace and they built it as the stables, go forward many Kings, Queens etc. Buckingham House had been bought by a previous King but when Queen Victoria came to the throne she moved in very quickly, she finished improvements to convert it into a Palace, built all the State rooms etc, she had all this work done within 5 months. What she did was, the stables were just the stables but she said it was too difficult for the people who worked at the stables to have to be there each day by 6.00am so what she did was build anor storey on top of the stables which were apartments for the workers and their families. Today 130 people still live there, these are the families of the people who work there. We got the entire stories of all the coaches and why they were built etc. the Queens' favourite coach and the one she uses most is the coach Australia gave her in 1988 (our bi-centennial) this is a very comfortable coach, airconditioned, with hydraulic suspension etc. all very facinating. We were then taken to see where the horses used to be stabled, there is a name on each of the boxes and these are Her Majestey's horses. She has mostly Cleveland Bays, she actually rescued these from extinction, there were only 4 stallions left and she put in a program to breed them and now there are 100 stallions. When she is taken out in a carriage, only Windsor Greys are used. Because there are not occasions each day which require horse driven carriages, the Bays are used to take the mail coaches between the various palaces and this gives them the all important practice they need to have in public and on the roads etc. All the horses were on holidays today they all go for six weeks to frolic in a paddock and our guide said when they come back he can not do a thing with them. However we did see Daniel (a gray) the Queen's favourite and Mary Tudor who is 20 and she actually had a foal last year when she was 19, very beautiful she is too and then there was Flint and hamdsome he was too. At Christmas, all her horses are brought to the stables for her to wish each and every one of them a Merry Christmas and give each one a treat. What she also does is has a beautiful Christmas event for all of the children who live at the apartments, she organises Queen Victoria's sleigh to be brought into the centre of the stables where there is a Christmas Tree and all the trimmings and every child receives a gift. She really does sound like such a lovely lady.
We were going to see Buckingham Palace but there were no tickets left for today and the line with tickets was already one mile long. We decided to go and see Apsley House in Hyde Park, this was the Duke of Wellington's home, it was given to the public by the 7th Duke of Wellington in 1947 there had to be an act of Parliament passed to hand this over, the 8th Duke and his family still live there, it was very beautiful, some of the most amazing things, paintings etc. I could go on and on but I am runing out of time.
After this we did a quick visit to Harrods then on to The Imperial War Museum, an amazing place. The Holocaust Exhibition there was very comprehensive and a life changing experience, the best we had ever seen. Then we headed home, both completely exhausted. Sam said he could have said all this in six lines. Sam and Sabine
No comments:
Post a Comment