Heaven knows when I will be able to post this - I am sitting writing it at Heathrow airport without an Internet connection at the moment!
I had some business in London earlier this week, so I thought I might try for a ticket to Buckingham Palace. I've never been, and this seemed like a good year. There were no advance tickets available on-line, which wasn't a good sign, but I thought I might have a chance of a day ticket, if I went there before I did anything else.
I took a train to Victoria and a tube to Green Park, then walked through the park to the palace. These are the gates between the park and the road outsde the palace. You can see they are shut thought - there's a big gap in the railings quite close by, which you have to use. It seems a shame not to be using such wonderfully decorative and impressive gates, but I suppose they would be difficult to open and close every day.
I walked round to the ticket office, but unfortunately there were no day tickets for either Wednesday or Thursday. There were tickets for 9 am on Friday, but I didn't think I could manage that, sadly. And the Palace closes this weekend, so I have no hope of seeing it this year. I should have done it weeks ago!
I walked past the front of the palace on my way back to the Tube station.
As you can see, the place is pretty busy. There were an awful lot of tourists, even this late in the year, so it was hard to find a place where I could get a view that wasn't full of people. In the middle of the front of the palace is the balcony where the royal family appear on big occasions - the wedding of William and Kate being the last one I think.
I also managed a photo of the Queen Victoria fountain right outside the Palace. I woder if it was re-guilded for the Jubilee; I don't remember it being that bright before. But then, this is an area of London I hardly ever visit, so I am not a reliable witness!
Again, it was impossible to have a photograph without some people In it. I don't really like to publish pictures of complete strangers on the Internet without their permission, so this was the only photo without recognisable faces.
Then I walked back into Green Park to the Tube station.
The park was absolutely beautiful. It is very shady because it is full of huge old trees - you can see how gnarled the bark is on the nearest one. And none of the trees seems to have their autumn colours yet, though some leaves have started to fall; it is warmer in central London than it is out in Surrey, so I imagine the trees haven't quite accepted that summer is definitely over.
I took the tube off to do my bit of business - obtaining a form I needed in a hurry - then I headed off to the British Museum. I always love the view of the roof of the Great Court; it really is an amazing structure. I can remember this area when there was no roof, just an open courtyard of buildings with Greek-style pediments on all four sides. You can see one of the pediments on the left. It used to be very cold and sometimes wet standing there, so not a place to linger. Now, it is the hub of the museum, and always full of people.
My intention in visiting the museum was to see the Shakespeare exhibition, which will close in November. It is held in that big circular building on the right of the picture.
It took me more than an hour and a half to see the exhibition, which is quite large. It was full of information that would be of interest to anybody who knows little English history and little of Shakespeare, but there was plenty to interest me too. There were some artifacts you don't usually have a chance to see - like the manuscript that gave a grant of the right to a coat of arms for Shakespeare's father. There were also objects that were loosely connected with the plays, like the sort of woolen cap that groundlings would wear or a sword from Toledo (with a reference to the lines from the final scene of Othello where he says
I have another weapon in this chamber,
It was a sword of Spain, the ice-brook’s temper
And all the way round the exhibition there were lots of recordings and videos of well known actors speaking some of the lines from productions of Shakespeare's plays that have been on in London this summer.
I was very tired after all the walking, so I was quite glad to make my way home again.
No comments:
Post a Comment