Outnumbered & Abroad: Buckingham Palace (Part 6)

Buckingham Palace (Wednesday, September 27, 2018) - It was our second day in London and I woke up READY to go! I couldn’t help but notice that I was the only one to really put any effort into my appearance, a situation that gave me mixed feelings like one always gets when they feel as if they missed a memorandum in attire to wear.

We jumped a packed double-decker bus - disclaimer, it wasn’t one of those “cool” ones you see on TV with the open top, but I was okay with that as the temperature was C-O-L-D - leaving all of us as bundled as we wished we had been the night before. Joining us on the bus was hordes of school kids, all decked out in the respective colors and uniforms of their schools. I had to laugh at the irony that these children, at least HALF our age, were successfully navigating the transit systems by themselves when I felt like we were constantly having issues just shows what being born in the system can do for you!

The lack of international cell coverage on my phone has solidified the option of observing VERY closely the surrounds. Not only did I notice all of the school children, but I also couldn’t help but notice all of the stores as this particular bus route rumbled us down the entire length of our street. You see, the stores kept repeating! Specifically the restraints were duplicated!

Often located across the street and not too many doors down from the first one I’d see, I felt as if I was playing the old school 52 playing card game memory where you flip cards trying to find doubles. I can only theorize that there is so many people and that both traffic and people congestion is so bad that unlike in the states where we will drive 45 minutes for, say, Olive Garden, they literally have the same restaurant opened across the street or on opposite ends of the block in order to attract the masses.

Another observation that I found very interesting was the prevalence of Nike. In a country where soccer is the most popular sport, I thought that civilians and NARPs (Non Athletic Regular People), going about there day jobs, would be more likely to wear athletic brands like Adidas or Puma.

We arrived at Buckingham Palace and I couldn’t help but feel excited. I love all things history and what is more historical than the Royal Family?

There was an extremely large group set to go in right in front of us. A little saddened, If felt the tour wasn’t going to be very personalized, but then I was proved both equal points right and wrong. They would handed us little tablets that would hang around our neck with headphones that we put on for our personally guided tour!

It wasn’t as fun or unique as the Loupe Family tour in Louisiana, but there was a ton of amazing information on the tablet tour which also included narration and commentary from Prince Charles, the Queen’s husband, himself. Opportunities like that would not have been plausible if we were left with a human tour guide.

The other point of notice was the number of different dialects of the individuals within just the group that was admitted at the same time as us. There were even more noted on the language option of the tablets when were walked through setting them up to start the tour.

To start the tour off, I immediately felt behind to the rest of the group. As I went to walk down the hallway around the quad to get to the entrance of both the castle and the tour, someone with security stopped me and required me to place my bag in the bag check. Taken aback, I obviously did as I was told, but felt nervous to be parted with my precious and definitely expensive video camera that was tucked inside. No pictures or video are allowed within the palace, so I had been already prepared not to use it, but not to have it on me.

We got to see the lager than life paintings of the royal family as we made our way through different staircases. Blown away by the design work of everything, I found myself wanting to remember every little detail - like the red carpet that had been carefully rolled down the split, wide, marble staircase, held in place by family gold bars/rails that extended the whole width of the step.

I know it may be considered rude, but I couldn’t help but compare Buckingham Palace to the plantations of Louisiana. I can see where a lot of the fancy and high end design came from as there were similar designs in the curved walls and the way that they would hang portraits and paintings from a cable attached to a string of metal rail that lined the top third of the rooms. I cannot even being to fathom the strength of the cables, ropes, and chains that hung the giant chandeliers and portraits for us to gaze at.

One of the most inspiring pieces to note was the art exhibits. The art in the Royal hallway were all selected by monarchs through the years to be in that hall from the collection of art that each monarch was required to select for their collection. It was amazing to think, with the full force of the event, monarchs from eight to nine hundred years ago selecting each of those pictures for someone like me to view. I wonder if they even knew that a foreign peasant like myself would someday walk these hallways?

Celebrities and politicians always feel some sort of pull or draw for the morality of supporting a charity or cause. Some donate to ones already in place, becoming a large benefactor or the face of the cause, while others create their own. I think of my college boyfriend and his now wife, with the six figures they donate to their own charity and feel as if that is an amazing feat. The Royal Families, I felt, would be no different, but what caught me off guard was the palpable passion I could feel from Prince Charles when it came to artwork. There was not only a hallway dedicated to his selection of art from the royal collection, but an entire room of his students!

Obviously the Prince of Wales is not an art teacher, but he has founded three different charities with a dedication to traditional arts like painting, drawing, woodworking, craftsmanship, sculpting, and tapestry to name just a few. What touched me the most is that in his hand-selected hallway of art from the royal collection, he had recorded an entire section about the carpet that we were walking on that I listened to on my table. He talked with great pride and adoration of the young woman who had designed it. He talked about how he head followed her worth through her classes at the school, through her graduation and the subsequent few years after.

He knew exactly why he liked her work - of bringing natural elements of floral beauty into a harmonious, yet simple pattern, was the perfect fit to complement this art exhibit. He had, therefore, contacted her and had her design this rug especially for this exhibit. Can you imagine the honor???

I felt so overwhelmed by the history and the attention to details for the extravagance in every room that I actually felt myself becoming a little emotional. I guess, as a part of my nature, it is almost impossible for me NOT to be affected like that by something so amazing. I feel similar in other magical historical places as I can’t help but realize the magnitude of what I am witnessing.

I cannot believe the amazing eye and design by the architect Nash. We got to see more of his work through the supper room, the ball room, and a variety of drawing rooms (I still can’t fathom why you need SIX drawing rooms right next to each other, but then questions like “Why do ou need 775 rooms period?” should really be asked first). Named off of the color themes, I felt like I liked the white drawing room the best with its elegant white and gold colors but, in all actuality, how could one ever choose?

I am resolutely set on learning a few more things about the Royal palace and was saddened to see no such stories located in the bookstore. The first I would like to see is more designs by the architect Nash. He must have obviously had done some prior great work in order to be asked to make Buckingham Palace. I would love to see his other items/buildings. I am also curious as to how long it took to build the castle as, in all timelines that I saw, it did not take the hundreds of years I feel like it should have taken to make something of its sheer size.

I would also love to read a history book on Queen Victoria. The few pieces i was able to glean were so interesting! She seemed tomboyish, loved crude jokes, could fence as well as the boys, make great economical and technological advancements for her country, she loved to dance, threw large social gatherings and was an accomplished musician. Her piano is still to be found in her favorite of the drawing rooms.

The current queen, Queen Elizabeth, is also equally as fascinating and I find it very exciting that I am not only alive but able to take interest and follow through the course of her reign. The other thing that is hard to fathom is Megan Markle and the life she must now lead. The American Princess, she has now become a part of something that is bigger than all of us and will forever be etched in the history books. How amazing?!

My least favorite part of the palace was near the end and was the Marble Hallway; devoted to a variety of mainly Greek inspired sculptures. You might take a breath here in this long winded passage as I move from sounding like Mr. Collins in Pride & Prejudice gushing over the grandeur of rooms down to the detail and move to what most people probably picture of an American in a cultured place.

I am not sure why, but the Ancient Greeks and Romans don’t hold my attention quite like the history of the United States and the Royal family. There is something disturbing about the sculptures and, mainly, there eyes, that leave me wanting to leave the cool hallway they were stowed in and reach the beautiful green yards of the palace lawn beyond.

Out on the lawn, the temperature had thankfully risen some while we had been in the palace. I had seriously begun to worry that we would never warm up after that Shakespeare play but the sun on our faces promised we would!

I decided to get some videos while at the palace as we were out of the no-camera zone. Gathering our backpacks from bag check, I began to panic when the screen of my video camera remained dark. Throughly panicking, I was trying to remain calm as I assumed that the only reason it now wasn’t working was because they must have thrown it at some point in transition while it was in the bag check moving from the front gate to the back lawn.

Was there a warranty?

How do I make a claim?

These were the thoughts rushing through my head. Randi was ADD at this point, wanting to go here and there, have a picture here, etc. and, swith some annoyance, the irrational thought that this was HER fault flashed through my head. I can only laugh with disbelief for even thinking that for the briefest of moments as no part of that adds up but when you’re tired, cranky and scared, it just shows how irrational of thoughts one can have.

Nicole and I with the mural at the end of the tour - the only real place you can get a full shot with the entirety of Buckingham Palace.

When Randi was ignorant to my suffering over my expensive camera, my head had immediately placed the blame on her as the mental picture flashed through my head of the night before at the theater where she had, accidentally I am sure, kicked my point and shoot camera twice and even went as far as almost standing on it another time in order to see a better view of the play before I realized I should be smarter than that and pick it up off the ground and carry it - no matter how bad my old basketball injury from college in my shoulder was hurting.

The only notable souvenir to get was edible and Randi & I were the only two to indulge.

I had to remind myself that had been my point and shoot, not my video camera. Not only that, but I have become aware, as has Nicole, that the Johnson’s are very oblivious to their surroundings. Routinely, one or the other either runs into or steps into Nicole or I and, while I’m better about handling it, it was only so long before Nicole, who HATES to be touched, was going to blow. I couldn’t be the one to snap first on this trip but I felt funny, tired, and could barely breathe without wheezing as a result of the mold in our bedroom that I had inhaled all night. I knew it was outside forces and mentally screamed at myself like a basketball coach would to “Get it together.” So I did and immediately flipped the switch to being just fine. It’s always good to do a mental check in on oneself, especially when mold and jet lag could be at play.

I was very saddened that there wasn’t anything noteworthy in the gift shop. I really wanted something to commemorate this special portion of the trip and tour, but with how little money I had going into this trip, I knew that it wasn’t wise of me to aimlessly spend money.

Walking down the trail that exited out of the palace, I was relieved for two things. The first was that Warren Clayton had said, “Try taking the battery out - always works for me” and it fixed whatever may have been wrong with my camera. The second was that I had found the English-speaking tourist with the biggest camera I could find in the entire lawn and had gotten them to take a picture of all of us with the palace in the background on my camera. This photo is the only photo so far of all four of us in it!

Talking with my friend Rachel recently about her issues with her “friends” is so similar to my friends when it came to basketball. We talked about how everyone seemed to intentionally leave us out of photos, whether they were conscious of it or not. I felt as if I was being left out of photos. My own fault, as I had been the one to bring the large camera and have a strong distrust of anyone else respecting it, let alone using it. By the time anyone thought to get a picture of me, I felt as if it was done in pity and knew exactly how horrible I would look in the photos because I would have felt uncomfortable and unwanted. As a naturally NOT photogenic person, I knew just how much worse it would make me feel to see those photos and knew it would shut me down for the remainder of the trip. I had not only resolutely set myself to not being in any photos that I had even turned the corner to having my contagious enthusiasm engulf everyone when it came to me taking THEIR photos.

Just because I may not have a cute, fashionable, model photo of myself for the Instagram does not mean that the memories of this amazing trip will be lost forever. In fact, my true art in the form of pen to paper and the scenery pictures will perfectly complement, or so I presume, the prose that I can dictate in my journal.