Day 2: aka The Day I Had to Buy a Coat

Another fantastic day! I started early with breakfast at the hotel, where I had ham on my GF crumpets, and it was delicious. I also tried marmite...not quite as delicious!



After breakfast I had to pack up my things and sadly say goodbye to my wee hotel room. It is MUCH colder than I expected, mostly because of the wind chill, and it gets cooler faster in the evenings than I'm used to. I didn't bring a coat and I knew that was a risk, so I decided to go get one at a shopping center near the hotel. I had to carry my suitcase bag, and I am definitely re-thinking the benefits of a convertible backpack suitcase. It's not built as efficiently as a real hiking pack, so doesn't evenly distribute the load well, even though it holds quite a lot. I did a lot of walking with it fully loaded, and it was difficult. I chose it because I knew the hostel only had small lockers and I needed a collapsable bag. For this it is convenient, but it's not the best for doing too much walking about.

So anyway, I went shopping in this mall, and luckily they had an H&M, where I was able to pick up a light coat. I then headed off to the hostel to drop off my bag, and once that was done I made my way to Buck House, as I had pre-booked tickets to the Queen's Gallery and Royal Mews.


'allo Buckin'am!


Right up by the gates where they do they changing of the guard, which was called off today because of the weather.


The union jack flying says, "Oy! The queen ain't 'ere!"


In Texas we use barbed wire to keep people out.


Oh yes, there we go. Impressive!

I walked around the entire complex, and then entered the Queen's Gallery for the exhibition of Dutch Landscapes. The royal gallery is a massive and incredibly impressive collection of art acquired by the British monarchs over the years, and the gallery is able to put on themed exhibitions based on what's in the collection, which absolutely blows my mind. I can imagine the curators saying, "so, what shall we pop up this year?" "oh, well we've got about 20 17th century Dutch landscapes that George IV scrounged up back in the early 1800's, let's toss them on the walls and call it a day."

These paintings were spectacular, and I am astounded and in absolute awe that this small section of the royal collection was all acquired by George IV, who was a major collector.

The exhibition was put up in one small, and one large room, and expertly put together. The walls were covered in a rich cerulean colored fabric, which looked so nice with all these images of vast blue skies, puffy clouds and tossing seas.

In the next few rooms, there were selections from Carlton House, where Georgie displayed a lot of his collection. The building has since been torn down, but there are watercolors of the interior that are just amazing. Among all this splendor was Georgie's fondness for images of Cupid and Psyche, as well as royal portraits of the sitter as Diana, which I was particularly attracted to. And these rooms were again decorated in richly colored jewel tone fabrics, that gave all these gilt and sparking treasures the impression of precious gems in a very discerning jewelry box. I was too busy keeping my jaw from dropping to take pictures, so I apologize.


On next to the Royal Mews, where the carriages, cars and horses are kept and cared for. So called mews because back in the day this is where the king's falcons were kept while they molted, or in British English, mewed, and the name stuck. This is a working facility, and all along the upper part of these buildings are where the workers live.


Here is the Rolls Royce Phantom I (there are two) painted a very specific color. This is the car that picked up Catherine Middleton on her way to become Mrs. Prince Charming. She arrived a commoner....


And left a princess! Here is the 1902 State Landau that whisked away the happy couple.





In the saddle room, they had on display this set of bridles(?) that was a gift to Prince Philip, the Queen's husband, from Barack and Michelle Obama.


Coolest carriage of all is this MASSIVE Gold coach, which takes 8 horses and four riders to pull, and even then can only go at walking speed. It is the carriage that everyone uses for their coronations. Boggled!


This is my royal horsey friend, David. The queen names all the horses. I think there are 30?

After the excitement of the royal mews, and some serious restraint in the gift shop...I took a walk to the Cabinet War Rooms and Winston Churchill Museum, which was probably my favorite stop for the day, even though it was totally unplanned.

In 1939, these war rooms were secretly created underground, and Churchill, upon becoming PM in 1940, spent years down there leading the war effort. The rooms are exactly as they were back then, and it was incredibly fascinating to be there among the actual chairs, maps, and green colored scrambling telephones.


Here's Winston on the phone with Roosevelt.


The war rooms break off into a separate Churchill museum, which was ILLUMINATING. I learned to so much, and was fascinated by every aspect. Here is Winston's "jumper." I think this is where Juicy Couture got their ideas.


And the door to No. 10 Downing Street that was used by Churchill. I don't know why it was replaced, unless it was removed just to be in the museum.


On the walk from the C.W.R, I walked by THIS! and it looks so lovely in the rain, with a red phone box peaking in the corner.

Hungry! No lunch! Need sustenance! I found myself back in Leicester Square:


Although I couldn't have any of the sauces...which was a little sad. :(

I thought about seeing a play or HP7II, but tomorrow is an early day, and I still had to get checked into the hostel.


Sorry I didn't take a picture of the outside, but here is the cool staircase!


And my hidey-hole bed!


Peek-a-boo!

It does smell a bit like pee in here, but it's clean and the staff is friendly. There are a large amount of children running around, but the girls in my room are nice. The wifi only works in the lounge, and it was chock full of kids watching Rango. There are also only two plugs in the entire room of 10 people, so I will have to be delicate about battery usage.

Tomorrow I am taking the train from Waterloo to Windsor, where I'll tour the castle and the kitchens, which should be cool!