Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace is beautiful!!!  Today, they had persons dressed as King Henry VIII and company to reinact his last marriage to Kateryn Parr.  It was very interesting and let me say, Williamsburg has nothing on England :-)

"Ladies and Gentlemen: let me ask you, is England safe???"

I saw this great ballroom and had to reinact Maria when she first steps into the VonTrappe Family house and meets the captain for the first time.

Outside of the palace is this giant tree and growing live in it are giant Mistletoe (they actually grow in ball forms)... here I am standing under one, but ah, no one to kiss :-)

Tomorrow is my last day in London - sigh.

The Victoria & Albert Museum, a podcast

Here's a little something if you'd like to know more about the Victoria & Albert Museum...

Well it isn't quite John, Paul, Ringo, & George

But we did have a blast recreating the crossing at Abbey Road today!  

Did you know, here in the UK the crosswalks are called Zebras - there is no stop sign for cars but as soon as a foot steps into the crossing, cars must stop for pedestrians...

The street also reminds you which way to look :-)

More Pride & Prejudice Sculptures

Today we went to the Victoria & Albert Museum; it was wonderful!  There is way too much to go into detail, but my favorite room was the sculpture room (and my second fav was the fashion exhibit).  There is so much to see (over 7 miles of exhibits; what is it with the brits measuring collections in miles?) and much much too little time :-) I really could spend a week there...

This sculpture by Dale Chihuly was hanging in the main hall; he is from Seattle.

Then we had lunch at their cafe (amazing and so good); it was tasty and relaxing and beautiful!  There is a pianist who plays in the dinning room - so wonderful; we even took pictures in the bathroom b/c the tiling was so pretty.

To tired to blog about the tower tonight; tomorrow I am going to church at St. Paul's Cathedral!!!  WOW!  There will be a full orchestra!!!

PS. Thanks to Lisa for recommending V&A!

Confession

Alright, so I have a confession to make, while I haven't done much shopping, I did buy myself 3 CRYSTAL NECKLACES; yes, it's true, I did (and I am so happy about them!).

The first 2 I found at a street market in Oxford; it was part farmers market and part antiques flee market.  The necklaces were both very/semi old, at least that is what the clasps look like, and the woman said they are Austrian crystal; I paid 10 lbs each... which I think is a fab price.

Then this morning (take a look at this beauty!!!) at the Victoria & Albert museum gift shop this necklace was in the case and it was 1 piece, not two, for 30 lbs!!!  Holy Cow - I actually asked if it was real crystal and it is (which I can now tell b/c they are cold and heavy;).  So Cool; so that is my treat from London.

Care for a spot of tea?

Said with a British Accent of course :-)  Today we had a Traditional English Afternoon Tea at the British Museum - it was fabulous! 

Not only did we each order our own (just like Americans) but I ate every bite - all of us did...  it was delicious!  Scones with clotted cream and jam; tea sandwiches, and an assorted dessert plate - yum!

After tea I found this statue which of course reminded me of one of my favorite movies (can you guess??)  I think it looks just like the statue of Darcy in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice.

Later we grabbed a pint at a local pub... when leaving the pub, this sign was part of the sidewalk and I couldn't agree more!

It was a great day!

C. S. Lewis House in Oxford

This is our guide; she is from the states and works as a volunteer for the CSLewis foundation... she is standing next to the Kitchen stove an Aga which is always on and always at 450 degrees!

Yesterday we went to the house of C.S.Lewis, also known as Jack...  the house (the Kilns) was very cool and beautiful; the gardens were amazing.  During the war he did have children from London come to live with him and thus his inspiration for the Chronicles of Narnia.  The wardrobe was actually the attic where the children would escape to play and pretend...  Here are a few pictures from the house (the house underwent much restoration all by volunteers; much of the furniture is period-appropriate, but was bought during the restoration in the 1990's thus not original to "Jack")