The travels of Tim and Megan: Buckingham Palace

Hello

After recovering from Dublin last weekend, we had a relatively quiet weekend. Tim caught up with Shanan and Renee for a few drinks on Friday night, as they are about to head home to New Zealand via Africa, while Megan visited Anna in Putney.

On Saturday we went on a tour of the State rooms of Buckingham Palace, which was really good. Every summer, while the Queen is away at Balmoral, the Palace is opened to the public. The tour was very interesting. We were both blown away by the size of the Palace and of how much money must be tied up in it! There were dozens of massive paintings, mainly portraits of various monarchs of years gone by, all over the Palace. There was also a bronze bust of the Duke of Edinburgh...very niiiice. Aside from the priceless art work, there are literally hundreds of magnificent sculptures, porcelain ornaments, huge chandaliers, pieces of furniture and other lavish decor.

We wandered through the throne room, the Queen's Gallery, home to many of the paintings, the Silk Tapestry room, the Ballroom, the Ball-Supper room, and several drawing rooms! We also saw the special exhibition celebrating the 60th wedding anniversary of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. It was pretty crowded but we managed to get a good look at the Queen's wedding dress and a few photos/video clips of the wedding day at Westminster Abbey! We also saw the wedding gift sent from the New Zealand government, a beautiful writing desk, made from native New Zealand timber.

At the end of the tour, we walked through part of the beautiful gardens out the back of the Palace. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside the Palace, but we got a couple from out in the garden (see below). The tour was a great history lesson of the Palace as well. We were interested to hear that the Palace had been hit by a German fighter pilot in WWII and one side of it was severely damaged. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were inside at the time and very close to the part that was hit, but were not injured...lucky.

On Saturday night we caught up with Simon and some of his mates at a local pub for a few beers and we watched a bit of football on the big screen. Unfortunately some mongrel stole Tim's cellphone at the pub, not impressed.

On Sunday we headed off to Emirates Stadium (again) for Arsenal's first premiership match of the new season. The game wasn't that pretty, as Arsenal didn't really play well for most of the match, after conceding a goal in the very first minute, thanks to a Minties-type blunder from Arsenal's goalkeeper. However, things suddenly clicked in the final 5 minutes, as Arsenal scored twice to win the match. We'll definitely be back again, Megan has even been practising the Arsenal chants for next time!!!