Our day started off by paying a visit to the royal family's palaces. We walked by Buckingham Palace. Before we got there we learned a little bit about it, the most useful fact for the visit was about the flags. There are two flags flying at Buckingham Palace, the Union Jack and the Royal Family's flag. When the Union Jack flies above the palace that means that the queen is not in the building. If the Royal Family's flag is flying then she is in Buckingham Palace. Luckily the queen was in. We did not get to see her but we all talked about where she might be in this huge building. The gates are crowded with people and armed soldiers guarding the gates. (We suspect she chooses to stay in the back rooms.)
During our visit to Buckingham Palace we also visited the Queen's Gallery. There were two available exhibits, one focusing on the Russian Royalty and the other focusing on The Shadow of War. The Russian Royalty exhibit had many beautiful paintings, artifacts, and sculptures. The detail was impressive. There were also plaques next to each art piece that explained the history behind it. After this we walked through Hyde Park to see Kensington Palace. Hyde Park is a large green space, similar to but slightly smaller than Central Park, with many dogs. Kensington Palace was the home of many royals and each room has been changed slightly by its inhabitants. It's current residents are William, Kate, their children, Harry, and Meghan. Kensington Palace was originally built as an alternative to the many many palaces that were too far out of London or too close. When it was first built is was just far enough outside of London to not bother the residences with asthma but close enough to commute. From there its popularity decreased, until Princess Margret lived there. She threw many parties and was friends with celebrities like the Beatles and Elizabeth Taylor. However the tour focused mostly on more historical residents. When we think of royalty far back in history we often view it through a rose tinted lens. They lived in very smelly and dirty environments. People used the toilet on the floor during parties, so that they did not have to undress from their elaborate outfits. And cats and dogs ran around the house through this mess as well. We heard some more details and how all this was handled, none of it pleasant. We live in a much cleaner society. We also learned about Queen Ann, she was a mother to her country but could not have her own children. She had 17 pregnancies and only one was successful, but her son died four days after his eleventh birthday. She used a lot of her own money to fund the churches and gained the favor the people.
The rest of the day was spent at St.Paul's Cathedral, the Bank of England, and 20 Fenchurch Sky Garden. St. Paul's Cathedral was beautiful. It is a huge domed building with intricate carvings, stained glass, and paintings. There are several monuments in the cathedral many of them honoring important figures from various wars. You can walk around the dome of the cathedral if you feel like using a stair case with nearly 600 steps. We did not so we went down stairs and explored the crypt. The crypt had many people buried beneath it. Important figures had statues commemorating their achievements and documenting where they were buried. There were also many floor plaques documenting others who are buried.
The Bank of England was originally just a proposal in the 17th century and was finally nationalized in 1937. It was created to prevent monarchs from taking money from the people and then never paying back their debts. The bank itself was built three times, each version bigger than the last. The most recent rebuild is the one that stands now. In 1997 bank was given independent authority to make monetary decisions. Things were running very well until the 2008 Financial crisis hit. Like the rest of the world the 2008 Financial Crisis hit bank and economies hard, the British blame it on the Americans. Another interesting thing we learned is that the designs for the bills in the UK are changed frequently to prevent counterfeits. They are currently in the process in replacing their paper bills with plastic bills.
Sky Garden is located in the 2015 winner of the Carbuncle Cup Price, in other words Britain's most ugly building completed in 2015. However, the Sky Garden is beautiful. It is three stories of 360 views of London and various plants. We spent a good hour enjoying the views and taking photos or the sites. It was very interesting because we could see everywhere we had been and most of the places that we are going to see. We saw the Tate, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Tour of London, and the Shard.
The last thing we did was celebrate Sierra's 16th birthday by eating cup cakes. Happy Birthday Sierra!
Happy 16th, Sierra!!! ��
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