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Apsley House
the Duke of Wellington's home Today I walked, and walked and then walked some more. It was a day of walking, but a good day. I did a lot of stuff in a rather short period of time.
My day start with a trip to Apsley House, which is the home of the Duke of Wellington. The first Duke, who was the guy who beat Napoleon, bought the house from his older brother. The house originally belonged to the Baron of Aspley, hence the name. It was built in the late 1700s and became Wellington's home in the 1800s. The house was given over to the "people" after World War II by the family.
They have many rooms with the original furnishings and wall treatments set up for people to walk through. The tour begins in the display room. This room holds all of the objects that the Duke was given over the years, from such people as the Kings of France, Prussia and Spain and the Tsar of Russia. There were swords and porcelain. Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed to be taken in the house. It was fun to walk through the house and imagine Wellington hosting a dinner party or a gathering
Rose Garden in Hyde Park
a garden in the middle of the Park in his dinning room or one of his parlours. And his art work, was pretty amazing.
I then went over to the Wellington Arch, which sites across the street and went up to the observation deck. It was pretty neat to see things like the Eye and Big Ben from such a long distance. The arch was originally suppose to go by Buckingham palace, but like the Marble arch, it was moved to a new location in the late 1800s.
Next, I walked the length of Hyde Park. I walked to the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial Garden. Hyde Park is an amazing place. It has a river in the middle, with swans and ducks. I even saw Canadian Geese, which seem so out of place. From there I went into Kensington Gardens and located the Peter Pan statue. Unfortunately, from the Peter Pan statue I got turned around and instead of going to Kensington Palace I ended up at the Prince Albert Memorial.
Let me just say WOW. Queen Victoria was a nut. This thing is huge and the statue of Albert is made of gold leaf. I can think of better things to have spent
that kind of money on. After seeing the memorial, I can understand why she began unpopular with her subjects. It's one thing to love your spouse, but another to not move on following his death when you have a country to represent. And to go that overboard, that you spend money he (Prince Albert) had raised to build a music and arts hall on a memorial to him, is just well plain nuts.
I then crossed the street to the Royal Albert Hall, which is amazing. The sound in that place is unbelievable. I was lucky in that the during the tour I took there were practicing for tonights performance, so we got a sneak peak or rather listen. We heard the performance while sitting in Earl Spencer's box and then some more when we were on the top mezzanine. It's a place to go to hear a good concert.
From the Royal Albert hall I walked about half way back before finding a tube station that would take me close to the British Museum, which was my next stop. I have no idea how far I walked today, but it must have been close to 10 miles
Prince Albert Memorial
This is the memorial that Queen Victoria had built to her husband after he died when it's all counted, or at least that's what it felt like.
I didn't spend much time at the British Museum as I was pressed for time and beat. I went in to take some pictures of the Rosetta stone and looked at a few of the exhibits before heading out. I was going to go book shopping, but by this point it was almost 6pm and I'd been on the go since about 10:30 and my feet were killing me, so I headed for the tube that would take me home. Only I got a little lost and did a lot more walking then I'd intended to. My cousin had said, to look at a bus stop sign and see where the bus is going. This is what ended up helping find my way to the tube station and ultimately home. My dad wrapped up at 7:30pm, at least the travelling. But the planning for tomorrow began.
As for what I'm doing tomorrow, I'll leave until tomorrow. 😊
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