Buckingham Palace

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Thus far, I've enjoyed being here and have already seen so much. Each day I learn more and more about Richmond and the UK - where places are located, proper etiquette, learning about using phones abroad, etc. etc. All part of the adventure!

Since Monday, all week has been Orientation. There's a large majority of students from over 50 countries worldwide going here which gives the school a diverse atmosphere. The campus is located in a high-end, ritzy area of South London; I've seen about 5 Ferraris and several Bentleys and Aston Martins. In the heart of Richmond Center, there are many clothing and shoes shops, bookstores, pubs, restaurants, electronic shops, and convenient stores. The streets are very narrow and with traffic directed on opposite sides from the States, you have to continuously look each direction before you cross the roads.

Along the River Thames, there are several canoe and boat clubs. The Thames has been overflowing just since Tuesday so it's hard to walk around the paths parallel to the river. Many of the homes and apartments along the alleyways are a couple hundred years old. It's quite a historic area!

Today was my first day going into Central London where you would find the Parliament Building, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the Tower Bridge, and, of course, Buckingham Palace. A few months ago I bought a ticket to tour the palace and today that's what I did. I took the District Line from Richmond Station to Victoria, in Central London. The Tube is very comfortable and clean; this took about 45 minutes from Richmond to Victoria Stations. The walk to the palace was about a mile and a half. Large concrete walls surround the vast grounds with large iron spikes on top to greatly inhibit people from breaking into the grounds.

The main attraction was seeing the large state rooms inside with thousands of centuries-old artifacts, beautiful paintings by world-renowned artists, and intricately decorated walls and floors. It's everything you'd imagine you'd find in a place like this. Each room is different and serves its own purpose, depending on the occasion or event. There's paintings of many of the former kings and queens of England, busts of heads-of-states, large monuments and sculptures. In all, there's 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms. As part of the inner-workings of the palace activities, there's the head of the Royal Household, Lord Chamberlain. Under his authority, there's five other heads of departments: the Private Secretary, who plans The Queen's program, acting as the channel between The Queen and the Government; the Comptroller of the Lord Chamberlain's Office, who is in charge of ceremonial affairs; the Keeper of the Privy Purse, who looks after royal finances, property maintenance, and personnel; the Master of the Household (a position dating back to 1539), who is responsible for the organization of official entertaining; and the Director of the Royal Collection, who is responsible for the care and display of works of art.

Buckingham Palace is officially where the Royal Household's comings-and-goings are planned and carried out. The Queen and the Royal Family are more ceremonial heads-of-state of the United Kingdom. The Queen herself has no direct say in the politics of the country - she may give advice in specific instances and offer advice and guidance to the Prime Minister and Parliament. However, Parliament and the Prime Minister make the official political decisions of the country.

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Comments

[Joan eldridge]

Great pictures andrew, looks like you are having a good time