Advertisement
Published: August 4th 2012
Edit Blog Post
A combination of sight-seeing and visiting the most sought after Olympic Venue today made for a very enjoyable day in the sun (that’s right)…we were only rained on briefly once today!
We started the day at The Royal Mews. It is on the grounds of Buckingham Palace and is the oldest working stable in the world. The Royal Mews not only houses the Royal carriages, but also the cars, horses and even the people who work on or with all of those mentioned. The carriages themselves are breathtaking and steeped in history and royalty. Some of the carriages literally date back hundreds of hundreds of years back. We saw the carriage (or coach as they call them) that took Princess Diana to her wedding and of course (the crowd pleaser) the royal coach from Prince William and Kate’s wedding. We were excited to also meet McCarthy and Flint, two of the royal horses living and working at the Palace!
After visiting the Mews, we moved a few blocks towards the river to visit the inside of Westminster Abby. Did you know that over 3,500 people are buried at or under the Abby? We sure didn’t and we can’t shake
the thought that it suddenly seems like a slightly strange place to get married! Elizabeth I is buried there, along with it seems like every King Henry (insert number here) you can think of. The Abby was built back in 960 and it just enormous. There are no words to describe how large and grand the building is. Finally, we wouldn’t be able to not mention the rich irony of visiting Charles Darwin’s grave stone while inside (insert joke here).
Next it was off to the Prime Minister’s backyard and Horse Guards Parade. In case you have trouble with geography, there are no beaches in London, so a beach court for Beach Volleyball was created literally in the PM’s back yard. The temporary stadium seats 15,000 spectators and it is the most sough-after ticket of the games. The Brits just can’t get enough of this funny sport they are used to playing on grass in parks! Inside the venue the atmosphere is electric! Horse Guards Parade by the way got its name because many hundreds of years ago, during a Queen’s visit, she found the grounds to be unguarded. She immediately ordered that a Guard’s Parade occur at 4:00pm
each day in order to ensure the security of the grounds. That tradition continues to this day (or after the sand is gone). We got to see the number one ranked Brazilian Women take on an over-matched team from the Netherlands. We also watched a Men’s match between Lithuania and Norway, which Lithuania won. Unfortunately, both matches were won two straight sets so we had to leave the venue sooner that we would have liked. We both agree we could have literally stayed there all day. The skill and athleticism displayed by these athletes is amazing!
After volleyball, we visited Churchill’s War Rooms. The War Rooms are essentially a set of World War II bunkers built underground and just to the side of 10 Downing Street (the official residence of the Prime Minister). It was hear; at the War Rooms that Churchill coordinated the efforts of the military during the worst of the air raids during World War II. The War Rooms were complete with bedrooms, map rooms, typists, a communications centre, dining room, kitchen and the secret trans-Atlantic phone room (which was designed to look like an occupied washroom and most who worked underground had no idea Churchill
would be in there speaking to other leaders such as the US President.
To end the day we were totally spoiled at Gordon Ramsay’s Maze Grill. Not only did he know we had visited other restaurants and were now visiting this one, but a signed menu was left for us and after the most delicious Caesar salad, burger, sea bass, French fries and mac’n’cheese we were also given a special private tour of the kitchen at Maze Grill and Maze. It was literally like being on the set of Hell’s Kitchen. And while Gordon wasn’t there, the experience and treatment we received was 100% VIP and star-quality. Truly something we will never forget!
Back to the Hostel and quick introductions with a couple new roommates and time for sleep again. The Women’s Triathlon is centre stage tomorrow morning with Canadian’s Paula Findlay and Kathy Tremblay with a chance to put together a medal performance…then off to Olympic Stadium for a night of Athletics!
Cheers,
Kristy & Will
Advertisement
Tot: 0.32s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 5; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0554s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Aunt Kim
non-member comment
:)
The Royal Mews sounds great. You know me and horses. What an exciting day that ended in a special way. Good for you!