Day Fifteen from Melissa - Kensington Palace

Hi, all!

Today we had our literature class.  You see, each week we have two classes, and then the rest of the week we work on the assignments and explore on our own.

This is our literature teacher, Dr. Talbot.

He's brilliant, but has a good deal of the absent minded professor about him. I've seen him take a single lick out of a spoonful of Nutella and then wander off, leaving it on the counter. 

His wife is the total opposite. Chatty, loves shopping and hiking and food. You want to know where to find foundation stones from the original London bridge, ask him. If you want to know where to buy a hat, ask her.

After class, Miriam and I and three other girls went to Kensington Palace in preparation for a class presentation.  Only a small portion is open to the public, but that area is divided into four exhibits. The rest of the building is closed to the public. William and Kate aren't there right now, but they stay there often. 

The first exhibit was the Victoria exhibit. Queen Victoria lived here as a girl, up until she became Queen. As a future ruler, she lived under a series of very strict rules - not allowed to use the stairs unless holding someone's hand, not allowed to sleep alone, etc. 

Her uncle the King died a month after she turned 18, and they came to tell her in the middle of the night. She came down the servants staircase in her nightgown, and was informed she had become the Queen. 

These are the stairs she came down. On the walls they painted words from her journals. 

Queen Victoria's first act was to have her mother's bed moved out of her room. Then she went back to sleep until morning, when she was officially sworn is as the queen. 

She was very short - apparently just less than five feet. 

This is one of her dresses. 

She first saw her cousin Albert as she came down this main staircase. The staircase goes up one side of the room, across a landing on the second side, and comes down again on the third. I got pictures of both sides. 

After she became queen, they got married, and lived very happily for twenty years until he died. After his death, for the next forty years, Queen Victoria never wore colors again. 

Here is a detail from the exhibit's carpet. They've sprinkled quotes from her diary all over the rooms. 

And here are her children's clothes. 

You may think these clothes were worn by a daughter and a son. You'd be wrong - both the dress and the suit were worn by boys. 

The next exhibit was the Queen's rooms. These rooms belonged to Queen Mary II. It is said she is the reason why judges wear black. At her death, the nation went into mourning, and British judges never bothered to go back to their other costume. 

This is the gallery. The walls were oak, I think, and very grand. We also saw the room where James the Pretender may have been born. He in turn was father of Bonnie Prince Charlie. I have a photo, but it's very bad, so I don't have it here. 

After that, we saw the fashion exhibit. It displayed clothing from 1950-1980 worn by Queen Elizabeth I, her sister Princess Margaret, and Princess Diana. I had a lot of fun here!

These were some of my favorites of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret's dresses. They are incredibly beautifully done!  After the war, clothing rationing was lifted, and royalty wore beautiful dresses to help raise the morale of the people. They're in bright colors so they can be picked out in a crowd. 

And these are Princess Diana's dresses. They're chosen for very political reasons, I found out. The pink and white one on the right was picked because she was going to South America. A big soccer game was going on, and they didn't want her to seem partial by wearing colors from either country. So they went with pink. 

Also, the pink dress in the center was picked to match the cherry blossoms in Japan for the festival. 

The last part of the exhibit was the King's Rooms. They belonged to George I and George II.  These were very grand, as compared to the relative simplicity of the other rooms. So of course, I took a lot of pictures. 

This is the grand staircase going up. 45 steps, the sign said. I was very careful going up. 

To make the rooms appear populated, they had dummies dresses in paper dresses standing around. 

Like this. See anything odd?  

Okay then, look at this one. It might be more obvious. 

Can you see the lady's shadow?  Every now and then music would start playing and the shadows would start dancing. There was a gentleman on the other side of the fireplace, and her shadow would sometimes cross over and dance with his. 

This is me in costume. 

Well, behind costume, if you want me to be accurate. 

Here is a real dress though, from the time period. Sorry I couldn't get close enough to stand behind it!

They had tried to make the place enjoyable for all ages. There was dress-up in the corner and tables set up with games and rules. This one actually looked very interesting. I took close-ups of the board too, so I can play it later. 

Look at this tapestry!  I loved it!  It has shading and contour on the clothing!  I mean, look at those folds of cloth - brilliant. I just stood there, geeking out. 

Anyway, we decided to head back. Even though we're next door neighbors, so to speak, it's still a ten minute walk, which turns into twenty when paired with my crutches. On the way, we passed what I think is a horse bush. Maybe. Not actually sure, since I couldn't see any thorns. But it's lovely!

So that was pretty much the end of our day. We got home in time for dinner and our group meeting. Then some of us ended up chatting with Sister Talbot, and she took us to see the mall. 

It's very huge. I felt like I was in some kind of space mall. 

Not really one for malls. But it was very grand. 

Well, that's it for now!  See you later, folks!