Now, I’ve been to the White House. Well, I’ve been outside the White House. And while it is very pretty to look at, it doesn’t hold a candle to Buckingham Palace. It’s just a big white house, surrounded by a very plain black fence. Buckingham Palace, however, lives up to its name.
When you first get to the Palace, they give you a headset (like some museums do) so that you can wander room to room and listen to explanations on the history of the different things you’re looking at. Photographs weren’t allowed, so I can’t show you how lovely it really was, but I’ll try to describe some of the things that made the biggest impressions on me.
When you first enter, there’s this beautiful grand staircase leading from the main entry up to three different parts of the second floor. (called the first floor here—still trying to get used to that!) The banister is made of mahogany and is carved with beautiful flowers and curlicues and cost some astronomical amount to make and install. Through an antechamber and a drawing room at the top of the stairs is the throne room. The room itself is amazing. It’s all decorated in red and gold and white, with vaulted ceilings covered in intricate carvings set with gold and the shields of the United Kingdoms. There’s also a huge crystal chandelier set in the middle.
The thrones themselves, the originals from Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, were a bit of a letdown, being very small and rather simple, but they were set beneath an arch with two winged figures holding garlands, and there was deep red fabric draped all around them, and altogether, the room was very impressive.
Most of the other rooms were equally pretty. Many of the sitting rooms have colored themes, with silk wallpapers to match the colors of the drapes and the furniture. There’s a Music room, where, strangely enough, many members of the royal family have been christened. This room also has a nifty domed ceiling, and a rounded wall full of windows looking out over the gardens.
My favorite room was the white sitting room. It’s entirely decorated in whites and golds, except for the rug. The windows of this room, like the Music room, look out over the gardens (which are huge and just gorgeous!), and best of all, there’s a secret entrance! In one corner, there is a short table pressed right up to a mirror mounted on the wall behind which there is a hidden door—this whole arrangement (table and mirror) swings out from the wall. When she receives guests in this room, the queen will enter through this secret doorway, which provides access to the royal family’s private quarters.
I didn’t really get to see the ballroom, although I was in it, because this year they have a huge presentation set up in the ballroom on “the Queen’s Year,” explaining what a year in the life of the queen is like. The presentation was interesting, and included several of the queen’s ball gowns and other ceremonial outfits. (That woman is tiny—super short!) Apparently they host garden parties 3 times a year for those who have made significant contributions of some sort to the kingdom. This information made an impression on me, because they usually invite 8,000 guests for each party. (!)
Definition of silver gilt: a piece of silverware (or a vase, or a plate, whatever) which is made out of silver, and then plated in gold. (I had no idea. I couldn’t figure out at first why the headset kept referring to the table set as silverware when it was clearly gold.)
There was a porcelain table in one of the rooms, commissioned by Napoleon, which took 6 years to create. The table features cameos of 12 grand commanders (including Alexander the Great) and is a masterpiece (although it doesn’t really look like much) because the entire tabletop (not very big!) is a single piece of porcelain. Apparently it is incredibly difficult, considering the delicate nature of porcelain and the difficulty of firing it over and over, to create a table with this kind of picture made all of one piece of porcelain. So that was kind of neat.
When our tour was over, we got to hang out near the gardens for a bit, waiting for one of the girls in our group to finish the tour. While we were waiting, several guards (in training? They looked rather young…) came out onto the patio where we stood. Normally you don’t see the footguards hanging around the palace unless they’re, you know, guarding something, so of course the tourists took this opportunity to take pictures. We snagged a couple of guards to take a picture with the six of us. Then we sort of decided we each wanted individual pictures with the guards. Then one of the guards suggested we take a picture with all of the guards (there were 5 or 6 hanging about), so we agreed, and he called them all over. By the time we were done, we’d caused a bit of a scene (as there were a number of people who wanted their pictures taken, but none of the guards were available…oops!). It’s not every day you get to take a picture with a guard like that though, much less a large group of them, so who were we to say no?
The lady who took our picture for us was hysterical. She was an older lady, and completely shameless. As soon as we had finished our very large group picture, she shooed us out of the way so that she could have the guards all to herself for her picture—shooed us away so much, in fact, that she had to chase after us a bit to get one of us to take her picture for her! Then the guards left, and we headed off ourselves…to the gift shop! (I am now the proud owner of a Buckingham Palace mug!) Then a lovely, but brief, walk through part of gardens to get to the exit, and home sweet home.
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