Our Travels: Buckingham Palace and High Tea

Today we slowed down the pace a bit. Don't get me wrong, we still did stuff, we just didn't cram the whole day full. It was an early morning because we had to pack up, check out and store our bags at the Hyatt before we went to our 9:45am tour of Buckingham Palace. Either the previous times I have been in London, you couldn't tour the Palace, or we had just never thought to do it. Well, it was incredible. We have toured plenty of Palaces and Castle, however, none of them had a currently reigning monarch in them! Most of the time you look at "historically accurate" and restored and reproduced furnishings. Not here! It was opulence to a degree I have not seen in person. Most people think Versailles, but this is better. Of course, you only tour in a small portion of the Palace, 19 staterooms. The place has over 700 rooms! I think there are 240 bedrooms alone!! It is almost hard to describe. Everything is guilt and marble and elegant. I think my favorite part is a special exhibition they are having in honor of Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years on the throne. In the banquet room they have much of the clothing that was worn at her 1953 coronation. Her coronation gown and jewels as well as other members of the royal family. It is just over the top. The Purple coronation robe alone took over 3,500 hours to create! Josh told me he loved the last hall that contains statues by the sculptor Canova. I have to agree with him - they have a lovely, classical sense of movement. Also cool was the Grand Staircase and the music room. It's too bad you can't take pictures inside, but there are plenty out there and besides, sometimes it's nice to put down the camera and soak it all in. The tour took just about an hour and half and that was actually good timing because it allowed Jeff and I to switch hotels, while Josh went back with the Halters.

The new hotel is nothing special. I would say it is about a notch above the Premier Inn we stayed in last year. But, in the big scheme of things, it's just a place to lay our heads - we are hardly here! After the switch, we joined up with the Halters and headed out to an unexpected highlight of our trip - afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason. Since the tea house was in Piccadilly Circus, we went a little early so we could ride down Regent's Road on the bus and look at all the shops. It was a good thing we stuck to the bus - Regent's Road was a sea of humanity! There were people everywhere! When we got off the bus we wandered for just a bit and went in a large bookstore, Waterstones, to pass the time. Fortnum and Mason is much more than a tea parlor. It is a grand 5 story edifice that is crown by a tea saloon on the top floor. The other floors sell all manner of food and tea and culinary accessories. Unfortunately, we didn't browse beforehand and by the time we finished the shop was closed for the evening. I think we will try to get back there before we leave though. Anyway, the tea saloon is elegant and refined - all gilt and baby blue. The tea itself was spectacular! I took the traditional afternoon tea with an assorted of finger sandwiches, while Jeff opted for the high tea that skips the sandwiches but serves one savory item. Jeff got the Scotch Egg, which he pronounced one of the best things he has ever eaten! After the savories came the scones, plain and fruit studded, with clotted cream, lemon curd, and all kinds of jam. There were also cookies, the a delicate selection of desserts which included chocolate petit fours, rose eclair, and several other bites. After that, you could select from the cake trolley! Jeff had a piece of Battenberg cake while I opted for a lime and raspberry sort of cake, dense but tasty. Oh, I also had a nice glass of champagne to start things off. The best part?? Josh LOVED the tea! He enjoyed the whole thing. He wanted to try tea, so I got him a pot of chamomile and we put sugar and milk in and he thought it was great! He ate all his tea sandwiches, except the cucumber one and absolutely devoured his scone and the sweet treats on the top which included a linzer cookie, a macaron (ok, we helped with that one), and a chocolate cupcake. He said that he would like to have tea again sometime!

Anyway, nothing much to report after that. We were so full that we opted to walk down Regent's Road back to the Underground instead of hoping a bus. After a brief visit at the Halter's flat we decided to call it an early night!