As I mentioned in the last post we woke up Monday morning to the news that Kate was admitted to St. Mary's hospital and in labor!! At this point we decided to plan part of our day around this event and take in the local hype around this piece of history. However, we already had some concrete plans set in place that we needed to do first. So we left the hotel and took a 30 minute boat tour down the Thames River to the Tower of London.
We then took a tour directed by a Beefeater at the Tower of London. Beefeaters are guardians of the tower and actually live at the Tower of London. We also walked through the crown jewels exhibit, which holds jeweled swords, crowns, and anything that would be used for a coronation ceremony (other than the coronation chair which is housed at Westiminister Abbey). The crown of jewels was a jaw opening, eyes wide open feeling moment after moment. Absolutely amazing!
*Fun fact that we learned on our tour of the Tower of London were centered around two princes who disappeared around their pre-teen ages, which meant the uncle was next in line to the throne. The boys were never found until many years later (past the time of their generation) when two bodies were found behind an old trapped door within the Tower of London area. Any detective such as yourself might have guessed along with many others that their uncle likely killed and buried these boys himself to gain his royal power. Sounds like a movie doesn't it?!
After we left the Tower of London, we headed to Saint Mary's to hopefully take pictures of the hospital and to see the news and press crews. I was pleasantly surprised that we were able to be exactly where the press was, and to actually get pictures of the private wing that Will and Kate were in. We found the Today's show and Fox News stationed there, but unfortunately couldn't find any other American news station there at that time. :(
That afternoon we toured Kensington Palace, and then got to see a special exhibit dedicated to the royal fashion from Queen Elizabeth II in the 50's through Princess Diana in the 80s. Isn't this day adding up to be the perfect girls day?! Crown jewels, royal fashion, and then the royal baby extravaganza! :)
In the evening we headed back to the Thames River to ride the London eye. It moves really slow so it never has to stop to load people, which means that one ticket buys one turn on the Farris wheel. It might sound like a lame ride, but it was the perfect place to take really good pictures of London, and to see where everything is in relationship to each other.
After eating dinner along the river we heard that the baby had been born, and that the proclamation was announced at Buckingham Palace. So like any good tourist we decided to forgo an earlier bedtime, and went straight to Buckingham Palace to see the proclamation. As you can imagine the atmosphere was crazy! People were everywhere, and everyone was pushing each other around to get their perfect picture of that tiny piece of paper on the easel. Thankfully police officers began working the area shortly after we got there, and added some organization to the chaos. This organization enabled us to finally get our perfect picture of that tiny piece of paper. Even though it was not an enjoyable experience to stand in a mosh pit of everyone's sweat, while also having to constantly vie for our place in line. It was completely worth it and an experience that I'm sure we'll never forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment