Explore London: Part #1 of the Magnificent 7

(Forgot to post, oops! This was written so long ago, and I meant to put photos in it. It's from the summer!)

This holidays, one of the things I decided I wanted to do was to visit the Magnificent 7 - London's 7 major cemeteries, which were established in the 1800s and most are still used. They are around greater London, and upon research, I discovered that in 3 different cycling loops, I could cycle to them all! I also took el Husbando's camera along with me to snap some pics.

Loop #1 was about 14 miles all up, which in terms of just cycling time was about an hour and a half (30 minutes each leg). I headed south on this loop, to West Norwood Cemetery and Crematorium first. It was in a lovely area, and was reasonably well-kept. I wandered around there for about 45 minutes, I guess, before heading to Nunhead Cemetery (which is now a local nature reserve). Nunhead was much more interesting, with 2 gate houses guarding the entrance and an Anglican chapel on the site too.

When it was full in the mid-1900s, it was abandoned, and was only reopened in 2001. This makes it very atmospheric, with lots of overgrown woodland areas and tombstones which are falling, tilting, and overgrown. It was a much better place for photos than West Norwood, and very beautiful! I wasn't able to find the spot, but apparently from a certain place you can even get views over to St Paul's Cathedral! So lovely.

Then, I rode home. I'm planning at this stage to do Loop #2 next week (the eastern loop, with 2 more cemeteries), and Loop #3 the week after (the remaining 3 - north and west). It was a long, hard day, especially given I cycled to the Proms that evening too, but totally worth it!

Cultural Experience: Kensington Palace

Today, I had a ticket, purchased months in advance before the summer even began! Tickets to Kensington Palace (which currently features an exhibition of Princess Diana's dresses) meant that they were being sold months in advance and very popular. So back in June, I booked my ticket for today!

In the end, I ended up having a friend to come with me - Joel has a Historic Palaces pass and hadn't been yet, so offered to come with me! So nice to have a friend to come with for a change. We met just after opening time, and by the time I arrived, the queue had disappeared!

We first visited the Queen's State Apartments. These were pretty cool - apartments created for Mary II. They told the story of the Stuart dynasty (which is rather tragic, she had many many pregnancies and only one child, who then died age eleven) and showed the apartments in which she used to spend her time. They have the Queen's bedroom set up, but it was the room next door that she actually died in!

Diana: Her Fashion Story, was next, and the thing I was looking forward to the most! It was a smallish exhibition, telling a story of Diana's life through various different outfits. The thing that blew me away (other than the beautiful dresses, of course), was the amount of thought that went into all her dresses. Especially for state events and while she was Princess, so much thought went into every outfit. One dress was embellished with sequins in the shape of birds, the national emblem of Saudi Arabia, for a state visit there. It was also long sleeved and high necked to cater for their sensitivities. Another gorgeous dress was designed specifically in NOT blue and red, because the country of that particular state visit had just lost a football match to another country with a blue and red sports kit. So thoughtful.

Other outfits were designed based on movies which Diana liked (she was very much into movies), or tailored to specific occasions. She was very influential (magazines featuring her on the cover sold 40% more than other issues), and was able to use that influence to change peoples ideas of fashion, promote British designers, and still look fabulous. Most of my pictures are from that exhibition.

Next we went upstairs to the final two exhibits - Victoria Revealed and Enlightened Princesses. Victoria Revealed was really interesting: it turns out her story was much more tumultuous than many people gave credit for. For example, I didn't know that she was actually really happy, loving and devoted to her family until Albert died. After that, she was basically lost. Such a sad story. She also had a very protected lifestyle and upbringing, with a very regimented education from the age of 3! Not the right education system, not at all.

Enlightened Princess was about Caroline, Augusta and Charlotte and how they influenced and shaped the royal court. They were big into education, inoculated their children against smallpox, cultivated relationships with other countries, and generally were really influential and cool. We later learned that the Serpentine (the large pond in the middle of Hyde Park) was actually built for Caroline!

The King's State Apartments was the last part, and the grandest. I laughed at the painted statues on the wall, but it turns out that George II was just super cheap and didn't want to actually buy statues! It turns out he painter he hired wasn't that great either, because he was cheap... There are some serious funny anatomical mistakes on ceilings! It was filled with more fancy drapery, grander furniture, and actually had painted ceilings (the only exhibition which did). I suppose he gets the best, as the King.

I certainly feel like I learnt a lot, it was very cool!

Weekend Away: Land's End

This morning we got a sleep in... Kind of. The house we're staying in has breakfast included, so we got up for that at 8:30, then got on the road for the day! Our main plan for the day was to go to Land's End, but that was only a few hours away, so it wasn't our whole plan. We headed off without too much in particular planned though.

 

It was proper British weather this morning - grey and just drizzly enough to both ruin my hair and make us wear raincoats. So when we saw the sign for the Eden Project, we thought we'd check it out. It was quite cool (even though it was on the expensive size), with lots of outdoor areas which we intend to explore on a day it isn't raining... But the main attraction, the biomes, are of course covered, so those were cool.

 

One biome is Mediterranean themed (although included plants from Australia, yay!), and the other is a rainforest. Loud to explore, look at, and learn about the environments. They had a Corpse Flower in the rainforest (not currently flowering, but it will in a few weeks) and I even saw pineapples growing on their pineapple tree (bush?). Pineapples in Cornwall, not something I thought I'd see...

 

After the Eden Project, we headed towards Penzance, before realising that we were really close to St Michael's Mount. So we went there, walked along the causeway through the ocean, and checked it out. The gardens were closed due to the weather (although by this point the rain had stopped, and it was almost sunny), and we decided that we'd save the castle for the next visit as well. We just took a few gorgeous photos before heading back to the mainland.

 

A quick stop in Penzance for excellent fish and chips (highly recommend Fraser's), before continuing to Land's End. We drove through Mousehole, a lovely tiny town, but couldn't stop because we couldn't find anywhere to park... And the tide was at it's lowest at that point and not ideal for photos. Our last stop before Land's End was the Merry Maidens stone circle and Tregiffian Burial Chamber. This is a weird thing about England, they're almost blase about some of their history. The battle was literally just on the side of the road, with a little signpost. No parking or fees or anything. And the stone circle was in the middle of what is presumably someone's field. So strange to have such old history and no road signs (we would have missed it if not for GPS) or anything.

 

Then, finally, Land's End! The rain had stayed away, thank goodness, but boy was it windy and quite cold! We looked at the free exhibition, browsed the gift shop (bought a magnet!), checked how far it was to Canberra (11211 miles, in case you were wondering), and took many photos. 

 

By that point we had to return to our part of the country. We drove via another barrow (I can't remember its name), which was very cool, much more obvious with stone ring around it and all. Again though, no signpost leading the way, just a small info sign on the side of a tiny road. Then we went back, past St Ives to dinner... At the same pub as last night. Well, it was just so good!

 

We've also been taking and planning some future trips we'd like to take in the next few months, so here's hoping we can pull them off! And in the meantime, back to London tomorrow.

Weekend Away: Land's End

We are lucky enough to have 2 long weekend this month! The beginning and the end of the month. We had planned to spend one in England, and one somewhere in Europe (we'll see how we go on that one, haven't found a cheap enough flight yet though).

 

So for our first adventure, a road trip to Land's End! We started of our day by picking up the hire car (a super cute baby blue Fiat 500!), and heading out of London. We had a lot of driving! We had a motorway lunch, and reached our main (well, only) destination, Tintagel, around 4:30.

 

Tintagel is beautiful. It's a castle ruin from the 12th and 13th century, fabled to be the place where King Arthur was born. The best part is its location... It's on the top of what's essentially a cliff, and the ocean today was sparkly and blue. There's also quite a lot to explore, including a cove and beach (as long as you're there before the tide comes in). We made it just in time!

 

It's even still English Heritage, so it was free! However, by the time we were finished, it was 6pm and it was closed. So we headed to our accommodation, Tredethy House, where we're staying all weekend. It's so lovely, the room is huge! Only odd thing, the bathroom has carpet. Wierd.

 

We drove 5 minutes up the road to the nearest town for a pub dinner. It was amazing. And now, an early night for us before more driving tomorrow.

Easter Adventures: Sunday

Happy Easter, everyone! Today I had a little sleep in (all this travelling and history is wearing me out a bit), but then we headed out to a place that was mentioned to us at Battle Abbey on Friday - Dover Castle. It was extra cool at Dover Castle, in that they had lots of special events on for Easter. It also has so many elements to it's history, from the 1st century Roman tower, to the 11th century church, to the adaptations made for the battalions and guns during WWI. And that's all not including the actual castle... So many different elements!

 

So we wandered the Castle, which was very busy, but also lots to see and learn. We will have to return again though, they have tours of the tunnels which already had a 1.5+ hr wait time. At least with the Heritage membership, we can go back there for free! As well as the actual castle and grounds and things, they also had a jester, special demonstrations of shooting (bows and arrows), and even a pantomime! The panto was St George and the Dragon, and was actually quite cool. The horses in particular were very impressive, prancing around.

 

After a good few hours, and lunch there too (not to mention the delicious toffee apple and spiced ciders we bought to go with the homemade marshmallows...), we decided that being in Dover, we'd better get a better look at the cliffs. So we headed to a National Trust site (not a member there though, maybe next year after we're all Heritage'd out!) to walk on the White Cliffs of Dover. Even though I lived nearby, I never actually went to Dover except to go to France, so it was cool to see a bit more of the town.

 

After our reviving walk (it was not terribly warm today, only about 12 degrees), we headed to the next closest caste, Walmer Castle and Grounds. The castle itself was really not very interesting, it was much more like a modern house on the inside, but the grounds were lovely. They even had a garden which was grown for the Queen Mother, and she visited it too! Apparently she even liked it.

 

After Walmer Castle and Grounds, we visited Deal Castle, which is in the middle of the town right next to the ocean. Walmer and Deal Castles are the same, in that they were both built in the time of Henry VIII and have an almost-flowery shape to them. This one was in much more historical (read: uninhabited) condition, and was very cool to explore with lots of levels and rooms to wander around in! I swear on the lower level, we went around more times than we should have before finding the stairs back up. This was the castle I could most imagine living in, by the seaside and everything. Maybe Heritage would be able to sell it to us?

 

Just before heading home, we drove by the Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre. It's completely in ruin, but you can still tell where all the walls and things were and really get a feel for the scope of the are and how they lived. It didn't take too long to wander around, and we actually timed it perfectly, because it started to rain just as we were leaving to go home! Perfect timing, and an excellent day.

Easter Adventures: Saturday

This morning, it turns out, was even earlier than yesterday! We were headed straight to Stonehenge this morning, and were hoping to avoid the crowds by getting there when they opened, so we headed out of London really early (for a Saturday, anyway) and got there by 10am!

 

Turns out that was a blessing, as we were able to go straight over to the stones and check them out, and by the time we got back it was quite busy! But we picked up a couple of cool souvenirs before heading to nearby Salisbury to see the cathedral.

 

Salisbury Cathedral was so gorgeous, lots of beautiful stained glass and such great history. In the Chapter House is stored one of four remaining copies of the Magna Carta! It's the best remaining copy, too. I couldn't take any pictures of it, unfortunately, as it's in a dark room to protect it, and I couldn't understand the original text (it's in Latin), but very cool. Some of the UK's current laws are still based on it.

 

 

We had lunch in a lovely 13th century pub nearby, then headed to nearby Old Sarum. This site has the remains of a Norman castle and a church, which were abandoned and left to decay. I don't have any photos of it, but it was a lovely place with lots of green space and families around!

 

Our last stop we picked purely because it was nearby, and it turned out to be possibly my favorite part of the day! Old Wardour Castle was a better ruin than others, in that you could actually go inside and walk around different rooms and floors of the old building. That was really fun, and I would recommend Old Wardour to anyone with a car who would like to see a castle which isn't so touristy. You definitely need a car though!

 

After that, we headed home. It was earlier than Tuesday, but an almost 3 hour trip home and wanting to cook dinner meant we needed to be home earlier.

 

At Battle Abbey yesterday we bought English Heritage memberships for us both. For one year, you get free entry to Heritage sites, and discounts at associated attractions in England as well as the rest of the UK. Very handy - it will have paid for itself by the end of the weekend at this rate!