Ambling Ramblings #22- In, Out, Up, Down and Around London

Jane Austen, a royal castle and more time in my favourite city....what more could a girl want I three days!

Upon returning from our tour of the countryside, we were no longer content to simply stay in London for our last few days so have done a few trips out of the city to explore other areas. The first day after our tour we stayed in London as there were a few things we still needed to do before we leave. The first of these being a visit to the original Twinings tea shop, not only to browse through, but to stock up on a few different types of tea that aren't always readily available in supermarkets. I think I have enough to last me through my first week of teaching now! We also walked along the Thames past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, the London Eye and a few other iconic buildings of significance back to Shakespeare's Globe as there were a few things I wanted to see again. It then took us over and hour to walk all the way back to the side of the city we are staying on (we didn't quite think it was that far, but hey, we got to see more of the city!) and stopped in at Primark, a large department store that is fairly cheap in its prices-a few people we have met recommended we go there to do some shopping, and since it was quite imperative that I purchase another bag to get all of our paraphernalia back to Australia, we thought we'd try there! We were successful and marnie bought a few other things while we were there too. By this time, it was late afternoon and we had a very important date that night to go and get ourselves dressed up and ready for. 
We decided we should go and see a show while we were in London, as this city is famous for its theatre so that's exactly what we did. We had just a minor glitch along the way-you know you are in a cultured city when there are so many theatres that they start having similar names and you get confused as to where you should be! We went to the Apollo Theatre, only to find that the show we were seeing was actually at the Apollo Victoria, so we quickly hopped back on the train to get to that theatre just in time! It was well worth it and we both loved our night out on the town being cultured! Dressing up was also good fun and any excuse will do :-) 
The following day we went on an excursion to the country, to Chawton to visit Jane Austen's house and museum (Can you tell I'm a Jane Austen fan, with a visit to Bath and to Chawton in one week!) I have thoroughly educated Marnie and she now has an appreciation for the works of my favourite author, however we were the only people under the age of 50 to be visiting the house that day-as we entered, the steward at the house looked at us and asked if we were avid Jane Austen readers, as I think he was surprised to see us! The house is incredible and so well laid out. Each room is set up as it would have been in Jane Austen's time with items from her and her family laid out in each room with very good explanations and descriptions of each item nearby. The gardens were also beautiful, as everything was just starting to bloom, making it a lovely day out in a quiet village in the south of England. 
The next day was another excursion out of London, a trip to Windsor Castle-one of the official residences of Her Majesty the Queen. There was an lovely collection of sixty photographs of the Queen on display in the castle as a part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations-it's a good year to be visiting London, with the Olympics coming later in the year as well as it being a jubilee year! One of my favourite parts was seeing Queen Mary's doll house which is not a child's toy but a beautiful exhibit of miniatures, complete with working electricity and plumbing in the house! I also enjoyed seeing France and Marianne, two dolls that were given to Queen Elizabeth and her sister when they were girls-the dolls have a complete wardrobe of outfits for every occasion and are beautiful! The apartments and suites in the castle were incredible and very tastefully decorated and it was very interesting to see how the interior designs changed over time as different regents added their own tastes in the decorations of the rooms and added to the art collection. I loved seeing the portraits of Queen Elizabeth I amongst other past members of the royal family, as well as suits of armour, the china collection of exquisite dining settings-they have over 40 sets to choose from! I only dream of having just one set one day! 
The castle is very extensive and took us quite a few hours to walk through, and we only saw a portion of the castle as not all of it is open to the public! I saw the rooms where, if I were ever so fortunate, I would meet the Queen in, however, although she was in residence at Windsor when we were there, she wasn't receiving visitors for tea today. I'll just have to call again sometime to have tea with the Queen! As is typical in England, it was raining today so we didn't go out into the gardens, but what we saw of them was very beautiful. 
Just a few days now until I'll be back on the other side of the world...far away from all these historic treasures that I have been so privileged to see and experience for myself, but I am certainly bringing lots of memories back with me (along with thousands of photos and just a few souvenirs!)