Tuesday 8 March 2016

Travel Tuesday - London - Palaces and Castles

One of the things I was most excited about when planning our trip to Europe was the fact that there were castles. For a girl from New Zealand that's huge. We're a very young country where our oldest building is from the 1820s.
So, needless to say - castles and palaces were some of my favourite things about our trip.
In London and its surrounds we went to five different palaces/castles.


Windsor Castle
This castle was amazing. It's one where the Queen actually stays and when we arrived she was there! She'd buggered off by the time we left though.
The outside was beautiful and you can definitely see why they built it where they did. It is so defensible! You can see for miles in all directions. The inside was absolutely breathtaking. It was the most lavish and extravagant place I'd been (at that stage). We weren't allowed to take any photos of the inside so we bought some postcards instead.
Here's some pictures of Windsor Castle from a few different angles.




Kew Palace
I went over this palace in my post about Kew Gardens. But this was one of my favourite palaces as it was so cute.


Buckingham Palace
We wandered here in the evening of one of our London days. There was some sort of event on as people were coming and going in really fancy outfits.


More of the awesomely funny guards!

Hampton Court
This palace was beautiful. It was probably the one that I found most aesthetically pleasing. There was a lot of info on Henry VIII and Georges I and II. I loved the fact that you could walk through their apartments which were very interestingly decorated. Lots of wood panelling which I love.
After going through the palace itself we went for a wander through the grounds and went through the maze.







Kensington Palace
This palace is in Hyde Park so we wandered there in the afternoon after having lunch in the park. One of the things that was most exciting for me (as a bit of a history nerd) was that I saw the room that Queen Victoria was born in. There was also an exhibition on of many dresses that British Queens and Princesses have worn over the years. I adored some of the ones that Queen Elizabeth wore in the 1950s. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures in that room :(








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