England: Royalty

By JOAN HERSHBERGER
For the Sunday News
Modern double-decker buses carry tourists to castles built 900 years ago. Inside, guides tell stories of the royal families and life in the palaces of England while outside we pass a small street protest asking for the release of Shaker Aamer, a Saudi Arabian citizen and the last British resident held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay.
My vacation to England with my husband, Marion Joseph, overflowed with opportunities to explore the past and build memories in the present.
We landed Sunday morning, found our hotel, took a deep breath and decided to have tea at Kensington Palace at the Orangery (green house).
We never made it. We saw no waiting lines at Kensington Palace, showed them our London Pass (a one price ticket that covers the entrance cost for dozens of places) and took our first tour. This official residence of the late Princess Diana and the soon-to-be residence of her son, William, and Kate Middleton, piqued my interest. We quickly learned that the castle has a number of apartments and offices where various members of the royal family live as well as government officials.
No one offered us access to that part of Kensington Palace, but we did visit rooms tastefully filled with memorabilia from Queen Victoria (those tiny gowns testified to her stature), King James, Queen Mary and King William, and King George’s art gallery.
Parliament only allowed Queen Mary and King William to reign after they agreed to limited control. One room filled with little chairs portrayed their 18 children who all died before ascending to the throne … only one lived to be 11.
Another room addressed the fact that 50 other relatives were next in line to the throne. Parliament chose the next king and dictated England would be an Anglican country, ending the historical, national impact of each monarch’s religion.
As we sat viewing the pictures of those who have lived in Kensington Palace, we asked the room’s tour guide a couple of questions. For the next 15 minutes, he succinctly covered the history of the monarchy  from the 1600s to today. The guide’s explanation provided background information for the rest of our visit.
Instead of going to the Orangery, we had an afternoon tea of cucumber and tuna fish sandwiches and smoked salmon sandwiches, biscuits, brownies, tea and chocolate in the shop inside Kensington Palace.
Walking over to the Orangery we discovered a garden filled with many varieties of purple flowers. Strolling through Kensington Park we passed folks eating picnic lunches on lush green grass, dancing as a group or just riding bikes on the designated pathways. We finished our visit with ice cream cones that came with a stick of a chocolate confection on the side.
Jet lag kept us in bed a bit longer than we anticipated on Monday, but we awoke in time to go to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. Our bus left us outside a small shopping center with a sign advertising “A Full English Breakfast.” We had time so we elected to see what that meant. We received tea (or coffee), sausage, hash browns, a thin slice of ham (they call it bacon), sautéed mushrooms, toast, a lightly fried egg, grilled tomato and a heap of beans (think pork and beans from the can). Signs at other shops advertised the same breakfast available through noon.
A guide told us we could wait for the bus and take 15 minutes to get to the changing of the guard or we could walk there in about five minutes. We walked to the throng of people lining the streets to the gates at Buckingham Palace. Bobbies (men and women) on horseback and foot repeatedly, politely told the crowd to “move back, leave a path for folks on the sidewalk. Keep the gate open, please.”
The changing of the guard takes place inside the decorated, high iron fence surrounding the palace. No one goes inside the gate. The semi-automatic weapons in the hands of the guards in red uniforms and palace police ensured that.
Police on horseback led the band and palace guard in full dress uniform to the courtyard. We heard the music of the concert, caught a few glimpses of them playing and the changing of the guard before the band exited. Other guardsmen, dressed in black, rode horses up to the castle and into the courtyard. I took dozens of pictures before, during and after the official ceremony, but my best shot came about 20 minutes after the crowd dispersed. We stayed to pose in front of the palace and consider our options. As we read the sign explaining how slight variations in the uniform told a soldier’s origins in the Commonwealth, a small contingent of men in the signature red uniforms came marching down the street to the palace. I snapped photos up close with no one to tell me to move aside.
Having seen the event of the day, we headed to The Mews and enroute discovered an art museum with paintings portraying the import of clothing in the 1500s to 1700s. Some ladies in waiting had to nearly bankrupt their families to be properly attired for court in gowns that cost the equivalent of a house. One queen favored a large ruffle around her waist that took hundreds of pins every day to put in place. When she died, the fashion died with her.
For several decades strings, ribbons and hooks connected the top and bottom garments of royalty, forcing the wearer to stand up and move slowly and gracefully – the royal walk. Subtle changes in the weave of the cloth and decorative embroidery portrayed the person’s status in the kingdom. Few garments remain from those times because with the expense of the fabric, each garment was re-cut and re-designed until it was nothing but rags. Also, metal woven into the fabric cut the threads, slowly destroying the garment.
Next door at The Mews we saw the queen’s official carriages and five official limousines. Queen Elizabeth II watched her children learn to ride horses at the training ring at the entrance to The Mews.
The name “The Mews” originates from a time when falcons were kept. Later it included horses and carriages. The current location was built a couple of hundred years ago. Some families have lived and served as groomsmen in The Mews for four generations. Refurbishing the carriages takes a year – they are painted 25 times by hand and rubbed down. Some carriages have air conditioning, but the gold- covered royal carriage used for coronations does not. It takes two days to simply move it out of its display room. Besides being chosen for their temperament, each horse undergoes two years of training to deal with crowds.
We rode one tour bus around the traditional sites of the city and passed statues of famous men and women including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill (who never wanted a statue because he did not want any pigeons on his head).
During World War II some of the churches sustained external damage. One church has not repaired the external damage in order to remind viewers of the war. One church had only a couple walls left. Those walls now frame a garden in the middle of a bustling, modern city.
We learned that the city of London is one square mile and that the queen has to ask the mayor’s permission to enter it. In the 1600s, 80 percent of the city burnt down because of the thatched roofs and the lack of fire fighting equipment. It was rebuilt without any thatched roofs. In between buildings we glimpsed a memorial erected to that disaster.
The guide noted that the Thames River, once considered dead from pollutants, has been restored to a living river. Slowly spinning over the River Thames is the London Eye, the world’s third largest Ferris wheel. It takes 30 minutes for one revolution. Each of the 32 units carries 16 people.
The bus tour ended at Picadilly Circus. Our decision about what to do next ended when another tourist asked if we wanted their spare ticket to a musical starting in 10 minutes. We grabbed the opportunity and finished the evening watching a lively, professional show.
The next day’s visit to Westminster Abbey had to wait for a service to end. We shopped until we saw the departure of men in military uniforms and women wearing large-brimmed hats or fancies. Inside Westminster, I discovered innumerable memorials covering the walls and floors and a wing with rooms housing the sarcophagi of deceased kings and queens. We watched quietly in the nave as the hourly prayer service was held. That day it included prayers for the families and victims of the tornadoes in Moore, Okla.
Our pass to use London’s public transportation took us onto yet another double decker to reach the Towers of London. Although the exact age is not known, the Towers have been used by royalty for nearly 1,000 years. The same palace guards in their red uniforms and bear skin hats keep watch at the Towers.
The Towers that once house held royalty in disfavor now house the Crown Jewels. The Beefeater in his red and blue uniform pointed out the Water Gate where those accused of treason entered the Towers. The former dungeon is now a gift shop. A people mover carried us along past the Crown Jewels. We circled around for anther look. The long climb to the top of the towers and then down a long spiral staircase to the former dungeons provided enough torture for me. I pitied those who once had to climb those stairs daily.
Our brush with royalty ended Wednesday with a tour of Windsor Castle, which has longest history of occupancy in the world. Rumor has it that Hitler mandated that Windsor Castle not be bombed during World War II because he planned to live there.
The public tour at Windsor begins with the doll house, a model home with working electrical lights, running water and miniatures contributed by the nation’s industries in the 1920s.
Crossed rifles and swords decorate the rising walls to emphasize the preparation for war. The coat of arms for knights cover the walls and ceiling of the formal dining room. Setting the table for 120 takes three hours as the butlers use rulers to measure the distance between the edge of the table and each place setting. Room after room we viewed the rich artifacts gathered from this nation’s spread across the world. The displays included a rather modest satin banner – the fee one baron must pay each year as rent for the land owned by the queen.
The room dedicated to the Order of the Royal Garter gained significance a couple of days later when I read that Prince William had been inducted into this order. In the future, I am sure other events in the news will be more pertinent, now that I have visited England and caught a glimpse of its history and royalty.