13Oct2008: Day 140: London Big Bus tour and Kesington Palace

We went with my parents to London again today. We purchased tickets online for the Big Bus tour. We got on the train out of Gillingham and then road it in to Charring Cross, the last station. They have pretty good rates on the trains if you go in a group of 3 or more (buy 1 get 1 free) also if you travel off peak (after 9:30) it is cheaper still. We got a train ticket and all day riding on any bus or underground we want for about £8 each, which is next to nothing compared to what you can pay if you do it all separately. People who living in Gillingham take the train in to London before 9:30. so I guess that is why it is off-peak.

Once we got off the train we talked to a bus driver that was just sitting near one of the big bus buses at the train station trying to entice people to buy tickets. He told us to go to the National Museum to find the place to turn in our online tickets for real tickets. We walked around for 1/2 hour before we finally found a pickup point. There were people at every stop which we had seen the day before, but today it turned into quite a challenge. But, we got on board and they gave us headphones and a map. We sat on the bus for probably 2 hours travelling around London seeing most all of the sites in central London and hearing stories. Makenna was very good throughout until she needed a nap. We put her into her cart and she fell asleep after crying for 5-10 minutes and slept for probably an hour or so. It was a double decker bus and you get a much better view from up stairs, but we didn't want Makenna in the cold, so we stayed below.

We got on the blue line which took us around central London and then out to Kensington Palace. We got off there and had lunch at a Wegmans-like store.

Then we walked over to Kensington Palace. We were able to get in for half price because the train tickets get us buy one get one free. (I know I talk a lot about money...sorry...it is just scary because the people here earn about half what we make in the states and get taxed probably twice as much due to the national health care system. I'm amazed how they can afford these prices! But, I suppose it is the tourist trade more than anything that drives up prices.)

Kensington Palace is not fancy in its architecture, but it is quite nice inside. It was the birthplace of Queen Victoria and she lived there until her late teens when it became apparent that she was going to be Queen, then she moved to Buckingham Palace. They had the place furnished and built up as it was when Kings and Queens lived there. They had the state rooms and apartments and an audio guide to go along with it.

They also had this display of clothing from Victorian times and what people wore to the Royal Court. They even had some displays showing how lace was made. It is quite detailed and fine work. Apparently, it was quite a business, but young women ended up getting ill and many dying during working on this finery because it was very poor conditions that they worked in. Some of these dresses were extremely ornate and very expensive so they tried to cut the cost by having the places they made the garment be extremely poor conditions.

They also had the Debutant exhibition where there were many dresses and scenes setup from 1958 show how young ladies were displayed in front of the Queen on their 17 birthday. I found this exhibit boring but Chris's mom liked it. They also had a section with Princess Diana but it was of her dresses that she wore to certain functions. You would think this woman just mainly went to the movies as that was what most of the dresses said they were from - premieres of different movies.

They did finally have Queen and King State apartments to look at. That's the part Chris talked about above, where they set it up to look like they used to back when the King and Queens lived here. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't show the section where Princess Diana lived in.

After, we left and went back to catch the bus tour but unfortunately, the bus we caught only took us around the park (where we just were,) and not back to where we needed to be. You could tell the driver was frustrated but he was still nice enough to drop us near the Underground. Plus, we weren't the only ones who didn't realize that this bus didn't take us back to Trafalgar Square. So we grabbed the underground, hopped onto another one and then got to the train station. Luckily these train passes get us on the underground for free. Makenna was a handful on the train on the way home. She wanted to "walk, walk, walk" at every stop. So every time the train stopped she wanted to get off and go for a walk. We finally got home at 7:30pm and then had to make dinner. Tomorrow will be another fun-filled day in London.