History lessons

Today was full of history lessons.....
We began by breakfast at hotel not as good as Newton House or blackberries from Waitrose. We then headed to St Giles Cathedral but we're a tad early so had a wander around first. Some great buildings to be seen. St Giles is an amazing building and Maree was lucky enough to get get stopped by one of the volunteers to check she had a photo pass and then got a very in depth history lesson. Cheryl mean while was wandering around wondering where she had got too... we had a quick look at the Thistle Chapel before high tailing it back to get on the tour bus where we headed to the off site storage facility of the Scottish museum.  Here we had our first up close and personal with 17th century stitching. There were 5 caskets a range of toys some smalls and a whitework sampler! Some of the colours on the caskets were amazing. Unfortunately you will all have to wait for pics as we are bound by waivers that say we can't put pics on public profiles but we promise to bore you with pics on our return. It was then off to the Museum and a lecture on Scottish samplers but as we were starving we made a detour via the cafe then struggled to find the room - ended up having to get to it through the bathroom corridor?  But made it in time.  We can now spot a Scottish sampler at at least 100feet... We then chose to walk back to the hotel and wait for our final history lesson via the Merkat Doomed Dead and Buried ghost tour. For Maree this reinforced all her earlier lessons of the day but a fee new facts were to be learned and we went to the vaults below the city which was cool but a little complex if you are a bumbling Burnnand but we managed to stay up right. 

If lost please return to

A quiet day by our standards we were over organised this morning so ended up 1 and a half hours early for the train.... better than being late! Arrived on time after watching a lady miss the stop in York she just sat there and as the train began to pull away stood up and said have I missed the stop? We got a lovely taxi driver who pointed out the high points and a brief history lesson and even carried our bags up the stairs in the hotel.  The girl on the desk is from Hawkes Bay and was excited to hear kiwi accents. We ditched our bags, put on our lanyards - they have name and address on- and climbed a goodly number of steps to the castle we had a quick walk around and found some some fellow lanyard wearer's so they could direct us to the bus. Then it was off to Holyrood House where we saw Mary Queen of Scots embroidery 2 caskets and some stitching smalls unfortunately these are in a very dim room and hard to see. We have a frolick through the garden and took numerous pics of the abbey ruin. We walked back to hotel went to supermarket and arrived back at same time bus was pulling up.

Close but no cigar

Today we aimed to conquer the Tower and hoped to recreate our solo trip through the crown jewels - we well conquered the tower but never managed solo through the jewels were close though.  As we are members of the Historic Palaces we went for a quick hour trip this morning to see the jewels and the Norman Chapel and then headed to Temple to check out Temple Church which was a great airy light church and the ladies on the desk were quite excited when we bought the guide book. We then wandered to Blackfriars and saw the Blackfriars pub and decided to return for dinner. A spur of the moment decision was then made to check out All Hallows church before returning to the Tower. This was a good decision as it was closed last visit and it had a really interesting museum in the crypt. Back to Tower we headed and it was time for the day before Anne Boleyn's crowning re-enactment a great way to spend half an hour. Maree had a chat with one of the actresses before hand and she never left character so the discussion was about Anne vs Catherine of Aragon! We then completed our tour of the Tower including the Crown Jewels again and exited via most gift shops.... the man at the last one asked where we were from and if we had enjoyed our day and when we told him we had been 5 times he was most impressed and we thought we were never going to get away from him!
Blackfriars was our dinner spot for the night an awesome pub but the Portuguese bar man did struggle to understand Maree but he was quite funny and we got dinner in the end - great fish and chips! After dropping our stuff at the apartment a quick trip to Liberty to pick up a few things and now we need to pack. Tour starts tomorrow!

Google maps sucks

This morning we learned discipline will be needed on the tour for us to be ready each morning. We were hoping to be on a 8.35 train yeah right so not happening so we made the 9.35 but as Hampton Court Palace opens at 10 this was not so bad as it was bloody cold and we entered the Palace at 10.10 so all good.  We hit the high points of HenryVIII and decided to join the Tudor tour which was brilliant a lady was our guide an periodically had to leave to check something and while away other actors played out a senario that we 'helped' chose the outcome but since it was to do with Catherine Howard the outcome was pretty chosen as her head was being detached no matter what but it was a lot of fun. We looked round the rest of the palace and the gardens which looked far better this trip. We then headed to the Royal School of Needlework where the lady in the shop was lovely! Here we did a tour of the Whitework exhibition that is on. We started out with an intro by one of the full time embroiderers that was interesting but things took a turn for the worst when the volunteer took over to show us  round her knowledge was poor. But we saw a couple of amazing gold work pieces that made up for it. Sorry no pics. We then exited through the gift shop - both RSN and Hampton - and had a slightly stressed trip back to town but exited at Liverpool station with 15 mins to find Dennis Sever house Google maps sucks.  Luckily the lovely lady walking her dogs knew where to go we were 1 street away and only ended up a few minutes late. This was a truly awesome experience is done in complete silence and the house is lit by candles. You move through 4 floors looking at rooms that feel and look like people have just walked out of would highly recommend it! Only 1 day to go and then off to the tour!

Membership rocks

Yesterday was a big day but we managed the objective and then some! First we headed on foot to Kensington Palace, arrived early saw them setting up for a half marathon so decided to enter - yeah right I think not. We wandered round the grounds did the wiggle walk not as exciting as it sounds but still fun. Saw 4 squirrels one was way too friendly! Then at 10 as the rest of the folk started to queue we went straight in with our membership card. Even got a welcome enjoy your visit from the man! We made a good choice and headed straight for the fashion exhibition where we dicovered soon great clothes worn by the queen in the 50's and saw Diana got the bum end of the deal being in the 80's wide shoulders and drop waists have not dated well. We learned the queen had a larger bust line, princess Margaret was very thin in the day. We then headed to the Queens state apartment where unlike last time there were no paper cut outs what an improvement.  The Kings apartments were next and there was a return of the paper but thankfully this time it was made into period costumes dotted about. The Victoria Revealed hadn't changed but we enjoyed a wander through it. We both felt a much more enjoyable second visit was had. Red house was next and after a wrong over ground train station was selected we got on the train and made good time out there.  The layout was quite different with the tea room now the shop and more rooms were open for us to visit.  As we were starving we headed to the cafe and had fantastic soup and higgity pie best value we have eaten. Then on to the house where they have very keen volunteers in each room some better than others.  The painting on the walks in the room where we stitched last time has been uncovered and was amazing. Shows a wedding scene and the bride and groom are shown as William Morris and Jane Burden. In the master bedroom there us also a new wall painting uncovered while hazy was very interesting to see. Loads of pics later we headed to the gift shop where we purchased Top and Gabriel our new wombat! Luck saw us just get to train as it was leaving so a very quick walk meant we got to the Tower (again avoiding the queue ) in time to see inside the chapel where Anne Boleyn's remains are. We had a wander through the crown jewels with half of London and then headed to sky garden where they had a ticketing fail, our tickets were for 6.30 but queued and queued and finally got in about 7.15 after a full security check. The lift to 35 floors is seamless and the view is amazing but was dark by the time we got there so the garden inside was difficult to see due to mood lighting. Home was next and Gemma (friend of Cheryl) came to visit so wad great to catch up with her. Just so you know we are meeting targets a full itinerary has been lodged with the folks if you want to check!

Eck it's late

Have not written blog too late now will update in the morning.

Itinerary Malfunction

Hmm mm,  today we had a small issue the plan was to spend the evening at late night at the museum but late night was last night oops.  Good thing we found out yesterday so could amend the plan.  For once in our lives we arrived out at the Foundling Museum EARLY so took the chance to wander down to Red Lion Square to check out where Rossetti,  Burne Jones and Morris once lived pleased we had not made a special effort just to go there!  It was then back to the Foundling which was very cool and they had an exhibition called the Fallen Woman which had some very difficult to read original letters related to woman trying to sign their babies over. It was then off to the Museum of Childhood, this has a huge range of toys and a fantastic range of dollhouses.  Maree was spellbound by the large rocking horse and walked into a large metal sitting bench and is now sporting a decent bruise on the knee. It was then a trek back to see the galleries of the V and A that were closed last night and this proved a fruitful visit with 2 caskets a heap of embroidery and a room of Pre Raphaelite items. Good times for us! We then walked down to Harrods where we walked through fine and luxury jewelry just cos we could then checked out the Christmas shop - poor selection eg a £189 gorilla decoration, a lobster and some large fluffy balls! Feeling brave we battled through Harrods gift world bought nothing and left. Did manage to find the Princess Diana and Dodi memorial and get a picture. We also visited both Waitrose and Tesco if Mother was with us it would be her trip highlight 2 supermarkets in one day. Sad we are missing Bathurst....