UK August-October 2013- Kensington Palace

Built in 1605, Kensington Palace has been home to many famous members of the royal family, including King William, Queen Mary, Queen Anne, King George l, King George ll, Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth ll, Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Prince William and Prince Harry were raised at Kensington and the palace became a site for mourners when Princess Diana died.

Most recently, it has become the London residence of Prince William and Princess Kate. They moved in the same week that I visited! No, I didn't catch a glimpse of them, as the public areas are only a small part of the palace. The palace has undergone substantial renovations over the years, including when it was severely damaged during the Blitz in World War Two.

I arrived at Kensington Palace on a very rainy Tuesday morning, while Dan was stuck in our hotel room, working. I thought that it would be a good idea to walk through Hyde Park, but just as I reached the middle of the park, it began to pour. Luckily, Kensington Palace had lockers available and I could store my wet coat while touring.

After paying my admission and checking my coat, I stood in the central hub of the tourist portion of the palace and I was faced with four paths, each leading to four different exhibits. The palace is designed to be toured in any order, as each path leads to a different topic. It's very well organized. Luckily, I visited on a slow day and didn't have to deal with crowds, but even do, I think by having four separate sections, it keeps the crowds dispersed and manageable.

I started with Queen Victoria, which led me through several rooms in the palace that were important during her childhood and during her reign. Each room was filled with artifacts from her life, such as her bassinet, her dollhouse and her wedding dress. I walked through the room where she was born and the room where she had her first meetings as queen. There were artifacts from Prince Albert's Great Exhibition, which we learned about while on our tour of the Royal Albert Hall. The section ended with Victoria's mourning dresses that she wore after her beloved, Prince Albert passed away.

Here is a picture of the central hub of the of the Palace. Illuminated on the walls are the titles of the various portions of the museum. To the right, you can see Victoria Revealed, which was the first part that I toured.

Next I learned about the first and second King Georges and visited the rooms associated with their courts of the 1700's. I walked up the King's Grand Staircase and into the rooms used at court. As I learned from the informational placards, the further a person was allowed to go in the series of rooms, paralleled their closeness to the King and their potential influence over him. The room with the painted ceiling and magnificent chandelier reminded me of the ballroom in Beauty and the Beast.

Kensington Palace often felt like an art installation and sometimes, it was weird. The King's Grand Staircase was lined with glass boxes that contained dioramas of life at court and if you sat in the window seats in the King's Gallery, you could hear the whispers of gossiping courtiers. In the Queen Victoria section, there was a diorama portraying her grief after Prince Albert. The creepiest and most "artsy" part of the palace was in the final section that I visited, Queen Mary's Staterooms. More on that later..

The most fun part of the museum was the Fashion Rules, which showcased dresses worn by Queen Elizabeth ll, Princess Margaret and Princess Diana. The dresses from the 50/60/70, were gorgeous...while Diana's dresses of the 80's were a reminded of the terrible fashion trends of that decade!

The last part that I visited was The Queen Staterooms, rooms that were important during the reign of William and Mary in the late 1600's. This area was bizarre. It was filled with objects like paper birds and glass bottles hanging from the ceiling and it had a sinister vibe. A memorable part of the exhibit was eighteen little empty chairs to signify Queen Anne's eighteen children who died. Court gossip was also a huge theme in this section, with areas where you could listen to the whispers of courtiers.

Kensington Palace has beautiful gardens too!

Kensington Palace is a bit strange, but definitely a place filled with Royal History and a beautiful landmark. If you're visiting London, it should be at the top of your must-see list. It's an half day attraction that can easily be combined with touring one of the local museums or spending a day walking around Hyde Park.

UK August-October 2013- Royal Albert Hall

While in London, we walked over to the Royal Albert Hall to see if there was anything going on that we could buy last minute tickets to see. Unfortunately, they were in the midst of setting up for a major awards show and there was nothing on the schedule for the last few days of our trip. However, we noticed that they had guided tours of the hall during the day.

Before our tour, we walked around the exteriors of the hall and took some pictures.

Right next to the hall, there is a very beautiful building for music students. Our tour guide was a music student at the school and he was very enthusiastic during our tour of the hall. How do you get to the Royal Albert Hall? Give tours I guess...and practice!

Before our tour, we had a latte in the Hall's cafe. I took a picture, because I thought that the "Table Bin" was a cute and clever way to manage trash.

The Royal Albert Hall opened in 1871 and was in large part funded by the money generated from The Great Exhibition of 1851, that was held across the street from the hall, in Hyde Park. The exhibition was a labor of love for Prince Albert and when he died, Queen Victoria wanted to carry on his dream of having a permanent building for the arts. Directly across from the hall, Queen Victoria commissioned a grand monument be erected to honor Prince Albert, the great love of her life.

Dan took this great shot of the hall as viewed from the monument.

The hour long tour was an information overload. One of the most special parts, was when we were allowed to go inside the private entrance and reception room for the Royal Family. It's discreet and normal concert goers would never even realize that it was there. I would not be able to find it again. The two story room provides a space for a small party prior to the show and it is located directly across from their private box, so there is an avoidance of the other concert guests. We couldn't go into their box, but we were able to take a peek inside of a typical private box. Very fancy. With the awards show set-up going on, the box had a dining table laid with white linens and crystal.

We walked around top of the hall and looked down to watch the awards show set up. The Royal Albert Hall looks like an absolutely amazing place to see a concert. I hope that on our next trip to London we can buy tickets for a performance!

Dan took this great panorama shot. The colors in this photo are so pretty.

A interesting thing that we learned about the hall, is that there is a high number of seats that are owned by individuals or companies. Many of these seats were permenantly purchased for the low price of a hundred pounds, as the hall was being built. They were sold to raise money for the building. As a provision of the sale, the seats can be bequeathed when the original owner dies, meaning several generations can enjoy their purchase. The seats are theirs for a majority of the yearly schedule, only a handful of special performances are exempt. It is rare that a family will sell off their seats, but when they do, they are sold for many times their original value. A box can go into the millions. Due to the permanent seats, sometimes a sold-out show can have many empty chairs.

As we were leaving, Dan took this balcony shot with the Royal Albert Hall logo on the screen door.

Our tour of the Royal Albert Hall was one of the highlights of our London trip. Even without seeing a show, it was fascinating to walk around the hall and learn about its History. If you're planning a trip to London, make sure to add this to your must-do list.

UK August-October 2013- London Natural History Museum

Ever since I was a child, I've loved Natural History Museums. Every time I travel to a major city, visiting the local Natural History Museum is on the top of my list. There is one thing that I've noticed that all of the Natural History Museums seem to have in common...neglected exhibits. Dan had not visited the London Natural History Museum in many years and had nostalgic memories about it, especially the giant whale model. When you're a kid, those things are larger than life!

Our visit to the museum was a bit of a let down. Many of the exhibits were old and had clearly not been updated in a long time. It very much reminded me of the neglected Los Angeles Natural History Museum, where everything seems "Cutting Edge Circa 1980". I'm guessing lack of funding, due to lack of interest might be the factor. Do we grow up and forget about the wonder that we once experienced as children in these museums?

In any case, I was very excited to visit the London Natural History Museum and we spent a rainy afternoon exploring its grand halls. Here are pictures from my first look at the gorgeous exterior of the building.

The Grand Hall, was indeed, very grand. It was overwhelming. I liked the primate sculptures on the pillars and the enormous marble statue of Charles Darwin.

As soon as we entered, we headed straight to the giant Blue Whale. Dan took a few panorama shots with his iPhone.

We took a good look at the whale from above and below. We did not throw coins on the tail.

Around the base of the whale, there are a variety of other animals, stuffed ones, not models. We even found a Capybara, which happens to be our favorite animal. Yup, we have a favorite animal as a couple. Cute, right? Maybe sickeningly so?

I have no idea what kind of animal this is, but I think it might belong on the "Crappy Taxidermy" website.

It seems like another thing that Natural History Museums have in common, is a fancy new wing dedicated to dinosaurs. I guess it's kind of like the way certain animals at the zoo ( elephants, gorillas) seem to get upgraded enclosures, due to their popularity, while others get overlooked. The London Natural History Museum definitely has a recently upgraded Dinosaur section with big animatronics and fancy interactive displays. The cool thing, is you can enter the exhibit from an upper-level and view the exhibits from the top, before seeing them eye-level. I liked having multiple-perspectives.

My favorite part of any Natural History Museum is the gem and mineral section. When I was six, my mom took me to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles and read her book, while I spent two hours looking at every single rock. Now, this part of the museum is just frustrating, as I've forgotten nearly everything I've learned from my college geology course! I wander around mumbling about how I should know this stuff.

The newest addition to the museum is a very modern eight story laboratory called The Cocoon. As you might imagine, it's named because it is shaped like a cocoon. Two of the eight floors are open to the public and they contain information on the plant and insect research that is being conducted on the other floors.

When we entered The Cocoon, we were given cards with barcodes that scanned into exhibits, so we could look up more information on the museum website when we returned home. Although, I think this technology can be very cool, I've found that when I've used it ( seems like every museum has it now), I become distracted and too focused on scanning stuff. I cease to be in the moment and inevitably, I lose the card or lose interest. This time, I stuffed the cards into my purse and enjoyed the exhibit in real time.

I'm glad that we spent the afternoon in the museum, but really, if you live in a major city, I don't think that the London Natural History Museum has anything unusual that you can't see elsewhere. It would be great if you have kids, but barring that, there are so many other things to do in London, that I can't recommend it.