Day 9 - Albert and Victoria

Today I stupidly forgot my camera at the hotel, so there are no pictures of my own. Consequently this post will be short. Starting out we crossed Hyde Park to Kensington Palace on the west side. Inside we followed the Victoria route to learn about Queen Victoria's early life before Prince Albert died. The castle was stunning with personal artifacts that had been saved. In a meeting room they even had replica clothing you could try on. The clothes were really heavy and all made of velvet, but looked awesome!

Kensington Palace

After following the Victoria trail we did the King's Apartments, Queen's Chambers, and last Princess Diana's trail. The King's Apartments had a neat card game you could play where at the end you spelled a word that told you who you were in the King's Court. Diana's rooms had several examples of gowns she had worn and corresponding pictures. It was neat to see pictures of her happy and alive in the place she'd lived for several years. In the gift shop I purchased Toni's Flying Saucer candies and a few postcards.

Going south we left Hyde Park and continued on to Royal Albert Hall to have some lunch. Pushing on after lunch we went further south to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Inside the Museum it was stunning with classical and contemporary sculpture in the entry way. We started out in the medieval rooms on the ground floor looking at bits of buildings from allover Europe. These were stunning and really showed a good range of the different styles of architecture throughout Medieval Europe. Afterwards we went to the Cast Court which I thought was an exhibit to do with royal courts. It was in fact something completely different! The cast courts was a long room filled with plaster replicas of iconic architecture and art from Medieval Europe. My Mum's favourite was Trajan's column from Rome which is over 35 m tall. It's so tall that they split in two pieces in order to display it inside. My favourite was replicas of Eleanor of Acquitaine and her husband King Henry II's tombs. I got shivers looking at them. Here's a picture from Wikipedia off what I saw.

Starting with the cloesest is King Henry II, Eleanor of Acquitaine, Richard the Lion Heart, and his wife at the far end

Trajan's Column

After the cast courts we went upstairs and did more medieval galleries. They had copies of books from the 12th century delicately illuminated with gold, silver, and bright figures scrolling up the pages. They had halls of jewellery, armour, and objects of daily life. We had just about reached closing time so we browsed the gift shop and studied the statues on our way out. Finishing up we took the tube back to our hotel and got some food for dinner.