School Days and Kensington Palace

Sunday, March 22, 2009

The rest of our week culminated with Ava feeling a bit under the weather, directly related, no doubt, to the weather changing as spring seems to be in the air (I’m cautiously optimistic). It’s been lovely and sunny all week; this city is gorgeous when the sun shines.

Despite a bit of a cold, Ava didn’t miss much school at Abercorn and seems thrilled to be a self-proclaimed Abercorn girl. I’m uncertain sometimes exactly what she does at school, given every day seems to be filled with ballet, gymnastics, library, games, etc. (She’s a bit of an embellisher.)

Claire also had a great week; Friday her class spent the day at Canons Park, which the school has access to for playing fields, outdoor projects (i.e. gardening), games etc. We ended the week at ASL (Amer. School London) with a PTO sponsored party/fundraiser (auctions and lottery, most important for kids: cupcakes, games and hair accessories in the gym. Claire is sporting a bright green braid).

I checked out Primrose Hill for a nice lunch/book store break – lovely, quaint little neighborhood adjacent to a big hill (Primrose, naturally). A nearby green space where I’ve enjoyed several morning walks, the Hill offers a superb view of London coming alive, the sun rising amid pink streaks over the Eye of London, church spires, cityscape.

I also had the opportunity to spend some time with a parent whose family will leave London this summer and travel for a year, spending a month in India, the rest of the time RV’ing around the U.S. How cool is that?!? They intend to home school their two sons, thus largely the topic of our conversation.

Claire got to see the King’s horses and riders practicing their form and formations for the upcoming Queen’s birthday celebrations. Sometime in June, I believe, though in April a birthday related event for her is also taking place. (Woman after my own heart: may as well celebrate the birthday as frequently as possible.)

Friday evening Joe and I had a date – this time to a restaurant in Maida Vale, also known as Little Venice for its canals. After a bit of wandering and some help from a friendly cab driver, we ended up at the Boathouse, a lovely little French restaurant set on one of the canals. While it was dark and thus harder to appreciate the canal experience, we enjoyed the food and ambience, stopping at a neighborhood bar on the way home to close the evening.

Yesterday the four of us set off for Kensington Palace, home of Lady Di after her split with Prince Charles.

It was a GORGEOUS day, bright, sunny and warm, and I think all of London was enjoying Kensington Gardens, a huge open green space with the Diana, Princess of Wales' Memorial Playground, pond, cafes, paths and park benches, etc. Joggers, families, walkers, picnickers and plenty of dogs, as the kids like to point out.

About the Gardens:

William III bought what was originally part of Hyde Park in 1689 to create Kensington Gardens. He also had Sir Christopher Wren design the redbrick building that is Kensington Palace. Later Queen Anne enlarged the Palace Gardens by 'transferring' 30 acres from Hyde Park.

At Kensington Palace, which is larger than I would have thought from the outside, we took an audio tour of various rooms and wandered through The Last Debutantes exhibit (learned about “coming out” in London’s high society, etiquette do’s and don’ts, events, expectations, dances, posture, clothing, costs, calendar of events and more).

The Diana, fashion and style exhibition was fun to wander through, as was the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection. (Did you know that the famous ink blue silk velvet – designed by Victor Edelstein and worn by Diana when she danced with John Travolta at the White House in 1985 -- went for $225,000 at a charity auction at Christie’s in New York in 1997? It broke Christie’s previous record of $145,000 for a garment.)

A highlight of our visit was the “tour” we caught with “Queen Victoria,” who was born at Kensington Palace and became Queen at 18. A theatrical young woman dressed in period costume acted the part beautifully, sharing her frustration with her mother’s “controlling” personality and posturing.

Her reign, the longest in British history, lasted 63 years. It was she, in 1898, who initiated restoration of the state apartments at Kensington Palace, which had been “sadly neglected” in the 1800’s. They were, obviously, eventually opened up to the public.

Claire interacted with the “Queen” a bit, visiting about dolls (Claire told her she owns an American girl doll, the queen humorously quipped that since Americans like to import everything, it was probably made in England).

To wrap up our visit the kids did some royal crafts and we watched as the Queen had a “photo” taken – her reign predated photography but a machine was used to produce an image of her, which was then traced with tracing paper and could be used for portraiture development, thus letting the Queen off the hook for all those sitting sessions.