London Day 2- Thanksgiving

After a wonderful night's sleep and a friendly breakfast, we left Arosfa for Kensington Palace. 

It was Thanksgiving Day. If you know me, you know that Thanksgiving is the biggest holiday for my mom's side of the family. I look forward to it all year. I absolutely love my big, crazy, family and that is the one day of the year we all set aside to come together. Sure, we were on our dream vacation, but I'd be lying if I said my heart didn't long to be with my family. We made plans to Skype that night, so we could feel like a little part of the big day. 

We walked though some beautiful parks (Hyde and Kensington I believe) to get there.  I wish more cities had public parks like this. There were people running, mommy groups with strollers, overly friendly squirrels and giant piles of enormous crunch leaves that just beckoned you to kick them. 

 I didn't know much about Kensington before we arrived. Only that we were in London, I wanted to see a royal palace, my sister is slightly obsessed with Queen Victoria, and Kensington was covered by our London Passes. 

We didn't spend much time on the grounds. It was November and there were no fabulous garden spaces to see. We were in a bit of a hurry to make it to our next stop on time. 

 I thought the palace was set up very tourist-friendly. While walking around you really felt like you were in the middle of the room where Victoria held her first council meeting at only 18 years old. It was much less exhibit-like that other historical buildings we had been in. In the red saloon, you could try on costumes. The large group of school children who came in after us were very excited, and of course I couldn't help buy to try one on myself before they took over. Both the British Museum and Kensington made me miss my school kiddos. I can't imagine having such cool places to take them. I'm sure they take it for granted, just as any of us would. 

 I was surprised by how tiny of a woman Victoria was. This is her wedding dress, there is no frame of reference but it truly looks fit for a child. 

I was most touched by the letters between Victoria and Albert and her diary entries about him. I left with this picture of a woman who truly love her husband in a time where love was very little of a royal marriage. 

However, I'm not sure what I read or what possessed me to think these things. I wish I could go back and figure it out. Since returning stateside, I have looked for these quotes that made me admire the marriage of dear Victoria, Albert, and their family. Unlike most families of the time, all nine of her children survived to adulthood. She must have been a beautiful doting wife and mother, right? 

So far I have found these quotes from Queen Victoria...

• "A marriage is no amusement but a solemn act, and generally a sad one."
• "I feel sure that no girl would go to the altar if she knew all."
  
• "Being pregnant is an occupational hazard of being a wife."
• "An ugly baby is a very nasty object - and the prettiest is frightful."

I have come to two conclusions on why the Victoria I experienced at Kensington is nothing like the Victoria I read about. 

1. There was a recent discovery of loving correspondences. Kensington has embraced these and the internet is lagging behind. 
2. And the more likely: I somehow slipped in to a royal and palatial cloud where everything is perfect and romanticized. 

I plan to return one day to set the record straight. On the way out we stopped in the gift shop to get things for my Grandma and Britney.

We walked (quickly) through Hyde Park and Green Park to get to Victoria Station. This is where we met our Harry Potter tour group. We made it there in plenty of time to check in and stop at a little fast food place to grab a drink, lunch, and a couple of bottles of water for the road (good call.)

I have to stop and be honest here. I would never have chosen to spend half a day of our already short time in London on a Harry Potter tour. However, Andrew loves Harry Potter and I love Andrew. So, we booked the ticket. We booked through Golden Tours which included transportation to/from the Warner Brother Studio. I would definitely recommend doing that. It wasn't too much extra and it was nice not to have to stress out about going out of the city on a train or taxi. We met the double-decker bus at Victoria and it dropped us off at the front door of the studio. They gave us a time to meet the bus (it was more than plenty of time), our tickets, and drove away. 

Once inside, we decided to each invest in the £5 digital guide. If you're planning to go, I think this is a must have. There was no Rick Steve's guide to Harry Potter and by this point, we couldn't be trusted to do anything without a guide ;) 

We waited by the "Room beneath the Stairs" for the next tour to begin. They lead (herded) a large group of us into a room to give us directions. Then, into another room to watch a short video hosted by the cast of the movies. Next, we went into the Great Hall. 

The guide gave us several minutes to roam the room before setting us free into the self-guided part of the tour. Andrew got tons and tons of pics, if you are a Potter nerd and would ever like to see them, I'm sure he'll be happy to show you.

While on the self guided part of the tour, we learned more about the movies than I could have ever imagined knowing. There were numbered stops along the way to type into your guide and hear about what you were looking at. On top of that, there were bonus videos at almost every stop. 

My skeptical feelings about doing the tour, quickly turned to appreciation and fascination about the process of movie making. WOW! I had no idea every prop, costume, wig, set, etc. starts as an idea. Then, the idea goes before a committee, then it becomes a drawing, then it becomes a computer generated image. Next, it is made. Then, several exact copies are made. All of this for each small piece of the movie. No wonder movie tickets cost $$$!

Not knowing how long the tour was, and certainly not wanting to miss the bus back to London, we went though slow enough to be impressed but faster than we needed to. 

Around the 2/3 point of the tour, you can go outside to see some of the bigger props and outside sets. There is a little cafe where we stopped to try some famous Butterbeer. 

  I even got Andrew to go knock on the door of 4 Privet Drive. Isn't he cute? The whole tour definitely brought out your inner-child. Freezing, I ran into the building that housed the 2nd part of the self guided tour. Andrew stayed out a little longer to snap some photos. We met back up and continuted the tour. The next parts were about the creation of the creatures and the sets.

The final part of the tour is the Hogwart's Castle Model. It is a hand sculpted 1:24 model of the castle. The details were incredible. They said each little rooftop had around 1,000 hand placed shingles. 

We exited through the overpriced gift shop where I couldn't bring myself to pay a small fortune to buy disguising flavored jellybeans for my students (sorry kids). Don't worry they did end up with a pencil and a postcard from the trip. 

We sat in the little cafe and had a pastry and a drink while we waited for the bus to arrive. Like I said, we could have taken longer in the exhibit but better safe than sorry. Especially when you're in a foreign city!

We totally lucked out on the way home when the bus driver announced he'd be stopping at Baker St. This was MUCH closer to our hotel than going back to Victoria and a nice surprise! 

We stopped at a little Italian place on our walk back to the B&B. I don't remember the name of it. It wasn't good or bad. It WAS however STRANGE to be eating spaghetti instead of turkey and dressing. 

Instead of bringing bread to the table when you sat down, they brought flavored olives. I thought it was cool and it reminded me of my momma.

We got back to Arosfa in time for my Skype date with my family. I was slightly homesick and so excited to connect with my family! Disappointingly, we couldn't get a strong enough internet connection to Skype. My awesome little sister appeased me and melted my heart by making videos with family members and emailing them. I was able to make a quick video of Andrew and I for her to show to everyone else. God Bless technology! 

Happy as a clam to have had a little piece of family Thanksgiving, we went to bed!