Jolly Old England

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Palaces

I toured two royal palaces today. It was a grand old time. I took some pictures outdoors, but photos inside were strictly prohibited. I imagine it's because of the idea that the flashes could damage paintings and such, and people are too dumb to know how to turn off their flash.

There was fairly tight security at the first one (Windsor).... metal detectors and all. I wasn't expecting it. It made some sense after the fact, when the staff member from the study abroad company pointed out that the royal standard was flying over the castle. (The royal standard would be a flag with the royal coat of arms on it.) Thus, he reasoned that the Queen was actually in residence at that palace today.

I went through a hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace. It's the first one constructed in Britain, a very long time ago. I wasn't very impressed. It was fairly small.

There was a massive pool. I have three pictures. The first is just normal. The second is zoomed in as far as my camera will go (with optical zoom). The third is as far as I could get with digital zoom. Anyway, the water is only a few feet (maybe 3 to 5) deep, but that's still a lot of water!

Windsor Palace pictures are available here.

Hampton Court Palace pictures are available here.

I took one picture in London. It's available here.