Summerside

Tags

coffee, ice cream, PEI, Summerside

Once upon a time the Town of Summerside PEI there was a military airport and training facility from 1940 to 1991. Then Government program cuts came and it all disappeared. It destroyed the economy of Summerside and created serious unemployment and business failures. The town of 15K went into a slumber and decay. The town had also suffered great fires in its core which did damage the fabric of the city in 1879 and 1880. Summerside is often described as a city of little interest.

During our staycation we discovered something quite different. Summerside has beautiful neighbourhoods and great homes far more impressive than what you see in Charlottetown. Leafy avenues and imposing brick buildings. We went to Summerside to buy ice cream at Holman’s, a family run business located in the old Holman Family Mansion across the street from City Hall. All the ice cream is freshly made on the premises, all natural ingredients and made in small batches. This is high quality ice cream and in my opinion beats in terms of taste and quality, the more commercial COWs which dominates the market in Charlottetown.

Holman Family Mansion 1855 in Summerside, PEI and its beautiful garden.

We did buy 2 litres of ice cream, chocolate and strawberry, creamy and very good.

There is also some very good coffee shops in Summerside, which also serve breakfast and lunch. One is Samuel’s where we had a coffee and a sweet, top quality, all made on premises fresh daily. There is a trend in PEI now for this type of coffee shop which offers someting different from the Corporate brand coffee shops. In Charlottetown we have Receiver Coffee and in Montague The Lucky Bean, all offer their own roasted coffee beans on premises and all food and breads are baked by them, it is a more European approach. Menu is also ever changing and has Vegan options.

Samuel’s Coffee House at 4 Queen street corner with Water street.

Summerside is on the sea and here is the famous Indian Head Lighthouse at the entrance to its harbour. I was surprised to see how far out it was in the harbour.

Summerside City Hall across from Holman’s

Also while we were visiting we stumbled upon the Wyatt House who organized an Art Exhibit of large canvas paintings on one of its residential streets.

All in all Summerside is well worth a visit, it’s a nice city.

 

 

 

 

Japanese Food

Tags

cuisine, culture, Food, Japan

I was able to travel twice to Japan and visit the country. It was the two most amazing trips I ever made. Japan is a fantastic country with a complex ancient culture. One great thing about Japan is the food culture. Food is everywhere and people love eating. This YouTube video is exactly what I saw and experienced.

I travelled a great deal by train and the train stations are a wonder to behold, why fly when train travel is a dream. The food on offer in Train Stations is incredible, not to mention all the other restaurants and the impeccable service everywhere.

Enjoy!

Kojo-no-Tsuki (荒城の月)

Tags

art., Hakone, Japan, Jazz, lalique, life, Tokyo, train

The title is Japanese and means Ancient Moon. This is a jazz piece by Koichi Sugii and is part of  Japanese Jazz and Salon Music from 1936-1941. It was very popular in Japan and even the Emperor HiroHito would request it be played by the Imperial guard, old 78 rpm exist out there for those who might like to hear it. Koichi Sugii (1906-1942) was a Japanese bandleader, composer, arranger, conductor, singer, accordionist and recording artist. He skilfully bridged Eastern and Western styles, combining American orchestral jazz with Japanese pop and Chinese folk music to create a sophisticated and melodic hybrid with broad appeal.

Sugii was born in Tokyo in 1906. His mother sang traditional Japanese music while accompanying herself on the samisen, a three-stringed instrument. An early familiarity with his country’s native folk songs later inspired Sugii to arrange these melodies in jazz settings.

Sugii took piano lessons from a Canadian teacher, and became an ardent admirer of Western classical traditions, jazz, and film music. In 1930, after graduating from Tokyo Imperial University, he was hired by the Osaka merchant shipping company, which assigned him to Buenos Aires. In Argentina the young business executive became fascinated by musical trends, especially the tango. Convinced his true interests were in music, Sugii returned to Japan in 1932 and found work composing and recording for a film studio. In 1935 he joined Sakurai Kiyoshi’s Sakurai y Su Orquesta, a Latin-influenced band which specialized in tangos.

Those years prior to the Second World War were years of great development in Japan and the wealth people enjoyed brought luxury products to Japanese markets and a fascination with Western habits. The brother of the Emperor had a complete Lalique Museum built after a visit in France where he and his wife had René Lalique’s house dismantled and rebuilt in their museum. If you visit Tokyo you can see it, fascinating.

This Art deco building built in 1933 is part of the The Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. The museum is located in Minato ward, just east of Meguro Station. The Art Deco building interiors were designed by Henri Rapin and features decorative glass work by René Lalique. It was pure delight to visit it and showed how sophisticated Japanese society is and was then.

Another spectacular area is the open air museum in Hakone outside Tokyo is easily reach by train. Japanese trains are a dream, never seen anywhere anything like it. The  open air museum presents sculptures by Henri Moore, Constantin Brancusi, Barbara Hepworth, Rokusan Ogiwara, Kotaro Nakamura and Niki de Saint Phalle, 120 works in all, the green space was well thought out with trees, and shrubbery designed to bring peace and facilitate reflection for visitors, very much in the Shinto style.

There is more and another incredible find is the Lalique museum, yes more Lalique and  Le Train café restaurant, the actual train transported from France, it was in service until 2001 and was part of the Orient Express line. I was trying to imagine how do you transport a train car from Europe to Japan. You can have tea on board with all the actual dishes and linens, absolutely exquisite, very high quality. Again the train car is decorated by Lalique panels and is exquisite in terms of luxury. Reservations are a must.

 

Palenque

Tags

Chiapas, life, mexico, Palenque

Palenque is a Mayan archeological site I visited in 1986 in the Chiapas region of Mexico. The most famous ruler of Palenque was Pacal the Great, whose tomb has been found and excavated in the 1950’s in the Temple of the Inscriptions, a magnificent site. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. AD 799. King Pacal was 80 years old when he died. His reign, and that of his son Chan-Bahlum, are credited for inspiring the exceptional beauty of Palenque’s art and architecture. The sarcophagus lid weighs as much as five tons and the sarcophagus itself weighs in excess of fifteen tons. The inscriptions are beautiful and complex and the Temple of the Inscriptions had a magical feel to it.

We drove from Mexico City, in those days you could only travel by daylight because the roads were poorly marked and had no services outside of towns. Driving outside Mexico City today is not recommended at all for security reasons. Back then the security situation was different and more peaceful, however driving at night was not recommended, in rural areas at night cattle and horses or other animals would wander unto the road and create a hazard. The drive was pleasant and we saw many nice places, had good food and much fun. Speaking Spanish opened many doors and made everything much easier. Back then tourist groups were still small and not frequent like today so visiting Palenque was pleasant and quiet. The one group we did encounter in Palenque were French, noisy and argumentative about 15 people. It seems every person in this group had a different guide book with a different version of the description of the site, it was hilarious. They were not aware we understood everything they said, it seems they were in their own little bubble. We would listen to the silliness of their talk and Will, our friends and I would mimic the tourist accents and gestures and have great fun.

However as dinner time came, we were having drinks on the terrace of the small hotel our French tourists all looked pretty agitated, one lady was in tears and one fellow looked pretty dejected while others were telling various tales of what had happened but it was complicated and did not make much sense. It turns out that the lady crying had found out by accident that her husband, the dejected looking fellow had sex in the jungle around Palenque with one of the other females in the group. Our little French group had split into various camps, one for the wronged wife, one for the husband and one for the mistress who was judged to be better looking than the wife and probably better sex. There was a lot of drama and recriminations from all parts. The Don Juan in this affair was a plain guy not worth a second look. But that was not all, a little later the tour guide arrived, he was very angry at the group. The group had accused him of dereliction of duty, in the afternoon we had continued our exploration of the ruins of Palenque, the French group had gone for a swim in a nearby waterfall and river area renowned for its natural beauty. The tour guide had told the group not to dive into the water as it was not deep and dangerous to do so, one young man had not listened and throwing caution to the wind dove in head first and from what we could understand, had died or was seriously injured or both. Some in the group wanted to call the French Consul in Mexico City to report this awful tour guide and others wanted to have him arrested on the spot. Again much drama since Palenque is in an isolated and remote area none of what was proposed by hotheads could take place. Suddenly the dead man appeared, so he was not dead after all, yes he had a big bruise on his forehead and was very pale but otherwise alive.

All this drama convinced me to never become a tour guide.

From Palenque I brought back a terra cotta head representing the ruling Prince of Palenque whose famous tomb we visited. This sculpture has travelled with me to all my posts around the world and has been in all the gardens of our various homes.

 

Pacal the Prince of Palenque, with his elaborate greased hairdo dotted with flowers and noble Mayan features. He ruled for almost 70 years.

The tomb of Pacal, his Official sculpted portrait with regalia is visible in the back and the lid lifted permanently showing his momie resting inside the sarcophagus. An interesting fact about his remains, though he was 80 yrs old when he died, his teeth have little wear on them, being a Prince he ate mostly soft boiled food which was common for Royals, thus preserving his teeth in good condition.

Pacal sitting on his Jaguar throne, his Mother presenting him with the Crown on the day he became King. The Mayans had specific features like a prominent nose and a receding forehead, crossed eyes, these features were created from early childhood and considered  desirable attributes enhancing the physical beauty of the person. 

On a rainy day

Tags

Church, Germany, Music, words

Today feels like Spring, the weather is mild and it is raining.

On one of our many visits in Germany at noon time Lutheran churches will have Music and Words, a theme for the day is presented and accompanied by music.

The churches are centuries old and very interesting architecturally and for their history.

We did this in Nuremberg a beautiful city with a great castle and churches. It is a relaxing way to spend a half hour at lunch time.

Trumpet Minuet – Alfred Hollins (1865-1942) December 27, 2019 Live recording concert St. Laurenskerk Rotterdam (the Netherlands) Marcussen-organ Organist: Gert van Hoef Assistant: Marjolein van Hoef and Jan de Rooij

Moncton N.B.

Tags

Acadians, Ballet Atlantic, British, Brunswick, Canada., genocide, Hanover, history, Maritime, Moncton

Moncton is one of the largest cities in New Brunswick (Neu Braunschweig) pop 149,000. The City is in fact three, Dieppe, Riverview and Moncton with 3 mayors and 3 municipal administrations, talk of overkill in terms of bureaucracy. A large river Petitcodiac or chocolat crosses Moncton and has daily tides or bore on which you can surf the 6 feet waves. What is surprising is the fact that the water surge comes from the Bay of Fundy quite a distance away.

The city is named after British General Robert Monckton, an aristocrat who was a soldier, colonial administrator and politician in Canada and New England and later a Member of Parliament in London. He is considered by historians as a contemptible figures of the colonial era in British North America. He and his commanding officer Governor Charles Lawrence (Nova Scotia and Massachusetts) engineered the ethnic cleansing of Acadians in 1755. His military career appears to have been about putting down rebellions in Europe, Scotland, New England and in Canada, an enforcer in other words. Other war criminals of the time and colleagues of Monckton where General Charles Cornwallis, Earl of Brome and Field Marshal Jefferey, Baron Amherst who served as Governor General of British North America from 1760. All are dubiously honoured with names of streets and towns. Though Cornwallis who founded Halifax had his statue taken down recently after much campaigning by Natives, Acadians and Scots in Nova Scotia.

The Maritime Provinces have lots of places named after towns and Princes from Hanover and Lower Saxony in today’s Germany. The reason being that the Royal Family in the UK where German Princes and King George III was also King of Hanover, a title which will be held until 1917 when King George V decided on the advice of his ministers to change the family name to a more British sounding one and abandon any claims in Germany.

So we went to Moncton on Monday, an easy 2 hours drive from Charlottetown via the Confederation Sea Bridge across the Strait of Northumberland. On the road in New Brunswick as you cross marshland and forests signs warning you to keep a look out for Moose especially at dusk and at night when these giant creatures weighing more than a ton will suddenly cross the highway. A quiet drive, a little boring, the excitement comes as you cross the 12 Km bridge over the sea, in winter it can be quite windy and there can be restrictions due to gale force winds. On the way back the wind was quite strong and I could not drive more than 60Km per hour, the limit at all times is 80 Km. Upon arriving on the Island I noticed the flashing red sign stopping all on coming traffic due to the wind, so we just made it. Usually such restrictions can last a few hours or a few days depending on the weather. It is an experience and a marvel of engineering when you see all the ice below passing under the bridge, the view is spectacular.

Moncton has a city is largely a place of work and study with 2 universities. Lots of shopping malls and a Costco. It also has a large diverse ethnic population and many West Africans live in Moncton. For shopping Moncton offers variety and choice not found in PEI, it is also a bilingual city with its large Acadian population. Acadian French has a different inflection and accent than French spoken in Quebec. I find it more melodious and with clearer pronunciation.

We went to Moncton to see Ballet Atlantic which is the ballet company of Atlantic Canada. The dancers all have a European training and the choreographer is Russian. The company was founded in 2001 and Capitol Theatre is its home.

The Capitol Theatre or Théâtre Capitol in downtown Moncton is an 800-seat, restored 1920s-era vaudeville house on Main Street that serves as the centre for cultural entertainment for the city. Designed by René-Arthur Fréchet in 1920, it was rebuilt by Fréchet in 1926 after it burned. Having been converted to a cinema early in its history, the theatre was purchased by the City of Moncton in 1991, restored to its original look commencing in 1992, and was officially reopened as a performance space in 1993. It hosts the productions of Theatre New Brunswick and The Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada, as well as symphony orchestra.

Moncton has 2 good hotels, the Marriott and the Delta both next to each other. There are lots of good restaurants, that is about it for Moncton and if you want to see art well you will have to come to Charlottetown or go to Fredericton, the Capital of the Province to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery which has a beautiful art collection and a new wing. Sir Max Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook) began planning the construction of an art gallery in New Brunswick early in the twentieth century.  After considering a number of locations, Lord Beaverbrook settled upon the city of Fredericton.  The Beaverbrook Art Gallery was gifted to the people of New Brunswick by Lord Beaverbrook and officially opened to the public on September 16, 1959.

So this was our 48 hour getaway, we went South-East, LOL! In April we hope to go to Halifax which also has a wonderful art gallery, museums, good restaurants and an IKEA.

 

Singers and Palaces

Tags

Alexander Palace, Architecture, Europe, Italy, Nicholas II, Revolution, Romanov

We went to the Pour House / Old Triangle which is a pub on Great George street in Charlottetown for the first night of Winter Jazz. The band featured well known professional musicians and singer Dylan Menzie of Belle River, PEI. Dylan has a great voice and an easy way with the audience.  I did not know about Winter Jazz, year round we go to Island Jazz but this is different, the calibre of the artists seems better. We are going again on 15 November to hear another artist, Erin Costello from Halifax.

Both Menzie and Costello have won awards for their work and are successful. Again the music scene in PEI is great.

Now on a completely different topic, I have been interested all my life by history and archeology of sites around the world. I really enjoyed our time in Rome and travelling in Italy for all the ancient site one could explore and try to understand. Near Rome next to Fiumicino Airport is the original site of the ancient Port of Ostia with its great basins and warehouses, you can see how ships arriving from Egypt with their cargo where un-loaded and re-loaded on flat bottom barges to be floated down 35 Km on the Tiber river to the City of Rome. A site few people know because it is in a isolate and wild area once part of a Princely Estate, though it is next door literally from the Airport terminal. There are many other sites, in Jordan I visited many times the Graeco-Roman city of Gerasa or Jerash as it is know today. Built by the Romans it is fascinating to see, it is said to be one of the best preserved city of the Decapolis, it is mentioned in Mark 5.1  and Luke 8.26.

The Jordanian Government with the help of international archeological experts have preserved and enhanced Jerash. You can walk its streets and understand what a great city it was in its time.

In Poland which was devastated by the Second World War, cities like Warsaw were rebuilt to recreate the buildings lost thus reviving national history. Many other countries have done the same.

With the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union,  Russia has rediscovered its past, it is no longer taboo to talk about Imperial Russia or the Tsars. In the last 30 years much has been done to restore history to its rightful place. Vladimir Putin who is from St-Petersburg has invested enormous amounts of money to restore the former Imperial Capital. We visited the city a few years ago and I would love to go back to see more of it.

It is a city of Palaces and its suburb Tsarkoye Selo (Tsar’s Village) was the private residence of the Romanovs since Peter the Great built it. It is a collection of Palaces and great Orthodox churches more splendid one from the other. The Second World War saw St-Petersburg endure a brutal siege of 900 days and more than 1 million city residents died, mostly of starvation. Much of the Palaces and gardens of Tsarkoye Selo where savagely vandalise, looted and destroyed. What you see today when you visit is extensively re-built and restored. Historical photos show the extent of the damage and it is a miracle to see it all re-born.  Some of it was rebuilt in the 1950’s but most of it has been restored in the last 25 years and some is still on-going at great expense and it involves a great deal of expert artistry. Russia appears to have an army of incredible artists who toil at recreating the past.

 

Peterhof a baroque palace built for the wife of Peter the Great by Domenico Trezzini 1714-28. The top photo shows the palace in 1944 the bottom photo shows the palace today. A miracle of restoration. We visited it and it is impressive. 

Currently the Alexander Palace built in 1792 by Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi is being refurbished. This palace was built by Catherine the Great as a gift to her grandson Alexander who would become Tsar and fight Napoleon. He is the Tsar in the novel Tolstoy, War and Peace.

Later in 1905 this palace would become a residence for the last Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their 5 children. The family lived there and not at the Winter Palace in town for security reasons. The Winter Palace was used only for Official matters, the Alexander Palace was a private residence. After the Tsar abdicated in March 1917, they lived for a time in the Palace until their arrest and deportation to Siberia, they were murdered by the Bolcheviks in July 1918 on the orders of Lenin. It was President Boris Yeltsin who gave the late Imperial Family a State Funeral and invited the senior Romanovs and others to come to St-Petersburg for the funeral in 1998. The Russian Orthodox church declared them Holy Martyrs.

After the abolition of the monarchy the Palace is then turned into a museum, but little by little all the personal artifacts belonging to the Tsar’s family is either looted by the Bolcheviks, sold off in international art markets. Some will end up in other palaces like Pavlovsk where it remains to this day.

During the Second World War the Alexander Palace is destroyed by fire and looted by the German Army. It will remain largely a ruin until the 1990’s when efforts are made to renovate and rebuild. In the last 10 years, enormous efforts have been underway to bring the Palace back to its former glory, in 2020 eight rooms will be re-opened to the public and by 2022 it is hoped that the entire palace can be completed. It will be a permanent Memorial to the Family of Nicholas II since it was their family home.

The left side of the Palace were the apartments of the Tsarina and her 5 children, the right side of the building was reserved for the Tsar. The palace itself is surrounded by enormous gardens with all manner of features, like a play house for the children, bridges over ponds, a hunting lodge for the Tsar and fantastical constructions to amuse and decorate the gardens.

The Romanovs employed both Italian architects and French garden designers, Charles Cameron a Scot was hired by Catherine the Great as her personal architect. She loved Roman antiquities and the neo-classical style.

Needless to say the restoration of these palaces is a great asset in promoting tourism and the Russian State and the regional authorities in St-Petersburg have done a lot to ensure that the memory of the Romanov are kept alive.

Here are some photos of the work done so far. Remember that the Alexander Palace was in a very poor state.

The Maple room in 1945 used by the Tsarina as a living room.

The Mountain Hall in 1946 with Soviet Officials posing.

Another room in 1946, the tiles around the ruins of the fireplace are a deep greenish blue glaze.

Second floor rooms waiting restoration. Structural work has already been done.

The Maple room in 1920 some decorative elements have already disappeared, most of the large plants are gone. Much worse was to come. This room is under complete re-construction now since the war devastated the palace.

Some elements were saved by the Communist Curators of the Palace before the arrival of the German army in 1941.

Some pieces of furniture did survive, because they were taken away before the war. This lapis-lazuli console table has been returned to the Palace.

Original furniture and tiger skin rug which also survived, easier to move smaller objects in an evacuation. Now returned to the Palace.

The Turkish Bath of the Tsar just completed with a large pool. This room had to be totally re-built and the tiles recreated from fragments found on the premises. Many photos of the era also helped.

The study of the Tsar another room just completed in the renovations.

The Maple room undergoing a complete reconstruction, this included recreating the delicate plaster work of guirlandes of flowers in an art nouveau style.

The great library getting a new floor which will be an exact copy of the original.

Ornate ceiling recreated.

This work at the Alexander Palace has been on-going for 8 years now. I cannot help thinking that once it is completed it will remain a very sad place knowing the fate of this inhabitants in 1917. Somewhat like the Miramar Palace in Trieste, once the home of Maximilian of Hapsburg and his wife Charlotte, before they accepted to move to Mexico at the invitation of Napoleon III to rule that country until Maximilian was executed by Mexican revolutionaries in 1867. His wife Empress Charlotte of Belgium returned to Europe but suffered a life of mental illness, living in seclusion and dying in 1927, quickly forgotten by her royal relatives in Austria, Belgium and Britain.

 

 

 

 

A view

Tags

baroque, Berlin, City Palace, Frederick II, Humboldt Forum

One of the great avenues of the world, Unter den Linden (under the linden tree), love walking down this avenue from the Brandenburg Gate to the Island where all the museums and City Palace is located. The avenue is lined with palaces, a University, Opera house, Embassies and 5 star Hotels.

A lot of work has been done since 1989 on the avenue. Including re-installing the old street light designed in the late 19th century at a cost of 60,000 Euros per . Here we see the equestrian statue of Frederick II The Great riding down the avenue. Originally this avenue was the ceremonial street starting at the Gate and ending at the Palace. It was also used to ride into the hunting grounds of the King of Prussia just beyond the Gate in the Tiergarten (520 acres) the best loved park of the city. The pink building in the photo was built by Frederick II it’s the StaatsOpern Berlin built in 1741 and completely restored in the last 5 years. Baroque building of the era usually have soft colors of pink or yellow. Interiors are painted in the favourite colours of Frederick II and used during his reign, green and gold, white and gold or black and gold. Those same colours found their way into his regimental flags. Frederick II is ever present in the centre of the City, he build and designed the whole area during his reign from 1740-1786.

the re-construction of the City Palace will be finished by the end of the year. It will house a museum, library, meetings rooms, conference halls, a restaurant and is now called the Humboldt Forum. A new subway station is also in the final stages behind those barricades.

One of the portals on the North Side of the Palace. Re-built with all of its baroque details.

the dome of the chapel with men working at preparing the footings to receive the Lantern decorated with angels which will be installed shortly once the dome’s covering in copper is completed.

Sketch of the Lantern atop the dome,

Interior portal in one of the interior court. The cartouche F R is for Fredericus Rex.

All the details and figurines you seen are giant and sculpted in sandstone as were the originals.

I hope to return to Berlin for a visit in 2021.

 

 

 

 

Part II London UK

Tags

George II, Germany, Hanover, Hanoverian dynasty, Kensington Palace, London, Peter Pan, Queen Victoria

After our visit to the Victoria exhibit, we re-entered the hall of the Palace and walked up the King’s Staircase to the Royal apartments under the Hanoverian Dynasty. Which started 1714 to 1837.  With the death of Queen Anne having no heir the House of Stuart ended. George I of Hanover was the closest relative, 52sd in line to the Throne eligible to succeed in England because he was a Protestant Prince and the Act of Settlement stipulated that you had to be Protestant to be King. His successor was his only son George II also born in Hanover, however unlike his father, he spoke English.

When he ascended the throne he shared his father’s problem of having to fend off opposition from Jacobite supporters, with 1745 seeing ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ raise a strong army of rebellion in Scotland. This was famously crushed the following year in the notoriously bloody Battle of Culloden Moor. We got General Cornwallis, safe to say that by today’s standard, Cornwallis was a war criminal, he is infamous amongst Scots and also in Canada, despite being the founder of Halifax.

During George II’s later years he showed little interest in politics but he did involve Britain in the Seven Years War, which saw many European countries rise up against one another. In Canada, this war produce the deportation of the Acadians and the fall of New France in 1763. His reign also saw the foundation of the Industrial Revolution. After thirty-three years on the throne, he died while on the toilet and was buried at Westminster Abbey. As his eldest son Frederick had died of an abscess, the heir became the King’s grandson, George III.

The people you see in these Italian Renaissance style paintings are Courtiers of George I.

The King’s Staircase which is decorated in the Italian style and illuminated by these glass boxes in which candles were placed.

Music of Georg F. Handel played in the background, it really made our visit atmospheric.

King George II was married to Caroline Princess of Brandenburg-Ansbach, they had a happy marriage but she died young of bowel obstruction. They loved parties and Kensington Palace was party central for the Aristocracy.  We saw card games displayed which at the time were very popular. People also put wagers on who might win. Dancing and music was another pastime and Georg F. Handel was the favourite composer of the King.

The Game of Court, somewhat like modern Monopoly. Some of the rules below.

Kensington Palace belongs to Queen Elizabeth II and is a Royal Palace, London home to William, Duke of Cambridge and his wife Kate and their children. Many other Royals live in the Palace, that portion is not open to the public.

What we visited are known as the King’s State Apartments and decorated in the fashion of the time 1727-1760. Queen Anne lived here and at Hampton Court. Queen Victoria was the last Sovereign to live at the Palace, she moved in 1837 to Buckingham Palace.

The window treatment here in the King’s Gallery recalls Government House in Charlottetown.

Here is Will with the statue of William III of Orange who was Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the 1670s and King of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1689 until his death in 1702, co-reigning with his wife, Queen Mary II, they were the first monarchs to live at Kensington Palace in 1689. The building at the back on the left is the portion where members of the Royal family live today.

Back in the 1600’s prior to the purchase of the house and land by the Crown, it was known as Nottingham House. What we see today is the modified and enlarged building made by William and Mary, Queen Anne and George II and Queen Caroline. Today several apartments are allocated by H.M. the Queen to members of her family. The apartments vary greatly in size depending on rank within the Royal family. Per example when Prince Harry was single he had a small 2 bedroom apartment whereas his brother William being Heir to the Throne had a far larger apartment. Nowadays he has a 21 room apartment. Once his father Prince Charles becomes King, at that point William, Kate and the children will probably be moved to their own palace.

Part of the gardens in the orangerie, that day gardeners were busy putting the garden to sleep for Winter. Queen Anne created this space.

Apartment flats in the area, neo-classical architecture. Will told me that Mr. Darling’s, Wendy and the family in the book of James Barrie, Peter Pan, lived in this neighbourhood on the border with Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Note the palm trees.

In the book not the play, the Fairies find baby Peter Pan in Kensington gardens after he has fallen from his pram.

The Italian Gardens within Hyde Park built on the orders of Prince Albert as a gift for his wife Victoria in 1860.

So with this last day we returned to Canada. From Paddington Station to Heathrow airport the Express train takes only 12 minutes. Flying to Montreal.

Final leg, London,UK

Tags

Kensington Palace, London, St-Pancras station, Victoria, William IV

London with Brexit is now referred to as Dailymailistan. Today 14 October the look on the face of the Queen in Parliament and of Prince Charles said volumes, she has been humiliated by this thug Boris J. and his incompetent government. Despite the Speech from the Throne there is NO guarantee anything will happen. The whole thing is a huge farce. It also opens the door to questions of the relevance of the Monarchy, if the Prime Minister can lie to the Sovereign and get away with it. But I digress

So on our final leg of our European trip we arrived from Amsterdam by Eurostar train at St-Pancras Station in London. It is truly a marvel of architecture of the 19th century and has been completely restored. I really like it as a Train Station, it is the one referred to in Harry Potter.

In London there is a great choice of Hotels and Air B&B but the problem is the price, not that Amsterdam is any more affordable. We did find a great place to stay in a Pub. Yes a British Pub. The company is called www.pubandrooms.com  they have 4 establishments in Central London and at $192 CDN dollars simply great.

The Hayden Pub and rooms on 65 Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, London

We were tired at this point and London was just a short stop of 2 days, so we simply decided to walk around. We did not see JP and Guido of itsmyhusbandandme on WordPress.  Unfortunate because we would have liked to met them.

We strolled around and went to see two exhibits at Kensington Palace, one on the Hanoverian Dynasty, George I and George II and Queen Caroline very interesting and funny. The second one was on Queen Victoria who was celebrating her 200th Birthday in September. She was born at Kensington Palace, grew up there and this is where it was announced to her early one morning that she was now  Queen. The rooms have been preserved and it was interesting to see. What I did not know was that Victoria was only 4.5 feet tall, she had 9 children which caused her a serious hernia which affected her after 1863 until her death in 1901, causing her to become morbidly fat, not being able to walk properly and depression. The exhibits had her dresses and many personal artifacts.

Her parents bedroom where she was born in 1819 and her crib. Her parents were Prince Edward, one of the sons of King George III and her mother was German, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, later Duchess of Kent and Strathearn.

Here is a dress Victoria wore at age 31, (1850) notice how the left arm is smaller and shorter than the right, a deformity hidden from the public.

Here is the room on the ground floor at Kensington Palace with the table were Princess Victoria sitting at the top was told by the Prime Minister and with all the other Court Officials in attendance that her uncle King William IV had died in the night and now she was Queen. The display on the table recreates the situation of that early morning announcement in this very room. She was 18 years old.

H.M. King William IV, son of King George III and uncle to Victoria. Government House on Fanningbank Estate in Charlottetown PEI was built under his reign.

In part two, I will complete the story of our visit to the Palace.