Anyways Matt, Me, and a couple of my girlfriends from my last job, Shauna, Jade and Sam made an afternoon of the summer opening of the Palace. We arrived via St James Park and walked along to the gates at the side of the palace.
We were then, checked, herded and screened via security, de-phoned and de-cameraed (not physically, but the threat was there), before being hustled and bustled through to be plugged up to enable us progress silently with our own little audio guides through the staterooms of the glorious palace.
Glorious indeed, such a well maintained palace, and it has to be, as bits of it seem to fall off quite randomly it seems, with a piece of the roof to have apparently nearly hit Princess Anne not that long ago. Its very sparkly and very detailed, and gold, gold and more gold.
My favourite room was not the banquet hall done up to within an inch of its life for a state banquet (also where Jade got most publicly berated when her mobile - oh the shame - went off), but the gallery. The gallery was a purpose built room for George IV to house all his paintings, and it is very revered as it has paintings by Rembrandt, Holbein, Rubens and even a painting by my much favoured Johannes Vermeer - The Music Lesson. The music room was also a favourite, as it had the most beautifully decorated ceiling.
Following on from that would be the life sized statue at the bottom (pun intended) of the Ministers staircase, of Mars & Venus (by Antonia Canova)whereby Mars has a very nice bottom indeed...hehhe
I have included a few photos of the Palace, well the outside anyway, as per the standard... no photos allowed.
Me, with Jade, Sam & Shauna
The Palace verhanda...needs a better roof though...
The garden, not a Hills hoist to be seen
The back of the Palace
Gorgeous tree in the garden
View from behind the pond back to the house
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