Day 11 - The Royal Garden Party

Daniel and Brent’s Royal Adventure

(and)

You only live once!

Day 11 - The Royal Garden Party

The Queen hosts four garden parties every year.  The first one was held on May 15 and hosted by the Prince of Wales.  We picked the better one as it was hosted by the Queen and also attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, The Duke of York and The Earl and Countess of Wessex, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. The doors opened at 2:45pm.  We decided to arrive early by taxi at 1:45.  Was kinda cool to ask the taxi driver to take us to the front gate of Buckingham Palace.  Btw, the buck in Buckingham is pronounced 'book as in look not buck as in luck'. There were about 150 people in front of us and it was nice to chat with others in the queue. We proudly wore our Canadian Maple leaf cufflinks and tie clips. We were finally allowed in, showed our passports and walked through the main doors of the palace.  It was quite stunning with grand paintings and staircase.  We were specifically told that no photos were allowed inside the palace.   The back garden is massive.  I believe around 45 acres and beautiful. We wandered around a bit. There were two bands. We then went for tea.  These are the tea tents. At 4pm the Queen and several family members arrived and the band played God Save the Queen.  She paid tribute to Canada by wearing a Canadian made maple leaf brooch that was given to her for her 60th jubilee.  I expect this was because it was the day after Victoria Day in Canada. They then set up two 'lanes'.  These were areas set aside for the Queen and in this case, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met with selected guests.  We actually thought the guests were picked just before her arrival at the event but soon realised that they were pre-selected.   These lanes had no cordoned off areas with ropes but the guards kept everyone in line.  Our lane had the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.  Then there were the Beefeaters around The Queen with very long and sharp spears!  Not exactly sure if they were just ceremonial!! Easily my best photo of the Duchess of Cambridge The Royal family then went to the Royal tent for tea.  Selected guests were invited as well (not us). After tea was over, the Queen headed back to the palace and the event concluded at about 6pm.  Here area few photos of the Queen.  Please ignore the fascinators at the bottom of the pictures! All in all a wonderful afternoon and all that we expected.  It would've been great to meet one of the Royal family but we can say we were within 6 or 7 feet.

Day 7 - London and Come From Away

Saturday, we travelled from Newcastle back to London. We arrived at The Savoy with enough time to unpack, freshen up, change and head out to meet up with Russell and David for pre theatre drinks and eats.  The restaurant was lovely, very SoHo... which btw, we learned was a hunting call that named the area!

We had amazing sight lines from our seats at the Phoenix theatre.  Come From Away, for those who might not know the story, is about the tragedy of 9-11 and that the US closed its airspace so all flights heading to the US were diverted to Canada. In Newfoundland, the little town of Gander was one of the few airports with runway long enough to land large jets.  The little town of some 3,000 grew to 7,000 with the arrival of nearly 40 jets.

The musical tells the story and what a musical it was.  Full of energy and emotion. There was no intermission which was great as I think that would have lost the energy the play created.  Hearing the stories, seeing how the town reacted and rallied was truly a proud moment as a Canadian!

Perhaps the funniest piece was that the attendees marvelled at the Irish accents and we had to explain, nope not Irish, that’s Newfie!  Canadian and Newfoundland references abounded, Tim Hortons, Screech and kissing the cod.

This is an amazing musical and we highly recommend going to see it if you can.   

Comefromawaylondon.co.uk

Day 4 to 6, Newcastle, Wark, and Hadrian's Wall

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Newcastle is quite nice.  Not a city many tourists go to but we have friends there. Thanks Stephen for putting us up a couple of nights and so happy to reconnect with our friends Caroline and Richard.  

Wark-on-Tyne

I always considered my heritage to be mostly German with some Dutch and possibly Swiss thrown in.  We took the 23andMe DNA test and was very surprised to find a significant amount of British (along with lesser amounts of Scandinavian, Ukrainian, and a smidge of Iberian).  

I did a bit more research and discovered my last name, Warkentin, originated in Northern England in a town called Wark.  This is a picturesque little town on the River Tyne.  I’ve since learned that the full name of the town is Wark on Tyne.  I imagine an old relative headed across the North Sea and landed in Germany or Netherlands and his home town became his last name.  All in all it’s rather cool.

To celebrate my namesake town, we explored Wark and had steak and ale pie with a beer at the local pub.  Nice experience.

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian’s Wall goes back almost 2000 years.  Here’s a few pics of the ruins.  Quite amazing.  My pretty sure that this is the inspiration behind the wall in Game of Thrones. 

Durham Cathedral

Durham is a University city and has one of the most stunning cathedrals.