Buckingham Palace

Andy and I played tourists this week and decided to visit the Palace and see the latest exhibition of Diamonds and the royal gardens.

I could not believe Andy has never done this before and we were fortunate to get the whole experience by seeing the Changing of the Guard.

Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms!!!! These include 19 State rooms, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms. We managed to see about 12 of the State Rooms and were extremely impressed.  Some of the more opulent rooms were designed by John Nash in 1825 to 1830 who apparently went three times over budget and was then promptly fired. Could not help but appreciate his spending though and makes my minor Hobbs investments this week look minimal.

Really enjoyed an audio tour and got to see some spectacular paintings as well as part of the Queens Diamond collection, including the small crown often worn by Queen Victoria.

On completion of our tour we went outside to enjoy coffee and cake and as chance would have it, we walked through the gardens and happened to stumble upon a Giant Puffball.....

All that was standing between Andy and this prize was this fella......we went home empty handed!