The Mews houses all the royal carriages. There are about 7 of them on display and they are used for royal and State events, weddings, and when Parliament is opened. Here is the Australian carriage which is the newest carriage in the bunch.
The Mews also house all the state vehicles. Here is one of the Queen's limousines.
Another carriage.
Besides the carriages, the tour you go on also shows you the stables. There are 30 royal horses and the Queen has named each one. Below, you can see Sydney. The horses are usually named after places or events the Queen has participated in. I thought it was funny because the whole time I was thinking, "Mom, when was the last time you saw tile in a stall?"
Unfortunately, I saw very few horses on the tour. Actually, only 4 and they were kept far away from the public. Here is my attempt at taking a photo in the air from far away. I asked one of the many tour guides standing around about the horses. I asked if they were kept in the stables year round or if they were put out to pasture (the place was very small to keep a horse full time). The guide was very snotty and said "We don't have pastures in London!" Gee, thanks.
We also saw the harness room which was behind glass. You can see my reflection.
The best carriage by far was the Gold State Coach used for coronations. It actually weights 4 tons. Because of its weight, the coach is driven by 8 horses and has to be stopped 30 feet before its point of stopping. The tour also said that it takes about 2 days to get the coach out of the building! They have to remove one of the walls. Good thing they don't have very many coronations!
While there were some neat things on the tour, I was rather disappointed because the tour only lasted about 45 minutes and I did not really get to see any horses. After I left, I saw 2 police officers in the streets of London and laughed. And Mom, they were riding English!
2 comments:
Well that is an eye opener - Baxter wouldn't know what to do in surroundings like that! Sadly to say, not only do they not have pastures in London, but when the Queen's horses reach the point of retirement, they are not put out to pasture, they are put down. The reason being, that these horses have been pampered all their lives and wouldn't know how to function in a group environment exposed to the elements. Maybe that's not a bad thing, even though it sounds like it is. And what other kind of riding would the police officers be doing besides English!!
Oh what fun! Your photos are great. I feel like I'm there.
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