I never met the Queen of course but one day in 2008 I attended a Buckingham Palace Garden Party. What a day to remember that was…
Posted in History, Literature, Royal Garden Party, Travel, United Kingdom
Tagged Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II, Royal Garden Party
Always, at this time of the year I spend some time looking at my statistics. This year I have been looking back over eleven years to find my Top Five most visited posts…
Number 5 – Catalonia, Barcelona and Antoni Gaudi
First posted – August 2013
Total visits – 16,792
Best Year – 2015, 8,717 visits
Consistently recording hundreds of visits each year
2020 – 194 visits
Number 4 – Sorrento – Vesuvius, Living on the Edge of Danger
First posted – April 2010 in a series about a holiday to Sorrento
Total visits – 18,183
Best Year – 2013, 4,213 visits
A very steady performer and always in my annual Top 10
2020 – 376 visits
Number 3 – Krakow, Wieliczka Salt Mine
First posted – April 2010
Total visits – 18,287
Best Year – 2013, 5,016 visits
Did well for 4 years followed by a steady decline
2020 – 18 visits
I feel a repost coming on.
Number 2 – Royal Garden Party
First posted – June 2009
Total visits – 23.010
Best Year – 2015, 5,871 visits
Year after year, has always done well, especially in May when Palace invites go out.
2020 – 212 visits
Number 1 – Haugesund and The Vikings
First posted – March 2011
Total visits – 24,710
Best Year – 2012, 14,773 visits
It took me a while to understand this but then I found out that people in USA were searching for Minnesota Vikings Football and being directed to my post. Google put that right and the visits bombed immediately.
2020 – 9 visits
Thanks everyone for reading and Have a Happy New Year.
This is my story of the day that I went to Buckingham Palace to visit the Queen. I first posted it in June 2009 and since then it has become my second most visited blog with almost 21,000 visits.
I have got a different following circle now so I thought it worth posting a link to the story just in case any one is interested…
Posted in Europe, Food, History, Literature, Travel, United Kingdom, World Heritage
Tagged Apply to attend Royal Garden Party, Buckingham Palace, Buckingham Palace Dress Code, Buckingham Palace Postcard, Garden Party Dress Code, Left Bags at Buckingham Palace, Left Bags at Royal Garden Party, Queen Elizabeth II, Royal Garden Party, Royal Garden Party Application, Royal Garden Party Dress Code, Royal Garden Party Hats, Royal Garden Party How To Get an invite, Royal Garden Party Invitation, Royal Garden Party what To Wear, Royal Tea Party
Now and again I look back over my posts to review what has been going on. One of the things that I like to do is to take a look at the search questions that seem to bring web-surfers by the site and take a look at some of the more bizarre and unusual.
One of my most successful posts is about the day I attended a Buckingham Palace Garden Party and I get lots of odd Google referrals about this one. So far this year my favourites just have to be:
I have to say that this is a really easy one to answer – it will be diplomats! At the Garden Party there are a range of tents all arranged in an appropriate hierarchical order. At the bottom are the common tents for people like me and you. Then there are tents for important people like the Prime Minister and his guests and then tents for foreign diplomats and at the very top are lavish affairs for visiting royalty who just might happen to drop in!
…and I have to say that I am fairly certain that the Queen of England is not so short of cash that she needs to hire her back garden out for a corporate event.
But my favourite this time is…
A garden party is a formal affair where guests where their very best clothes. The day that I went there were gentlemen in tails and top hats, women in floral dresses and elaborate hats and it reminded me of a scene from a nineteenth century painting of a sophisticated social event. And there were so many military uniforms that it was almost like being in an episode of Foyle’s War!
Surely I do not have to explain that a garden party at Buckingham Palace is not a fancy dress party but then again perhaps someone should have advised Prince Harry when he thought it was amusing to attend a society party dressed as a Nazi!
I also get a lot of referrals from questions about behaviour – here are a couple of tips about not what to do…
Next I have some rather bizarre geography questions:
And the answer is no, it is in Southern Europe and hopefully my post about Benidorm helped to correct this misconception.
Actually it is in neither, it is in Switzerland. It is a boring place, hardly worth visiting but I went there once in 2008 and stayed overnight near the capital Vaduz. I have to say that I am not surprised that anyone may not know exactly where Liechtenstein is because it is an instantly forgettable place which I once included in my list of disappointing places to visit.
“It occurred to me that there is no reason to go to Liechtenstein except to say that you have been there. If it were simply part of Switzerland… nobody would dream of visiting it” – Bill Bryson, ‘Neither here Nor there’
What a wonderfully stupid question. It is like asking where is USA next to Texas? Where is Canada next to Calgary? Or where is Australia next to Melbourne?
Actually, Italy was the first European country that I ever visited when I travelled to Sorrento in 1976!
Mine is not a food blog but I am always happy to help out with culinary questions whenever I can and I like this one… should I put vinegar on the chips or not?
I include this one even though I do not find this not such a stupid question. What you should put on your chips is a matter of personal choice and a subject that I debated quite recently when I considered the origin of frites.
Staying with the food theme I am going to finish this current round up of bizarre search questions with my favourite so far this year:
What was General Franco’s favourite food?
I am sure that this is a question that only his personal chef could realistically be expected to answer with any authority but my suggestions are…
Some time ago I tried to visit General Franco’s tomb but the Spanish don’t like Franco any more and it was closed at the time on account of the fact that it was being demolished.
When General Franco met Führer Adolf Hitler I can only assume that either they couldn’t agree on the menu or they were both on a diet…
Thanks for reading and I will do another round up when I have enough material…
… Have you spotted any bizarre search questions bringing unexpected visitors to your blog posts? – Do Tell!
Posted in Childhood, Europe, Food, History, Italy, Literature, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Benidorm, Buckingham Palace, Fish and Chips, Francisco Franco, Liechtenstein, Prince Harry, Royal Garden Party, Sorrento, Vaduz
Around about this time of year a lot of people are receiving invitations to attend a Royal Garden Party at either Buckingham Palace in London or Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh and this always leads to renewed interest in my post about the time I was lucky enough to be invited.
After Vikings and the Krakow, Wieliczka Salt Mine the post is my third most visited with fifteen thousand hits Most people reading the post arrive there by way of Google with simple search questions like ‘Royal Garden Party’, ‘how to get an invite to a Royal Garden Party’, ‘Dress code at a Royal Garden Party’, etc. etc.
Some of them however really make me giggle! This one for example: ‘Buckingham Palace Garden Party, where to get changed?’ I think it is good enough of the Queen to invite people to trample all over her back lawn without expecting her to provide changing facilities as well, can you imagine the queue of people trying to get into Her Majesty’s en-suite! And then there is this one – “do people travel in the clothes they wear to royal garden party?”
The answer is simple, if you are staying in a hotel overnight then get changed around about midday and then get a taxi to the Palace but if you are travelling there on the day then I am afraid you will have to go in your finery and take appropriate abuse from teenagers and beggars on the Underground!
I rather liked this one recently – “how can I go to her majeztrys garden party” and I can only guess that this is from somebody from Poland where they don’t have a Royal family any more.
I also found this one amusing – “is there somewhere for guests to sit down at royal garden parties?” . Well, there is the throne room of course but it is unlikely that any one will get that opportunity – but of course there is somewhere to sit down, the Queen as more garden furniture than Home Depot, the Home Hardware Stores or B&Q.
What about this one – “bakingham palace London garden party invite” – presumably the enquirer thinks this is where they film the TV series – “The Great British Bake Off”!
Just as last year I have spotted a couple of search questions relating to the weather. The first is “what do people wear for the royal garden party when it is raining” which is a question that if you have to ask means that you shouldn’t really be going but I will continue to try and be helpful and suggest a smart raincoat or mackintosh, a sensible hat and appropriate shoes but however bad the weather is don’t expect to be allowed inside in a North Face kagool or a sou’wester and a pair of wellington boots!
My favourite still remains: ‘If raining does Royal Garden Party move indoors?’ which has to be one of the dumbest search questions that I have ever fallen off my chair laughing at.
There are 8,000 guests at a Royal Garden Party and although the Palace is huge (77,000 square metres) I am fairly certain that the Queen wouldn’t want 8,000 damp people in muddy shoes and wet clothes wandering around over the royal carpets, pilfering the treasures and helping themselves to the gin! I cannot get this vision out of my head of the Queen making an announcement from the back door, ‘oh do please come inside all of you, you’ll catch your death of cold out there’ or perhaps the more direct Prince Philip, ‘Don’t stand out there getting wet you silly buggers, bloody well come inside!’
Bad weather at a Royal Garden Party isn’t unusual however and there have been washouts in 1931, 1937, 1944, 2000 and 2009. In 1996 a bolt of lightning hit the garden and two people were burnt and injured. And it isn’t just rain that can spoil the day because in 1958 there was a heat wave and it was so hot that several guests collapsed with heat stroke and had to be treated in hospital. There was no such thing as sun protection cream in 1958!
Around about this time of year a lot of people are receiving invitations to attend a Royal Garden Party at either Buckingham Palace in London or Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh* and this always leads to renewed interest in my post about the time I was lucky enough to be invited.
The post is my third most visited with ten thousand, five hundred hits. Most people reading the post arrive there by way of Google with simple search questions like ‘Royal Garden Party’, ‘how to get an invite to a Royal Garden Party’, ‘Dress code at a Royal Garden Party’, etc. etc.
Some of them however really make me giggle! This one for example: ‘Buckingham Palace Garden Party, where to get changed?’ I think it is good enough of the Queen to invite people to trample all over her back lawn without expecting her to provide changing facilities as well, can you imagine the queue of people trying to get into Her Majesty’s en-suite! The answer is simple, if you are staying in a hotel overnight then get changed around about midday and then get a taxi to the Palace but if you are travelling there on the day then I’m afraid you will have to go in your finery and take appropriate abuse from teenagers and beggars on the Underground!
This year I have spotted a couple of search questions relating to the weather. The first is ‘rainwear for Buckingham Palace Garden Parties?’ which is a question that if you have to ask means that you shouldn’t really be going but I will continue to try and be helpful and suggest a smart raincoat or mackintosh, a sensible hat and appropriate shoes but however bad the weather is don’t expect to be allowed inside in a North Face kagool or a sou’wester and a pair of wellington boots!
My favourite for this year (so far) however is this: ‘If raining does Royal Garden Party move indoors?’ which has to be one of the dumbest search questions that I have ever fallen off my chair laughing at.
There are 8,000 guests at a Royal Garden Party and although the Palace is huge (77,000 square metres) I am fairly certain that the Queen wouldn’t want 8,000 damp people in muddy shoes and wet clothes wandering around over the royal carpets, pilfering the treasures and helping themselves to the gin! I cannot get this vision out of my head of the Queen making an announcement from the back door, ‘oh do please come inside all of you, you’ll catch your death of cold out there’ or perhaps the more direct Prince Phillip, ‘Don’t stand out there getting wet you silly buggers, bloody well come inside!’
Bad weather at a Royal Garden Party isn’t unusual however and there have been washouts in 1931, 1937, 1944, 2000 and 2009. In 1996 a bolt of lightning hit the garden and two people were burnt and injured. And it isn’t just rain that can spoil the day because in 1958 there was a heat wave and it was so hot that several guests collapsed with heat stroke and had to be treated in hospital. There was no such thing as sun protection cream in 1958!
* Holyrood Palace remains for now the official residence of the Queen in Scotland but I suspect if Alex Salmond gets his own way in September in the independence referendum he’ll be looking to move in there himself while the obnoxious Nicola Sturgeon will no doubt be thinking about Balmoral!
A Letter from the Palace…
One day I returned home from work to find a very posh envelope among the usual bills and letters that had been delivered that morning. It was very classy indeed, ivory white with a smooth velour texture and certainly of a much higher quality than I am generally used to receiving.
On the front were the words the ‘Office of the Lord Chamberlain’ and the printed franking machine mark in the top right hand corner said ‘Buckingham Palace, London’.
Now, I don’t receive mail from Buckingham Palace everyday so I was naturally intrigued.
Inside the envelope there was even more special stationery and an expensive invitation card from the Lord Chamberlain himself stating that he has been commanded by her Majesty to invite me and a guest to a Royal tea party at the Palace.
Commanded no less!
The Royal Garden Party:
One day in May I returned home from work to find a very posh envelope amongst the bills and circulars that had been delivered that morning. It was very classy indeed, ivory white with a smooth velour texture and certainly of a much higher quality than I am generally used to receiving. On the front were the words the ‘Office of the Lord Chamberlain’ and the printed franking machine mark in the top right hand corner said ‘Buckingham Palace, London’.
Now, I don’t receive mail from Buckingham Palace everyday so I was naturally intrigued.
One day in May I returned home from work to find a very posh envelope amongst the bills and circulars that had been delivered that morning. It was very classy indeed, ivory white with a smooth velour texture and certainly of a much higher quality than I am generally used to receiving. On the front were the words the ‘Office of the Lord Chamberlain’ and the printed franking machine mark in the top right hand corner said ‘Buckingham Palace, London’. Now, I don’t receive mail from Buckingham Palace everyday so I was naturally intrigued.
I didn’t get an invite to the Royal Garden party this year because no one is supposed to get a second one. It was lucky for me that I went last year because this year the first party of the year was severely disrupted by rain.
Someone I know went and he told me that it didn’t really spoil the day because he had already eaten his plate of fourteen sandwiches and cakes that the royal kitchen estimates that each guest consumes and he had seen the Queen by the time the bad weather moved in and he was forced to shelter under one of the large trees in the Palace garden.
He also conceded however that it would have been better without the drenching.
The Queen’s eight thousand guests, most of whom had dressed for warmer weather in fine hats and summer frocks, had to dash for shelter when the summer tea party was hit by torrential downpours. Half an inch of rain fell in just ten minutes and in all three inches fell in the storm that hit London in the late afternoon. Hail stones, some almost half an inch wide, left the lawns of the royal residence white with ice and some of the visitors had to be carried from the garden over huge puddles that formed on the gravel paths.
Luckily, Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh had completed their walkabout before the early evening downpour and managed to stay dry but as lightning approached, staff decided to evacuate the Queen and the royal party, which included the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of York and the Duke of Gloucester, back to the safety of the Palace
Bad weather isn’t unusual however and there have been previous washouts in 1931, 1937, 1944 and 2000. In 1996 a bolt of lightning hit the garden and two people were burnt and injured. And it isn’t just rain that can spoil the day because in 1958 there was a heat wave and it was so hot that several guests collapsed with heat stroke and had to be treated in hospital. There was no sun protection cream in 1958!
I am afraid that there is not much one can do about bad weather and if it rains then I am afraid that guests are just going to get wet. There is a pavilion tent for the Queen and her family and a large tent where the sandwiches are served but there is not nearly enough room in there for everyone.
There are 8,000 guests at a Royal Garden Party and although the Palace is huge (77,000 square metres) I am fairly certain that the Queen wouldn’t want 8,000 damp people in muddy shoes and wet clothes wandering around over the royal carpets, pilfering the treasures and helping themselves to the gin! I cannot get this vision out of my head of the Queen making an announcement from the back door, ‘oh do please come inside all of you, you’ll catch your death of cold out there’ or perhaps the more direct Prince Philip, ‘Don’t stand out there getting wet you silly buggers, bloody well come inside!’
Posted in Europe, History, Travel, United Kingdom, World Heritage
Tagged Buckingham Palace, Cameras Royal Garden Party, Garden Party Dress Code, Queen Elizabeth, Rain at Royal Garden Party, Royal Family, Royal Garden Party, Royal Garden Party what To Wear, What happens if it rains at Royal Garden Party
Have Bag, Will Travel 