Nov 11, 2014

Where have I been? London! Paris! Rome!

London! Paris! Rome!

I've been slack about blogging lately and I am sorry. During June and July I was trekking ( weeel mostly rental-car-ing) said places of awesome and more. Once home, I fell sick, blah blah, bought an overlocker, busy busy, but now I'm back!

OK, enough blab, you wanna see holiday pictures. FYI I didn't realise I was travelling in Scaffolding Season, sooo many of the touristy hotspots were being repaired and cleaned...

Trevi Fountain, Rome. No water but plenty of scaffolding.

I did manage to get a few classic tourist photos, like Venice gondoliers, Big Ben, the Effiel towers, the Tardis and blurry shots of Royals.

Gondolier school in Venice

Big Ben & parliament & the London Eye. Did I mention there was some kind of 'Ride your bicycle naked' event going on?

bargain!

Harry points me out to his Granddad

As spotted in the market town of Werthby just outside York

Such fine cultural icons aside, I went travelling for one reason: Museums of Frocks.

The V&A! Be still my heart, seeing with my own eyes the Victorian dresses that I had poured over in library books. *sigh* Wish there had been more.

Victorian dresses at the V&A London


Kensington Palace had a good selection, some display on Diana's frocks, which I hurried past to get to the good stuff: Queen Victoria's outfits!

Queen Vic's riding jacket

Speaking of everyone's favourite Queenie. The Globe theatre had a stunning aray of Elizabethan style stage costumes.

Awesome theatre gear at the Globe. I have no plans to re-create this. This is strictly for experts.

Out of London, the Fashion History Musuem in Bath was a trip highlight. While the sections on each era are quite limited, overall there's a lot to see.




They even have a fun dress up portion.

Just takes a clip to get your old Vic on with plastic buckle clasps

And I think I've found a potential new historical sewing obsession: 18th century frocks! *swoon*


Genuine 18th century dress and stomacher at the Bath Fashion History Museum


If I had been in Bath in September a huge bonus would be seeing the gathering of Jane Austen fans in their Regency outfits. As it was only July, instead I went hawking. Even though there were no historical outfits involved it was THE BEST.

I've heard of hat hair, but Hawk Hat hair?
 Hmm, what have I learned about travel? Well sometimes things don't go as planned, but when they do, you get a Harris Hawk to perch on your head. Life is good!





8 comments:

  1. Wow, looks like you had some great adventures! That is wonderful! I can't wait to travel again, it has been a long time!

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    1. I sure did. I hate flying though, so although I saw and did awesome things, I really wish they'd hurry up and invent teleportation.

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  2. Some lovely times from the sounds of it, glad you enjoyed your trip and that eighteenth century gown is gorgeous!

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    1. Thank, and yes, it was stunning. So nice to see such garments have survived for so long.

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  3. Good to have you back, Kura. And... blue box! :D

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    1. Thanks, and yeah, it was outside a police station in a tiny wee market town. I was hurrying someone otherwise I would have crossed the road to inspect.

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  4. I did wonder where you were and now I know! Your photos are beautiful and how exciting to go hawking. The V&A looks amazing and I am sure that you have come back with lots of inspiration and happy memories.

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    1. Hawking was so awesome, it's one of those experiences I'm always going to cherish forever.
      The V&A was neat, I wish their clothing section was bigger! Their jewellery collection was suberb but photos were forbidden inside those rooms. I have to say we're so lucky living in the age of digital photgrpahy, and that so many museums now allow you to take photos.

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