Impressive, but a Little Excessive

So last weekend we made a visit to Buckingham Palace. It is only open for 2 months of the summer when the queen is in Scotland, so we thought we'd better get over there first thing. We did the full tour, which included a small art gallery, the mews (stables, coachhouse, and garage), and then a walk through the state rooms, including the throne room and the banquet hall set up for a state dinner (these were the ones worth mentioning).

Overall, it was pretty impressive. If I've been a good blogger, there is a link to some pictures that we took. If they aren't there as you read, its because we've been too lazy to upload them, so come back later and they'll eventually be up. They don't allow photos in the palace, so they will be a little limited. Everything in there was very ornate and grand - I guess what you'd expect from a palace. It takes them 2 days to set the 200 seat table for a banquet, partly because the 6 glasses per person has to be the exact right distance from the plate, silverware, etc. Yes, there are 6 glasses per person - champagne toast, water, white wine, red wine, dessert champagne, and port. All are the exact same size, but you wouldn't want to mix your water with the remnants from the champagne toast, of course.

Also of note - there are 240 bedrooms but only 78 bathrooms. I wonder who shares? Wouldn't it be pretty weird to be walking down the hallway in your towel after a shower, and whoops! there's the queen?!

Somewhere between the table and the 6 reception rooms (that we saw) and the 4 royal coaches (that we saw), I started to think that maybe it was too much. I'd really like to know what these people do, other than of course get born to the right family. The PM and the parliament run the country, so the royal family literally has no purpose other than to attend events and make appearances. It amazes me that the citizens here are okay with funding all of this. Granted, the buildings have been around for a while, but the upkeep has to be ridiculous. There is one department whose entire job is refurbishing the royal coaches that (maybe) get used one time per year. It takes a full year to do one coach, so there is just a rotation. I guess you'd say that at least they're creating jobs?

There are something like 6 royal palaces throughout the country that are at the disposal of the royal family, so the taxpayers here have to pay to keep them looking good on the off chance that Harry might need a place to sleep it off. Crazy. And all the while, there are about 3 homeless guys sitting outside the closest Tube station, and all I can think about now is the fact that I paid about $60 to look at all of these empty rooms while they are sleeping on the sidewalk.