(Almost) Run Over by a Prince (Maybe)

My friend D & I are taking a short sabbatical from our self-directed London's Greatest Shopping Tour. I think the holidays took it out of us. The stress of trying to find what you need when you are new in a country was sometimes overwhelming and I don't think we have it in us to brave the shopping areas for a little bit, like maybe a week or two.

So we have decided to partake in some educational interests. There are museums and points of historical interest galore in London. Yesterday we went to Apsley House. Apsley House is most well known for being the home of the 1st Duke of Wellington, who is most well known in Europe for defeating Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 and most well known in America for the pastry covered beef dish named in his honor, Beef Wellington. The house sits at the edge of Hyde Park and is owned now by the English Heritage Trust but the family still maintains apartments there.

The house is just chock full of paintings, sculptures, silver, china etc. Apparently when you conquer an emperor, people just line up to give you things. There are portraits of every ruler of Europe of the time which were sent to Wellington in appreciation. Remember no photographs at that time, you couldn't just send him an 8 X 10 glossy with an inscription, "Thanks for saving our bacon, love Ferdinand." The thank you gifts just kept on coming. Shortly after taking Spain, Napoleon placed his brother Joseph on the throne there. Wellington and his multinational troops came rushing in and after a half-hearted attempt to stop them, Joseph left taking with him loads of looted goods from Spain, paintings, tapestries etc. Wellington's troops waylaid the caravan and although Joseph managed to escape, quite a bit of the artwork was recovered. Wellington sent word to the Spanish king and asked, basically, "What should I do with all this stuff?". The answer came back a short year later, "Oh go ahead, you keep it. It is the least we can do." So he did, artwork by Goya, Rubens, other masters. We saw a china set from Prussia, where each piece of china memorialized a victory by Wellington. In the basement, there is Wellington's death mask, as well a copy of Napoleon's death mask which was given to Wellington, and a lock of Wellington's hair cut from his head the night he died and placed in clear locket. Strange, but for those of you who know me, I like the macabre a bit.

When we came out of the house, it was raining pretty hard. D broke the primary rule of living in London (#1 - Carry an umbrella at all times). They didn't carry any umbrellas at Apsley House but they told us they did across the street at Wellington Arch (named for guess who?). We dashed across the street to this monument and went into the gift shop. While D was purchasing the umbrella, we heard a series of sharp whistles. The shop clerk told us that someone important was going to drive through the arch, so we needed to wait inside the doorway so we wouldn't get run over. This is not a thoroughfare but apparently when VIPs, usually royal family or important members of Parliament (i.e. Tony Blair) needed to cut through this roundabout they used the Arch as a shortcut. So when the motorcade comes close to the Arch, the police motorcycle shoots ahead and uses a whistle to alert the shop that they are coming through. The motorcade came through with several police motorcycles leading the way, a Range Rover, a Bentley (I think) and then a sedan, followed up by several more motorcycle police. They came through very fast and I couldn't tell who was in the car but the clerks thought it was Prince Charles. It took all of 5 seconds. At the speed they went through that Arch, if you inadvertently stepped in front of the motorcade you would have been smashed to smithereens. I wonder if the Royals have insurance for that - Arch mishaps.

One more interesting side note, at least interesting to me and this is my blog!! I couldn't remember which Napoleon was put on the throne in Spain, although I thought it was Joseph. So I did some research on the internet. I found out something interesting - another personal connection. After his family was persona non grata in France and basically most of Europe,Joseph Bonaparte snuck into the United States under the name Count de Survilliers. Subtle huh? Where did he land? Bordentown, New Jersey. Why is that interesting? Because I was born in Bordentown New Jersey! Well actually I was born at Fort Dix, New Jersey but my parents lived in Bordentown. Fascinating huh? Now he didn't stick around there, he only stayed for about 17 years and he ended up dying in Florence Italy. But it just goes to show you if you want to call yourself a world traveller, citizen of the world, bon vivant, dethroned despot, all roads lead through Bordentown, New Jersey.