Queen Elizabeth 11 - Her Life in Style

Early start to be at The King’s Gallery for an early booking for this exhibition. We were early so did a walk around Buckingham Palace.

The exhibition was wonderful. It brought back memories for me of waving to the Queen during her visits when we lined up along the railway line. She would be in the front of the train with her gloved hand gently waving to our madly waving flags.

I was also amazed at the needlecraft and embroidery skills displayed in the making of these garments. The evening gowns were beautiful. The day wear could be a little frumpy but very well made. She was so tiny it was hard to imagine anyone having such a small waist.

Whist our waistlines could do with a little trimming we were hungry and decided we could have lunch then pick-up the hire car at Victoria Station as we were nearby. Harry’s, opposite Victoria Station, looked good. It is Italian with Italian waiters, and was just the ticket for lunch. No wine as we were driving North this afternoon.

We then crossed over to Victoria Station and found the car hire desk. My passport was in my hand luggage back at the BnB as I thought it safer than carrying around London. I should have had it today but did have my physical licence. Candice had her electronic licence on her phone and a photo of her physical licence. She also had a photo of her passport on her phone.

They would not accept the electronic licence and it looked like I would have to hire it in my name and I was the only one to drive.😠 They could not just transfer the driver detail but would need to make out a new booking and that would be almost three times the cost. Think it might have been cheaper to buy a car.

The fellow suggested we try Avis or Europe Car who were about a kilometre walk away. We found them eventually (after first walking about a kilometre in the wrong direction).

Avis was closed!! We think they may have run out of vehicles as the demand today was extremely high.

Thank goodness for Europe Car. We had a most helpful fellow who discounted for us, accepted the electronic licence, made our start time a little later so our finish time at Heathrow would work better for us, and arranged a colleague to run through the various features and workings of the car.

We had to take a sedan when we had originally booked a small SUV but we could fit everything in and we now had a car. PHEW.

Drive to Lodge Cottage at Belvoir Castle.

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