Buckingham Palace

MAN. I am PEAKED. It has been an exhausting week. I have not gotten adjusted to UK time yet, as I am going to sleep at 3am London time. But we're all still getting up at 8am or so. Yesterday, it was to catch the train to Bath. Today, it was to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.

However, it has been a FANTASTIC time.

The changing of the guards occurs every day at 11:30am. Today was the last day possible for us to go. We arrived early - Around 9:30am, and then took a perch in the fountain across from Buckingham Palace. (The official name is the Victoria Memorial.)


In front of the palace. All concrete, no green.

In front of the fountain, the Victoria Memorial.

Our perch.

Everyone's doing it, including Bac Hung.

It was interesting to wait and people watch. Louis is fascinated by the British accents. He likes to eavesdrop in on the conversations around us if any British people are involved. Add to this the various medical helicopters and airplanes flying around (which Louis informed me today he is homesick for), and Louis is in a helpless and constant state of distraction.

We all (Dylan, Josh, Brian and I) kept ourselves very occupied during the wait. We definitely threw some coins into the fountain for wishes. Unfortunately, I ran out of one-pence coins, so Josh threw in a fairly valuable ten-pence. We were assured it was a very important wish.

It turns out our early seats were not as ideal as we had thought. Before the procession started, security guards came around and made us get off the fountain ledges, which made it harder to see the events. When the procession started, Dylan and I developed a strategy where we pretended she was on a piggyback ride with me, but was actually on the fountain ledge. Josh joined soon after.

Dylan and I implement our sweet strategy.

Then security came around and cleared everyone off again. Dylan and Josh are very used to following the rules, and knew they had committed acts of rebellion (aided and abetted by me). Therefore, when he saw security come around the second time, Josh took a flying leap off the ledge and surprised the heck out of Christie when he landed on her back. We eventually inched our way up to the curb in front of the Palace.

The marching guards spent a significant amount of time playing various songs (including the Beatles). There was a bunch of marching and shouting of orders. Then the guards departed.

Paul learned from a guard that the Buckingham guards don't wear these red-and-black uniforms any longer... they are really worn for the tourists. Also, we were surprised to learn that the Malaysian soldiers (the ones in white) are the Queen's personal guard.