Wed August 15 - London

Moderately early start.  On the way to the tube there is a McDonalds so we stopped for breakfast.  Then away to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards!  They only do this every second day.  The guards hold the position for 24hrs however they do a 2hrs on and 4hrs off rotation throughout that 24 hr period.  The St. James's Palace detachment of the Old Guard forms up in Friary Court at 10:30 for an inspection by the Captain of The Queen's Guard. (St. James's Palace is situated off The Mall in Marlborough Road).  This contingent will make its way down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace at approximately 10:25 preceded by a Regimental Band or Corps of Drums.  The Buckingham Palace detachment, of the Old Guard, already on duty in the Palace, are inspected whilst awaiting the arrival of the St. James's Palace detachment.  The St. James's detachment enters the Palace Forecourt via the South Centre Gate (left of centre facing the Palace) and takes up position beside the Buckingham Palace detachment on the left hand side of the forecourt.  Now complete, the Old Guard awaits the arrival of the incoming New Guard from Wellington Barracks, which is situated at the Buckingham Palace end of Birdcage Walk.  The New Guard undergoes its own inspection on the parade square at Wellington Barracks.  While awaiting the arrival of the New Guard's Regimental Colour the band, accompanying them forms a circle and plays a selection of music.  After saluting the Colour, the New Guard steps off from Wellington Barracks preceded by a Regimental Band at 10:57.  At 11:00 the New Guard enters the Forecourt, via the North Gate (right of centre facing the Palace), they march in front of the Band and halt facing the Old Guard.  The Band then performs the New Guard's Regimental Slow March as it advances towards the Old Guard.  The Old and New Guards 'Present Arms' before the Captains of the Guard ceremoniously hand over the Palace keys.  This symbolic gesture represents the transfer of responsibility for the security of the Palace's from the Old to the New Guard who, until relieved, will be The Queen's Guard.  When The Queen is in residence The Foot Guards, on the forecourt of the Palace, will await The Queens Life Guard and 'Present Arms', (salute with their rifles), as the cavalry pass between the Queen Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace.  It was quite the fan fare and procession.  And the people!  So. Many. People.  Kels and I divided and conquered as it were.  We stood in 2 different locations.  

Apologies for the video is in a funny position - I tried to flip it to get a panoramic shot and I messed it up

The band playing - they played happy birthday (not sure why), theme from Game of Thrones and various other random selections of music.

There were lots of police (bobbies) corralling the crowd and this particular one in front of Kels had quite the sense of humor.  After herding people behind the  railings a pigeon walked right in front of him.  He paused and then started herding the pigeon with a right then move along move along.

The fountain in front of the palace

Queen Victoria

There are columns on the 4 corners of the round about in front of the palace - each had countries names on it (we suspect it was once all the countries Britian owned).  These are Canada's.  Off to the left (not pictured) is one for Newfoundland on it's own.

Once the changing of the guard was complete we navigated our way down the Mall to Westminster Abbey and the Churchill War Rooms through a very large park.

However the queue for the abbey was horrendous.  So we just stopped for some pics and carried on.

The amount of detail was amazing.

We passed by the Supreme Court building.

When we got to the war rooms they were also horrendously queued so we decided to get away from the core and headed up to 221B Baker Street to visit Sherlock Holmes residence.  A short tube ride later and we arrived.  We stopped for lunch at a nice little pizzeria and the waiter was very friendly.  It was nice to sit and rest after standing all morning on pavement watching the guards changing.  After lunch we headed down the street to Shelocks abode. There was a tiny bit of a line but it moved quickly.

 

Sherlock

Professor Moriarty

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Original key for 221B Baker Street

  After that nice literary stop, we headed back on the tube to the war rooms.  We arrived and the line wasn't as bad as it was previously so we decided to wait.  The sun was out again after being overcast in the morning.  Got out the umbrella and created our own shade while waiting.  It was about an hour's wait but it was worth it.  The war rooms were in a bunker and you could easily spend at minimum 2 hrs there.  It walks you through the history of not only second world war but also the life of Churchill himself.

 

The room where they all met to decide things

This goes with the picture below

These stairs descending down were known as the Dock.  When the air raid went off everyone went down here.  It was particularly unpleasant and cramped and musty.

Churchill had only 2 bodyguards for anywhere he went.  This is their quarters

Mrs. Churchill's bunker room.

The power generators that kept the facility running.

A portrait of Churchill as a child.  He was born into an aristocratic family.

Churchill's one room beside the map room.  He would take siesta's in the afternoon and the whole bunker had to be quiet.

   After the war rooms we were still early for dinner so we took a stroll in the general direction that we would be having dinner and found some interesting things along the way.

The London Eye

 

This is the only surviving section of one of the guard towers that used to surround London.

This boat has the royal crest on it and we were thinking it was one of the queen's pleasure boats?

The door to our dinner banquet opened at 715 and there was a line when we got there at 705.  Once inside we were shown to our seats and then we headed to the costume racks to don our lordly and ladylike outfits for the evening.

There were many entertainments between courses - contortionists, jugglers (jesters), much singing and ale glass raising.  All of the actors were very good singers and they sang quite a few appropriately songs of the ye era gone by.  The couple next to us on my left were from Mazatlan however they live in London for about 5 months of the year.  The couple next to us on my right were from Italy on holiday and the couple next to them were from Calgary.  Small world when you travel lol.

No spoons with soup!

The juster juggled upside down on his head from a tiny little platform and balanced the balls on his feet.

The contortionist was very good.

Before desert they had dueling for the representatives of each house (in actuality the "houses" were the long alcoves of trencher tables we all sat in)

It was a very fun night.  The food was excellent - four courses of soup, salad/meats/cheese, roast chicken with veggies and apple pie.  There were pitchers of ale and flasks of wine that once emptied the wench promptly came a filled again.  There was also a bar if you wanted to having something other than wine and ale.  At times the wench would try and get everyone up to join the dancing circle and we'd all skip about then sit again.  At the end they started playing 20th century music and we took our leave shortly after as we had a long train ride back and it was already 11pm.  We packed quite a bit in the day so were pretty tired when we got back.

Up tomorrow - Tower of London and...