The famous Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace takes place at 1130am. We arrived on this sunny blue sky day at 10am, and people were already in place at the front fence.Traveller's Tip: Arrive at least an hour early to get a good position.
The Changing of the Guard is a process that involves changing the old guard at Buckingham Palace with the new guard. There are Grenadier Guards in their red tunics and tall Bear Skin hats.
The Horse Guards are situated opposite Buckingham Palace through St James Park in close proximity to defend the Monarch. The Horse Guards Museum was interesting. Horse Guards duties extended to enforcing law and order, like putting down riots etc. The officers used to read the Riot Act, "Our, soveriegn, lady queen chargeth and command all persons to disperse themselves, and peacefully to depart their habitations, or their lawful business, upon the point contained in the Act made in the first year of King George for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the Queen" Then they could legally stomp them I suppose. Now, you know the origin of the term, "reading the Riot Act."
I saw how effective they are for real when the crowd scattered when this horse guard boomed out, "Clear the road", as he clattered forward to take up his post - very impressive.
Moving up Whitehall we come to Trafalgar Square with the statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson on top of the column. He is one of Britain's greatest heroes, who died at the moment of his greatest victory at the naval battle of Tralfagar. The significance of his naval victories is that it gave Britain undisputed command of the sea, enabling her to dominate world trade, thus contributing to her great wealth, particularly of London the centre of it's empire.
The Britain and London Visitor Centre at 1 Regent street is well worth a visit. We picked up some useful brochures regarding various places we are visiting in the coming weeks. There are many high end fashion stores in Regent Store, however we kept walking up to the shopping district around Oxford Street. I needed to buy a GPS car navigation unit for our driving holiday. One thing I learnt from driving in America is that it is hard enough driving in a foreign country, so you don't want to compound it by trying to navigate, and pick the right lane to be in to take the correct exit, particularly on those big freeways.
We picked the first department store we came to, John Lewis. and the staff were very helpful and I walked away with a TOMTOM G0550 with a map of United Kingdom and Ireland. I can download the map of Australia, so I can still use it when I get back home.
Tonight we did a very London thing and went out to the West End to the theatre. Louise had booked tickets to the show, Jersey Boys, online months ago, which is wiser than trying to buy tickets on short notice when you are in London. Don't bother dressing up too much, everyone is fairly casual -we even saw some blokes in thongs!
The Prince Edward Theatre lies in Old Compton street a cobbled stoned street in the heart of the West End Theatre district. It's a quaint old place decked in burgundy with those box seats like the two old critics on the muppets sat. Jersey boys is the story about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, who I must admit, I had no idea who they were, until I heard their songs. There was a standing ovation at the end.
West End is the the place to be apparently at night, with throngs of people, and it was absolutely jam packed on the Piccadily Line from Leicester Tube Station to Earls Court. It is crowded at London at this time of year, and I must admit it is a bit of a battle working your way through the crowds, but at least it is warm, and there have been some blue sky days, like today. I think last time we came in September, and it was far less crowded, but still warm enough.
Tomorrow is our last day in London, before we head off on the next leg of our UK and Ireland trip.
FACTS SHEET:
Buckingham Palace
Website: http://www.royal.gov.uk/
