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Thursday, November 29, 2012

London Day 1 - Palace and Guards

We traveled to London for our Thanksgiving Holiday this year.  We stayed in an apartment downtown and had a wonderful time.  Over the next few days I'll show you the fun we had.

The first day we took a walk with London Walks.  This was "The London Tour" and we spent two hours with a friendly local guide learning the history of the major buildings in famous London while taking a brisk walk amongst the sites.  I really enjoyed it.  I always like having a guide.  

We'll start withe the obligatory first pic - family and THE landmark...Big Ben.  We took a BAJILLION pix of the clock tower so you'll get some shots of him in each installment.

Of course it was raining.  It's London.  
This was our view of Westminster Abbey.  We did not go inside because you had to pay.  The guide gave us a hint on how to see a service there without paying, but we did not think the kids were up to it.




K enjoyed this prayer on the front of the Abbey.

After crossing one of the many parks we came to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard.
Note the Queen's standard is flying.  She was in the palace for the day for a luncheon.  Too bad we weren't invited.  
A cool taxi we captured as we walked around the crowds at the Palace.

In the Winter, every two days, the guard regiments swap out with a parade of bands, horses, and soldiers.


There are always massive crowds in place to watch the "changing" of the guard.  Our guide took us to a second smaller palace that also changes the guard at the same time.  A smaller force of 8 guards separates from the larger regiment and guards this location.  Here you can see that they were in Winter uniforms - grey not red.  Cory loved the bear-skin hats.  He was also amazed at the "real-guns" with the bayonet on the end.

Here the old and new guard are in place waiting for the reading of the orders of the day.

I'll finish with another pic of Big Ben from later in the day.  I told you we had a bunch!


Google just told me I maxed out my pic storage...hmmm.  Might be time to start a new blog.  Stay tuned for more London!

1 comment:

Jen said...

You can use photobucket to help with that pic storage issue.

Looks like a fun trip!