Ireland & England: Exploring the Gaelic Isles: Changing of the Guard & Wandering through London

April 27 - Buckingham Palace & Wandering through London

Saturday my sister and I slept in a bit before heading out in search of an English breakfast. We had to make some slight changes to our original plans since when we headed over to the Underground station near the hotel we found that both the Circle and District lines (the only lines that went to the Bayswater Station near the hotel) were closed for the weekend for repairs. This meant we had to walk farther to the next closest station that ran a different line and also meant additional train changes and a farther walk to our destination.

We headed to the Buckingham Palace area for breakfast, having heard about a small café that offered a good deal on breakfast and a short walk to the palace. While we were eating we saw one of the palace guards in his distinctive uniform headed in the direction of the palace. It was a little odd to see him just walking down the street, those uniforms aren’t exactly discreet. After breakfast we walked the few blocks to the palace in hopes of seeing the changing of the guard. We arrived 45 minutes before the changing of the guard started and we still couldn’t get close enough to the palace to see into the courtyard where the ceremony takes place. Instead we were across from the plaza on a side street, giving us a clear view of the plaza the guards march through to enter the palace courtyard but absolutely no view of what was going on inside. As we waited for the ceremony to start the crowd got larger to the point that we could barely move for the people right against our backs. We felt pretty bad for the cops that had to run herd on the crazy people that tried to stand in the middle of the street and had to stop the car traffic to let the guards across the street. The “bobbies” were very put upon and under-appreciated.

When the ceremony finally started we were leaning over the railings to see around the other people and get pictures of the guards in their bright red as they marched down the street and into the palace. There were long periods where we could hear the band and the occasional shouted order from inside the courtyard but couldn’t see anything. After about an hour of waiting and only seeing a couple of troops of guards march in we became impatient with the insane crowds and took advantage of the gap in the mass of people behind us and made our escape. We walked along the park toward Westminster and stopped in a small shop dedicated to the Palace Guard. It turned out to be a lucky decision. While we were inside the small store we heard the band coming our way and when we went outside we could see them marching right toward us. We were right next door to the headquarters for the guard, where they began and ended their march. We managed to get much closer for pictures and saw the dismissal of the guard when they reached headquarters.

Crowd at Buckingham Palace for Changing of the Guard

Horse Guard Arrive at Palace

Band leaving the Palace

Dismissal of the Guard

After the men in red coats had disappeared we followed the signs to the guard museum. It seemed interesting so we ducked in side and got a short history on the palace guard and the different regiments responsible for protecting the queen, the palaces, and the crown jewels. Many may not realize that the palace guard also serves in active military in war zones and overseas, not just guarding the palace. The museum was pretty interesting, but possibly more interesting was the curator. He was talking about the bearskin hats that the guard wears and mentioned that they aren’t nearly as heavy as they look. He once had to wear one for 7 hours while he was on duty for the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. I bet he has some really amazing stories about not only that historic day but the rest of the many years he served.

From Buckingham and St. James Park we walked over to Westminster Abbey. We walked up to the very old and interesting building to find that the Abbey closes at 1:30 on Saturdays, and it was 1:15 when we walked up. It looked like we were going to have to come back on Tuesday. We took a few pictures of the outside of the Abbey as well as the Parliament building and Big Ben standing next door. In photographs and videos Big Ben doesn’t look all that great and it wasn’t something I had really wanted to see that much, but in person that giant clock tower with gold accents is pretty amazing. A walk over the Thames River took us to the London Eye (a giant Ferris wheel with enclosed “seats” that hold about a dozen people and take a half hour to complete the circuit). We took a few pictures in the day light checked how late they were open in hopes of getting some aerial night shots of London later.

Big Ben & Westminster Abbey

Looking Up at Big Ben

London Eye & a Piper

Since our plan to spend the afternoon at Westminster Abbey had to be changed we headed over to the Borough Market via the Underground. The Borough Market is a large street market area with various food stalls, everything from fruit and cheese to burgers, smoothies, and fudge. We had a few free samples of various items while we wandered through the stalls in search of lunch. We finally agreed on a smoothie and a venison burger that was cooked on the grill right in front of us. Both were very good, and the burger especially not something you are likely to find just anywhere. We then wandered down to Vinopolis to take a closer look at what was there, when they were open, and get an idea on prices for the tour. Online it looked to be somewhere that you could try various wines, beers, and spirits but when we got there we found it was a short discussion on wines – just wines – and the opportunity to taste a few. There was an extreme limit on how many wines you could try and it was not cheap so we decided to pass on Vinopolis and head over to the Tower.

By this point it was about 4:00 in the afternoon and since the Tower of London closes at 5, we just wandered across the London Bridge (the 6^th bridge to stand in that spot) and took pictures of the Tower Bridge. We then walked along the river to Tower Bridge for more pictures. About half way to the bridge it began to rain and the wind picked up enough that the umbrella I was using became more hassle than it was worth. Thankfully the rain did not last long, though the cold didn’t fade, and we were able to take a few pictures on the bridge without getting soaked.

Tower Bridge

Looking down Tower Bridge


HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge

After the Tower, we went back to Buckingham Palace to get some pictures without the masses of people and gates blocking our movements. By the time we were done with pictures it was getting late and we decided to call it a night since we had an early start then next morning. By the time we made it back to the hotel we had walked across large section of London, at least the area around the Thames, and seen very little of the sights we had hoped to visit during our day on Saturday.