Monday at the Palace

London is at, roughly, the same latitude as Seattle, so, by the middle of June, the days are really, really long, and the sun comes up really, really early. Well, maybe not the sun; at least it is light out.

Today was our major London sight-seeing day, so we started pretty early. Although we had two Rick Steves' guidebooks, Debbie had written out a suggested itinerary for us, so we decided to follow that. (And we were glad we did because the guidebooks had an overwhelming amount of detail.)

Using our Oyster cards, we got on the Tube a block from the Alnutt's house, and rode down to the Green Park stop in the center of town. Our first stop was Buckingham Palace, and, to get there, we walked through the park.

Green Park is one of the royal parks, and it is impeccably maintained and manicured.

When we got to Buckingham Palace, everyone was milling about, getting behind the barriers, waiting for the changing of the guard.

Across the way, at the Victoria Memorial there were also crowds lining up. Kathy convinced me that we should wait as well, and we got positions right on the barrier.

It was quite a wait, but after about a half hour, a group of guards came marching up the Mall (the British pronounce it "mal" as in mal-informed) and through the gates. We weren't very close to them.

About ten minutes later another band came marching by right in front of us.

Through the fence we could see the marching and the actual ceremony of the Changing of the Guard. I think if we did it again, I'd try to get a place at the actual Palace fence.

Then, about five minutes after that, a whole group of mounted guards rode by right in front of us.

By now, it was about 12:30 and we were both famished. Debbie had recommended eating lunch in the Crypt at St. Martins-In-Fields church on Trafalgar square. With a little difficulty, we extricated ourselves from the crowd at Buckingham Palace and walked up the park in the Mall.

This park (another Royal park) has a lily pond in the center, with terrific views back to Buckingham Palace. (I guess that the lily pond is what the Queen sees when she looks out her window in the morning.)

At the other end of the Mall is the Admiralty Arch, leading to Trafalgar square and the famous statue of Lord Nelson. Trafalgar (off the coast of Spain) was the location of the naval battle where Lord Nelson defeated Napoleon's French navy in 1805. Ten years later, in 1815, Wellington defeated Napoleon's armies at Waterloo in Belgium.

We didn't have any time to dwaddle, though, because lunch was calling. I fumbled through my maps and finally located St. Martins-In-Fields in the corner of the square. (The steeple-over-the-entry style of this church inspired the traditional churches of New England.)

Down in the crypt, paved with the gravestones of long-gone parishioners, we found the cafe, and had a delicious, filling and inexpensive lunch.

Back upstairs, we walked around the square. Even though there was free entry to the National Gallery, we really didn't have time to visit. We did find the statue of George Washington, though.

Behind Nelson's statue we went looking for the "zero" marker that marks the exact center of London; where all distances are measured from. Finally, we asked a Bobby, who pointed out that the marker was behind the statue of Charles the I, which stands in front of the Nelson monument.

Rather than retrace our steps, we decided to go on the next stop; Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abby, and, of course, the real attraction, the London Eye. Instead of using the maps, I decided just to follow my keen sense of direction. Accordingly, we didn't get to the river for another half hour.

Once on the river, we rendezvoused with the hordes of tourists we'd left behind at Buckingham Palace. We walked across the bridge in front of Parliament to take the standard postcard picture. Because of the light, though, we got a better picture from the other side, by Westminster Abby.

Right next to Parliament was a statue of Oliver Cromwell, but not much explanation.

Next door to Westminster Abby is St. Margaret's Church, where Winston Churchill was married. We stopped in and looked through there.

We took a picture in front of Westminster Cathedral. (When we got back to our room, we looked up Kate and William's wedding on YouTube, since the entrance way looked so much larger on TV.)

By now, it was late afternoon, and we still had one more stop: the Tower of London. That meant it was time to go underground again.

We took a picture in front of the Tower and got some souvenirs for the kids.

Then we walked over to Tower Bridge and looked at it. The day that had started out so stormy and cloudy was now sunny and warm. And, as usual, by 5:00 o'clock our 60-year-old bodies were pretty wiped out.

We got back to the Docklands by 6:00, where Debbie had made a wonderful chicken dinner. We had a sweet time of fellowship, and then off to bed.