When we arrived in London we went straight to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. I had no idea how big of an attraction this was because the palace area sidewalks outside the gate and beyond were absolutely packed. Flashbacks of Monday night came to our mind as we were once again vie-ing for a place in the crowd to see the ceremony. There were two marching bands that marched inside the palace gate during the ceremony, and a portion of the ceremony where one of the bands played a list of well known pieces of music, such as "No Business Like Show Business", "Don't Mean A Thing", and "Heaven" to name a few. This part of the ceremony was a traditional concert in which the band read music from music stands. When the ceremony was over we stayed around and watched the guards pick up the music stands that the band used during the ceremony. As you might expect they didn't break their form at all, but picked up and actually marched the stands back into the palace. When the guards were almost finished with the "music stand task", we noticed that a motorcycle crew of police officers rode into the palace gate. Obviously this perked our interest so we stayed to watch, and then witnessed this crew lead a vehicle with heavy tinted glass out of the palace area. We watched the flag on the palace change, which signifies that the Queen is not present at the palace anymore. I should be honest that we weren't real close to the vehicle, but I can say we saw the vehicle that the queen was in! :)
Afterwards we took a tour of the Mews, which included seeing all of the royal carriages and some of the horses responsible for pulling the carriages. We also saw another vehicle used by the Queen, too. This vehicle is obviously one used for more professional engagements.
Later that afternoon we toured Westminster Abbey. Am I alone that I didn't realize that famous poets and authors, such as, Charles Dickins, Jeffrey Chaucer, Charles Darwin, Rudyard Kipling along with the composer Joseph Haydn were buried there! There was also quite a number of memorials made to various others including Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, and our own F.D. Roosevelt as well. There are several more that I could have listed, but those were the only ones that I remember at the moment. With the royal wedding not that long ago, I couldn't help but have flashbacks to Kate walking that same big isle down the middle of the Abbey. Really neat! Since we were touring the Abbey around closing, we actually got to hear the Westminster boys choir practice. BEAUTIFUL!! Now how do I get my boys at school to sound like that?!
Our last night was spent getting fixed up and going out for our last dinner in London. We didn't realize until after we finished eating that our last dinner really brought everything full circle for us. We ended up eating fish and chips (not the original plan that evening, but nonetheless true British food) at a pub/restaurant called "Alberts".
(If you're puzzled read the post called "Fourth Times the Charm").
*With all the royal palaces and artifacts that we saw throughout the week, we decided back in May that we should enjoy a real classy place for our last night. Our hotel room included two bathrooms, both with ceramic tiling, and a separate bedroom area. The hotel provided bathrobes and slippers too. I guess every girl wants to be pampered every now and then, right?! Even though this hotel room was a wonderful end to a remarkable week, I'm still thinking home will triumph it Saturday night. Getting excited!
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