9.20.15 Buckingham Palace

I'm not sure what we were expecting today but we got a lot more than we had hoped for. First off a ride in one of those famous London cabs to the start of our tour. We told the driver we were planning on going on a guided tour of Buckingham Palace. We drove right by the entrance and he remarked you don't need a guide here's the entrance. Fair enough but as we know from experience having a good guide really enhances the experience.

Augusta our talented guide.





It was a blue sky day with just the right temperature. Part of the BP experience of course is the changing of the guard. But there are also changing of the guard at other points in the area of St. James Park that are attended by a very small fraction of the tourists and come with a marching band.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our guide directed us to front row seats to two of them and nose bleed seats to BP guard change. The first was the horse guard change in front of the Admiralty Building - recognized as the official entrance to BP. The second was St. James Palace.

The caps are made of bear skin. They were apparently worn to add height and therefore stature to the soldiers. Animal rights groups have been pushing to abolish the use of bearskin but no suitable substitute has been found. The skins are from bears culled from over populated areas in Canada and account for a small fraction of the bears culled.

We were fortunate that the Queen was out of town at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. BP is only open for touring when she is outs. Another interesting fact is that the reason royalty moved from palace to palace was because they and staff hunted for game and after a period of time needed the stock to replenish itself but more importantly sewage went into a hole in the ground and after some time the odor became intolerable.

 

 

Augusta - our very informative and energetic guide - then led us to BP which we toured. My thought was my word this place is like Downton Abbey on steroids. Then off to St. Ermine's Hotel for tea. Come to find out it was low tea and not high tea. Most, including myself, have always thought of high tea as the upper crust aristocratic tea but in fact it is the tea of the working class because it was combined with a hearty dinner at the high table after a long day of work. Low tea was then a more mid afternoon tea where it was served on a low table in a parlor with finger food and scones with cream and jelly. Something to tide you over until dinner. It was our dinner - dieting after our food indulgent cruise. I particularly liked the salmon and caviar sandwiches with the crust cut off.

 

 

 

 

We are safely back in our hotel with cocktails in hand and feet up to journal, blog, and read.

Brilliant day!




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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