England #13

After the Changing of the Guard ceremony, we took some more pictures near the Palace.
Here are some close ups of the statue of Queen Victoria in front of Buckingham.
Queen Victoria

Here I am sitting on a tiny fence in front of some really pretty, colorful flowers.

While we were taking pictures, some of the guards came marching back and went to the Palace. Maybe they forgot something? :)

We were on our way back to the Underground to go to our next stop when we passed this sign on someone's driveway.

Daniel kept trying to get a good picture of the British flag flying in the wind, but the wind kept dying down just as he would get his camera out. He finally got it to work and it ends up being a tattered looking flag! Oh well.

One of the many interesting buildings we passed on our way.

Here are some pictures of the very steep escalators for the Underground. The first time on was a bit surprising.They do have signs that tell you to stay to the right if you are just riding, so that those who want to walk as they go, get the left side. That is very helpful when you are in a hurry!

We thought this Pub was quite nicely decorated.

England #12

Here are some of the pictures of the Changing of the Guard ceremony. There ended up being a ton of people there and most of the pictures are just holding the camera up above people's heads and snapping away. The joys of digital photography!

You can see the throngs of people all around the Palace to watch the change. We didn't realize there would be quite so many people there, or we would have arrived earlier.

The soldiers arriving for the ceremony.The band arriving


Some more soldiers arriving. I don't know what the difference is between the red uniforms and the black. I'm guessing different branches of the military?

Everyone getting in postion for the ceremony.

The Band setting up.

The change was quite different than what I was expecting. I thought there would be a lot of pomp and circumstance around the 2 guards actually switching out. We hadn't even realized it happened until we noticed the black suited guard where the red suited one had been. We had assumed he would be replaced by another red suited one, so we just kept waiting and watching.

There was a lot of marching around and things that we had no clue what it meant. We just kept snapping pictures.


You see the black suited guard in the box on the left, that's the new guard.

The band played a whole variety of music during the whole thing. They seemed to like American music and movie songs, too.

During all of this one of the doorways was business as usual. People came and went as if nothing was going on.

At one point I turned the camera around and snapped Daniel. You can see a reflection of the Palace in his sunglasses.

We were pressed up against the fence the whole time. It was very crowded!

These guys marched past about 50 times or so. I'm not really sure what they were accomplishing. I would have been curious what their conversation was about. :)

The black suited guards preparing to leave after the change.

Here is a view of all the peoples hands and arms through the fence. It was a bit crazy.

Well, now we can say that we have been at the Changing of the Guard, but you really didn't miss much.

England #11

Here is a picture of a beautiful lake right across the road from Buckingham Palace.


They had these huge, ornate archways over the sidewalk across the street from the Palace.

Here is a view of the London Eye from the Palace.

We saw a couple of these accordion buses around town. I definitely would not want to try and drive one! Their streets and corners are so narrow and tight as it is.


We thought that we would take a picture of one of their old fashioned looking phone booths. Inside is disgusting! It smelled like a combination of urine and strong men's cologne. Ugh! It's also where they post their pornography. It made me think that these booths belong on the Vegas strip not scattered around London.

England #10

After Kensington Palace, we walked through another park on our way to the Underground. We saw lots of these guys in the parks.They are American squirrels that got brought over somehow, and now are causing problems. I believe they are too aggressive and killing off the native squirrels. (Sounds very American of them - too aggressive!)


We passed her on our way through, too. She looks relaxed.


At the other end of the park we came upon this. A huge fountain. I don't remember if it had a name or anything.

Here's some various pictures of the fountain.




Then on our way to the Underground station for our next stop.

Riding on the Underground. I think we actually had to stand on this one because it was a full car, as you can see.


Here is a picture of one of the Next stores I visited. I think Daniel might have taken the picture while he was waiting for me to finish shopping. :)


Then we went to see Buckingham Palace. We saw a sign saying that the changing of the guard would happen at 11:00 am.

Here's a picture of a Palace Guard. Daniel's zoom lens got us this close. We have to look through the gates to see him.


This is a big statue right in front of the Palace. It's of Queen Victoria.

Here we are in front of Buckingham Palace. Proof we were there! :)

England #9

This is Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived. (I thought of you, Gen.) We could only look at it through these gates.

There is a large park, I believe called Kensington Gardens, sort of surrounding the palace. This is a picture of the lake there.

A park over there is mostly big grassy areas with lots of trees, plants, walking/biking paths, and sometimes a lake, too. Basically, a great place for people to relax or exercise.
There seemed to always be people about reading, picnicking, playing some sport, exercising, or napping. It was really cool how these parks are all over the City. No matter where you live, there is probably at least one park within walking distance. (That's probably one reason why we didn't see very many overweight English folk. It's just a part of their culture to be active.)

While there we decided to go see Princess Diana's Memorial Fountain. I had expected it to be this large, ornate thing, so I was surprised to see this.

Actually, when Daniel said this was it, I thought that he didn't know what he was talking about. (So sorry Babe!) Then he explained the idea behind it and how it was supposed to reflect her life. It was quite cool, once I got closer to it.
I think there was some controversy about whether to allow people to put there feet in or not. It was decided she would probably want it that way. For people to enjoy it and just have fun!


This sign explains more about it. If you can, click on the photo to enlarge it and read about the fountain. I think it's pretty interesting.








Having Fun!!







View from the fountain.

Right near the fountain runs the river Thames, I believe. People could rent paddle boats or row boats. We didn't, but we did smile at some of the folks who were boat challenged. :)

Another thing we found interesting over there, were the tiny cars we saw everywhere. I would try to imagine my dad trying to get in or out of them. That was hard to do! (For those of you who don't know my dad, he is 6' 4".)