Crazy naked guys.....add it to the list — London, United Kingdom
Day 74 London Today is our last full day in London and I want to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. It is only held every second day after the summer ends and this will be our last chance to catch it before we leave. So we rush around to get ready and be in town by 10-30 when it is scheduled to start. For a wonder, we manage to get there by just after 10 only to find it doesn't start till 11-30, bummer. Paul won't hang around for it to start and wants to go somewhere in the interim, but I'm pretty sure we won't get a good spot to watch later. Nevertheless, we go off in search of a market that looks to be nearby. It isn't too hard to find and although not much is set up here yet, there is an old guy with a stall of jackets that are nice. I find one that I like and since it is reasonably priced end up getting it. We head back to the Palace and on the way encounter a squirrel by the park, foraging for food, very cute and seems to be unafraid of people. We typically end up in a roundabout way back to the Palace, but it turns out to be a good thing because we go past the guards barracks and they are doing the final inspection before they march the new guard over to the Palace. The brass band are also drumming up a few rousing tunes to fill in the time. We watch them for quite a while then head over to the Palace just ahead of the guards. Unfortunately, no places up close are to be had, so we climb up on a wall and manage to get a reasonable view of the proceedings. What a spectacle! Lots of pomp and ceremony. It's hard to believe they do this every single day throughout the summer months. The whole process takes close to an hour and there's lots of marching and music and splendid costumes. Police manage the crowds out the front both on foot and on horseback and it is all precision timed and executed. I think it's rather spectacular and enjoy it all enormously. I'm very happy we got the chance to witness this, free and quite grand. After the crowd disperses, we take a walk through St James Park to get to where we want to go. This park is quite lovely and I think much nicer than Hyde Park by a long way. We see lots more squirrels and it's a beautiful day in London, although it is only 8 degrees, the sun is shining. It reaches the top temperature of the day around twelve midday and stays there for about an hour before cooling off again. It is usually fully dark by 4-30pm! So you have to make the most of the sunshine when you can! We walk over to Whitehall which is actually a street, but houses many of the government offices and parliament offices. We come at it from the back, hoping we can get through to the front of the palace and normally there is a way through, but it is all closed off today because apparently there is some naked guy roaming about defacing Whitehall with graffiti. So we have to walk all the way around to the front and the street is all closed off as well.....they certainly take security seriously here. We walk up to check out number 10 Downing St and right when we are standing out the front taking a peek, an altercation breaks out across the road between a couple of cyclists and the police go running over. Now these guys are armed to the hilt and I'm not hanging around to watch the bullets, should there be any, fly. I am not keen to discover whether this is a small altercation or a distraction for a more major one and just scoot out of the way and up the street, which Paul finds hilarious and alarmist. He stands there eyeballing it all and I'm glad it is exactly what it appears to be, a small barney, but am not sorry for being cautious! From here we get the Underground up to Leadenhall markets which look impressive, but are a bit like the Strand in Sydney: beautiful location, but very expensive. However, we do stay a while and listen to a great band playing in the centre while we eat our lunch. Back underground we go and head down to Westminster Abbey where we have decided we will go in and take a look around. The queues are not too awful and we go inside, not really sure what to expect, except that we know Princess Di and Prince William were both married here and her funeral was also here. It's an interesting tour with tons of English history provided via an audio guide. Gets a bit tedious after a while, but i suppose there is a lot of history. Westminster Abbey is a huge repository for dead people, many royal and famous, but also some poets and explorers. Some of the chapels inside I reckon look a bit like a garage sale that's about to happen, all crowded with stuff that no one wants anymore, but that could be a bit sacrilegious. It is vast inside, but there are tons of pokey small spaces inside filled with crypts and coffins and edifices to mark the dead who apparently try to outdo one another even after they have gone. The cloisters are a serene space though and I like seeing them. No photos allowed inside Westminster, but I will put up some from outside. By the time we leave it's dark again. Paul wants to go to Baker St and find some music happening. We go to Baker St, but the music must be happening somewhere else, because we can't find any! We have had a great week in London and seen lots of the city. It's been busy and we have covered a lot of ground. Tomorrow we head for home and our long adventure is coming to an end. Not looking forward to the lengthy flight, but we are looking forward to coming home and especially to catching some sunshine!