Day 3 The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace is a Must See

Christopher Robin of course went down with Alice. We went with Amy TJ and Mikel.  The crowds are massive and you don't see all that much, but it is still the primo touristo requisite for any first timer to London.

We arrived early and got a nice shot of the palace and our crew standing out front before the crowds arrived.

We then took up a position on the center island at the top of the mall that contains the Queen Victoria Memorial. As you can see it gets a tad jammed by the time the action starts.

 

 

Finally we get the horses trotting and the bands marching.

right in front of us

 

and into the courtyard gate.

Unfortunately, after that,  you don't see much of the actual exchange unless you have made an early decision to find a spot on the palace fence proper,


It's a good thing that the crowd and the monuments are often as interesting as the show inside the fence.  The bobbies are friendly but firm if you try to climb too high on the monument or the railings..

Noone climbs up here. 

 

 

or here.

 

Afterwards we walked down the mall to Trafalgar Square and on to Covent Garden.

 

 

where the boys loved the buskers entertaining in front of St. Paul's Covent Garden

The evening saw us at the theatre where we saw War Horse.  The original play is far superior to the film. You can't believe that you will accept puppet horses moved by visible manipulators.  Yet about five minutes in you totally accept the horses as living entities with real intelligence and emotions. The absolute supreme power of the imagination lives on in the live theatre.