Well, in the stables of Her Majesty’s palace anyway. 😉
Shelly, Simon, Alyssa, Jessica and Mark travelled from the Isle of Wight to join us for the day in London. It was wonderful to see them all again, especially Alyssa who we hadn’t seen for ages! We met them at Victoria Station then walked to the Buckingham Palace Mews not far away.
The Palace Mews are where 30 of the queen’s horses are kept, all for pulling carriages. Note the little golden crown on the lights!
These horses clip-clopped into the yard:
The carriages we saw increased in their opulence and extravagance. This was the first, the plainest one:
Slightly fancier:
And a little more modern!
And then full on, over the top:
This coach is so large that the wall is taken down to carefully take it out. It isn’t taken out very often. 😉 The last time was for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation.
At the other end of the scale, there was a miniature carriage. Not sure what they’d use to pull it, maybe a dog!
This old sleigh is from Canada. It is brought out once a year at Christmas when it is filled with gifts and Her Majesty comes to the stables and hands them all out to her employees there.
This horse was being trained or exercised!
That was a lot of walking for young legs!
But alas, there was more walking to come… we noticed a lot of other people heading to Buckingham Palace. Far more people than when we’d been there the previous week. Then we discovered why…
The changing of the guard was going on!
The gates were open for the event.
Afterwards we could hardly move. The streets were all blocked off and it took a little while for the crowds to disperse!
Then we walked to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.
On the other side of the Thames were several interesting live “statues”.
And guards who looked like statues too! Mark had a nice little chat with this policeman who was guarding the guards.
And he had plenty of hardware on him for doing the job too!
We headed to Piccadilly Circus on the double decker. The kids enjoyed it! 🙂
We found this amazing cave-like cafe in an old bank vault where we stopped for afternoon tea before saying our goodbyes.
A word to the wise:
🙂
Then, all too soon, it was time to say goodbye. Simon, Shelly and the family had a long trip back to the Isle of Wight. We really appreciated them making the effort to see us for the day.
After they left we wandered around for a bit, enjoying browsing in some of the old bookshops.
Then we went looking for the alley that inspired Diagon Alley. It was a tiny entry way:
So cute!!! 🙂
I enjoyed the atmosphere in the Covent Garden Market:
Teeming with people, as usual!
More interesting live “statues”:
This walkway between buildings was interesting:
And a real statue for a change!
I thought Cathy might appreciate the irony of the name of the street and the “fabulous sweets” shop under it!
A lovely old shopfront, decorated for halloween.
By the way, McDonalds over here are very understated in their signage and colours; we think it must be mandated.
We didn’t eat there. 😉 We found an Indian restaurant with the best Indian we’ve ever had. A great way to finish our last day in London!
Dear Lynette and Mike,
I have followed your trips and photos, all very awsome! You must be about ready to go home. I am sure your kids and the cat will be happy to see you again. Holland is now coming to you. King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima are in New Zealand after they spent a great time in Australia. I’ll be seeing on TV how the Kiwi’s are welcoming them. Enjoy a good rest after all your travels. Selamat tinggal,
Janny
Thanks Aunt Janny! It’s been a bit hard to keep up with the blog when travelling, but we arrived home yesterday so I will hopefully finish off the remaining days in the next day or two! That’s great news about your king and queen visiting NZ, I see that they arrived here in Wellington yesterday; same day as us! The kids haven’t had a chance to try the stroopwafels you gave us yet, I know they’ll love them when they do! 🙂