On the second day of our London adventure with our kids, we parted ways for a bit. Ryan headed off for a business meeting for the Baker Institute, Mike and Jason played a little golf, and the girls and I did a London Walk. London Walks are one of the greatest values in town, with excellent guides leading you into all the crooks and crannies of London and beyond. We selected The Forbidden City walk which started off with a peek of Westminster Abbey.
We continued on to the Horse Guard building, the headquarters of the British army, where we arrived just in time to see the changing of the Household Calvary.
The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment is the big draw here--their duty is to protect the queen. Obviously, the horse here is not overwhelmed with American tourists who want his attention.
We walked through St. James Park to get a glimpse of Buckingham Palace
where we saw the Queen's band and the guard leaving Buckingham Palace after the switch in command there.
Click on the arrow to hear a little bit of the pomp and pageantry we experienced.
The Queen was hosting a garden party that afternoon at the palace. As many as 8000 guests sometimes attend.
Obviously, our invitation must have gotten lost in the mail, so we had to make do with watching some of the ladies enter dressed in their "garden" attire.
Ryan joined us after lunch for an excellent guided tour of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Jason and Mike headed to Buckinghamshire for a day of golf. The club house is an historic English manor house from the 18th century. I'm sure they took time to take in all the history and architecture before heading onto the course!
Looking good!
Reports back were good golf and good weather.
Stay tuned for day 3 ahead.
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I have actually heard that Americans can make a special request to be put on the invite list (there was a PBS special last year about the Monarchs and these biannual garden parties were shown.
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