Anyways, I had a wonderful Saturday. The day started off quite early with a wake-up time of 6:30. However, it was well worth it--it was the queen's OFFICIAL birthday! But don't confuse 'official' with 'real' as her real birthday is in April. The tradition of having an "official" birthday dates back quite far when a monarch (whose birthday was in November) wanted to have a day of birthday celebration that had clear, sunny weather.
We staked out our spot, which included a view of the parade and of the performance for the Queen of the Horse Guards. While waiting for the parade to start, royalty and military family members piled into the stands. I could have sat there for hours looking at their outfits--bright colors with big hats or feathered hair pieces. It was very interesting and cool to see! After sitting around for 3 hours, the parade started. This parade was called "Trooping the Colour" and consisted of marching and music from Welsh, Scottish, English and Northern Irish royal guards.
*Our start of the day, outside of Westminster tube stop. It was very serene at 7:20 in the
morning!
*View of the Horse Guards from behind the barricades--i.e. the common people area.
*Picture of the wealthy, military people standing in line for their seats at the Horse Guards. Look at her feather hair piece--most of the ladies had hats or feather hair pieces!
*Another shot of the English elite!
*Prince William is sitting next to Camilla Parker-Bowles is the big white hair piece. Across from them is my future husband, Prince Harry. :)
*The Queen at the performance
*Royal guards marching towards the Horse Stables.
After the performance, the Queen continues the parade back to Buckingham Palace where 41 cannons go off. She makes her way up to the balcony where her family are standing and a military fly-over of 55 aircrafts occurs. Since my two flatmates left, I met this girl from Alabama who was studying and interning abroad too. We both wanted to go to the palace too. So after the Queen left the Horse Guards we ran through St. James Park and along the parade route of the Mall (the red gravel road that leads up the Palace). We would stop for 2 seconds and take a picture, and then keep running along the parade route, then stop and take another picture. I felt like a photojournalist but it added to the experience as everyone was trying to run to the Palace to get a good view.
*The Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, making their way back to Buckingham Palace.
*This is where we kept running and stopping to take pictures along the parade route on the Mall.
*The Queen putting a blanket over herself--it wasn't really THAT cold!
We ended up getting very close and great spots. I have posted lots of pictures --however, the blog won't be able to hold the 120 pictures I took of that morning!
*We finally made it to Buckingham Palace where the royal family, minus the queen had yet to arrive.
*Statue in front of Buckingham--it was such a beautiful day!
*The royal family steps back inside in order for the Queen to make her grand entrance outside the balcony.
*I thought this was so cute--when people were running towards the gates of Buckingham, I saw this 4 year old British girl on her dad's shoulders. She had a birthday hat on for the Queen and a British flag. So adorable!
*The Queen came out and waved and then the military fly over started.
*The statue again--I thought this looked very majestic!
*Fly over.
*Amazing!
*Proof I was there! And proof I looked bad from 4 hours of sleep and waking up at 6:30!
Wrapping up, I continued this great day with a wonderful production of "Into the Hoods: A London Fairytale." It is the first hip-hop show to ever make it to the West-end. The show was filled with great music, lots of great dancing and humor. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who visits London. My roommates and I capped the night off with some great gelato from a shop called "Scoops".
All in all, it was a great Saturday in London!
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