July 9: Inquiring after the Queen

Jet lag maybe catching up with us, we literally ran to just catch our bus on time. We caught the tube again at Finsbury Park, this time taking the Victoria Line to Victoria station. Beth had sourced out an insider's viewpoint of the process and ceremony of the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. This insider's view didn't have us starting at the Palace at all, but at the nearby Wellington Barracks, where the guards begin their formation. We got a front row "seat", right behind some steel bar fencing.

We enjoyed the spectacle, even if we didn't necessarily understand much of it. The senior officers barked out unintelligible orders, which the guards followed crisply, maneuvering together to march, turn, stop, shift the position of their hands and guns. Each guard was inspected to make sure their uniform was in top condition. We were fascinated by their tall hats, fixed in place by straps positioned between the lower lip and chin - not an obviously comfortable position, in our view. We Googled that these hats are made of skins from Canadian black bears (responsibly sourced, apparently); each hat is valued at about £650 and can last for up to 80 years!

The biggest thrill was the music of the guard band; they warmed up with the main theme of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, which Thane and Luke especially enjoyed. From there, the guard deployed from the barracks toward the Palace, the crowds held back by London metropolitan police on horseback. We took a moment to get some breakfast drinks from a coffee stall in St. James' Park, before joining the throngs of hundreds assembled around the Buckingham Palace gates. We sourced out a good viewing spot at the Queen Victoria monument in the centre of the roundabout. Lovely morning!

We strolled down toward Trafalgar Square. I was looking forward to being swarmed by pigeons, as this was a memory from our last trip here 25 years ago. However, it appears the British must have done something to discourage this, as there were maybe 2 pigeons present. Thane, Luke and Faith did enjoy climbing up the monument to sit among the lions.

We had really yummy lunch nearby at Pizza Express, a local restaurant chain founded in 1965 (pretty young by London standards). Beth's chicken Caesar salad was quite unique, including hard boiled egg and whole anchovy fillets. The rest of us had pizza, served uncut with personal pizza rollers so you could choose your own size of slice.

The afternoon involved more tube rides from Charing Cross station to Paddington station, where we caught a train on the Great Western Railway toward Windsor Castle. No marmalade sandwiches at Paddington, but what a HUGE station! Easy to get confused here... We met up with Pauline and Dave at the Windsor-Eton train station. Despite being Londoners for over 50 years, they had never been to Windsor Castle before!

Windsor Castle was really neat. It is the largest and oldest castle in the world to still be continuously inhabited by monarchy. It was also founded by William the Conqueror over 900 years ago; British kings and queens have used it as an official residence ever since. Queen Elizabeth has often spent time there on weekends, and apparently she was there the day we visited, as indicated by a particular flag flying from the main tower!

Included with our admission to the grounds was access to a portable multimedia tablet guide, which helpfully shared facts about the two areas accessible to visitors: St. George’s Chapel and the State Apartments. Unfortunately, photography of the inside of these structures is not permitted.

We started in the chapel, which was really another cathedral in terms of size and scope. Massive stained glass window on the western wall had 72 panels of biblical characters. A “quire” (choir) loft just as big and even more elaborately decorated than St. Paul’s. Tombs of past kings and queens. Apparently the last royal wedding to have occurred here was Prince Harry and Megan Markle. I lit a prayer candle for my dad, Garry, at the request of my stepmom Judy. Thane, in particular, seemed to be struck by the space, and wanted to linger there.

The State Apartments were a series of connected rooms that have been used for state functions, where kings and queens have interacted with courtiers and other important people over the ages. Lots of amazing murals, tapestries, artwork and artifacts. One highlight was Queen Mary’s Doll House, a gift to King George V’s wife that displayed British ingenuity. A mini-palace scaled 1:12 size, each room contained miniature but real and working versions of things like furniture, china plates and flatware, lamps and plumbing, even a vacuum cleaner and bottles filled with real wine!

The other highlight was a brand new display (only opened a couple of days before our visit) celebrating the Queen’s platinum Jubilee, featuring her coronation dress and train from 1953! The embroidery featured official flowers of all commonwealth regions/countries - unbelievable handiwork!

All the cool things to see here caused us to be delayed; we didn’t get to attend evensong in the chapel here as we originally intended. We left the castle grounds and started exploring the town of Windsor, initially with the idea of going along “The Queen’s Walkway”, a 6.373 km guided exploration of the area. This walking tour commemorates the age when Queen Elizabeth became the oldest reigning monarch at 63years, 7 weeks and 3 days, exceeding the previous record holder, Queen Victoria. We kind of gave up the official walkway after awhile, and instead pursued somewhere to find refreshments. We found these at a gelato spot called Creams, which had yummy shakes among their many options.

This refreshed us enough for our trip back to London and Finsbury Park. We enjoyed a late supper of pasta with tomato/tuna/olives in sauce plus salad, followed by crackers and cheese and grapes for dessert. Quite scrumptious!