Tour Home Page (Day 1) · Day 2 · Day 3 · Day 4 · Day 5 · Day 6 · Day 7
The bottom right picture is mom and I with one of the Queen's guards. Tour Home Page (Day 1) · Day 2 · Day 3 · Day 4 · Day 5 · Day 6 · Day 7 Rick Steves London Tour - Day 3
Tuesday morning we started at Buckingham Palace, where Queen Elizabeth's
private quarters are. We saw a mini-changing of the guard, which occurs every
two hours with the main one at 11:30AM. Tom shared an incident that happened
about 25 years ago, when a man scaled a drain pipe and somehow made it past
everyone and ended up in the queen's bedroom! He woke her up, which must
have been a rude awakening, but she remained composed until she had the
opportunity to get security. I hope they've improved security since then.
From the Palace, we walked along the Mall, saw where the Queen's
calvary is stationed, where Prince Charles lives, and St. James Park, along
the river. We also saw two sets of Calvary go by, one with a band. Lot's
of marching... and so many people watching it every day! Tom let us know
where and when there might be a "Queen sighting" that afternoon and
some of our group did see her drive by, but we missed that.
Below is Buckingham Palace as we're heading to the Mall.
Next we went to Whitehall to visit the Churchill Museum
and Cabinet War Rooms. This was a very secret place during
World War II because it would have been devastating for
England if it had been bombed. The war rooms and offices
were as they left them in 1945 when they turned out the
lights and left because the war was over. Photos and news-
reels from that time are just a few of the many fascinating
artifacts in the museum. I also discovered what a huge
Churchill fan my mother is and believe she could have spent
many days there. After the museum, I went for a walk in the
park across the street; there are so many large parks in
London (or maybe I was just seeing different views of the
same few parks).
Our last stop on the tour for the day
was the National Gallery. It was awesome!
Tom gave us an overview and described
some of the paintings. His explanations
about technique and the painters were
very enlightening. When we were on our
own, mom and I spent most of our time
viewing the Impressionists and then visited
the gift shop to pick up copies or our
favorite paintings. The National Gallery is
in Trafalgar Square, pictured here from the
gallery steps. The square is a very popular
place for festivals and other activities.
That evening mom and I went to Wicked. We were able to get some spare tickets from an adult school group. I thought it was very
interesting--a "pre-Wizard of Oz" about the witches.
Rick Steves Home Page · Pre-Tour London · Hyde Park Concert · Sommerset · Cotswolds · Stratford-upon-Avon · York · What is this?