The Queen, unfortunately, was not in to say "Yo!" to all of us tourists. :( The Palace is big, but compared to a lot of the buildings I've been to and seen it's not that big and not that ornate either. We got a decent spot by the front fence next to some nice people from Michigan that helped push away the VERY rude French lady (seriously the French - evil) from my obviously staked spot. We got there early, took pictures, hung out, waited, got bored, waited some more and FINALLY we heard the music - it was starting!
The little band of interior guards started marching around in some complicated dance sequence and then the band marched up in full fur hats and instruments behind the little band of "new" exterior guards. Then, another band and more guards marched up and then every possible combination of walking around and back forth between the commanders of these groups took place including and formulaic inspection of the guardhouse. The guardhouse is this teeny tiny 3 foot square box with a roof - what's to inspect? But it was cool to watch (for a while) and then, they broke into show tunes and kept walking around. It's now about 12:15 or so and they've been walking (again, just the commander-y people) for EVER and I was done. We left early but I don't think I missed much. So - while it was cool it's way too long so go early, watch for a while and then head up St. James Park to possibly the coolest attraction - Westminster Abbey.
Now, this place already had some favouritism points going for it (my parents met right outside the Abbey) but going inside and taking the tour put it up close/at the top. We got there right as an afternoon service was starting so all the tourists were not allowed in to tour until a little bit later so I got some nice outdoor shots and even one of me AND Blaine at the same time not at arm's length.
(I asked a nice tourist guy to help us out ; he had a nicer camera than mine so no stealing - I hoped.) We got in, paid a fee (for a church??) and looked around at this gorgeous building with tons of monuments and marble etc and decided a tour was necessary - we'd never figure out all the cool stuff without a lot more time or a local. The tour - so worth it. We got to go to a chapel on the 2nd floor with a saint's tomb still in it that has been around since the 1600s (how cool is that!) and saw dead kings (3 or 4 of them) and dead queends (5 or 6 of them) and walked on graves (seriously - buried in the church floor - freaky weird to me) and heard all sorts of stories and history and cool little tidbits. For example, if a necromancer really wanted to screw with London he should just go to Westminster Abbey and raise the 3000 people buried in that place. Zombies would ABOUND! It certainly explained all the London based zombie movies to me. We finished our tour with our verger (he tried to say that Wesminster was the oldest religious site - ha! the Vatican (or St. Peter's Basilica has been around since the 400's - Vatican wins and Catholics rule!! (although the Basilica there now was built in 1506). It still rocked is cool and a must see in London - after that we ate pizza (I know, we're in London and eating pizza but it was good London pizza) and collapsed back at the CopperDay ranch (i.e. the hotel) for some rest. Thursday brings on The London Eye and Harrods a.k.a. shopping Mecca.PS - the fee at the Abbey was for upkeep. They're considered a royal Peculiar, their official title, as such receive no money from a Church, the State, or the Crown. It's all donations and fees.
Editor's comment: No non-Catholics were harmed in the Catholics rule portion of this blog. However, there has been some Catholic mockage. ;)
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