The British do pageantry like no one else, and the best daily
evidence for that is the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. It takes place at 11:30 a.m. each day during
the summer, weather permitting, and every other day during the winter.
On our final day of our five-week trip, our top priority was
to see the ceremony. It was certainly
impressive, but I suspect that the real value for the tourist is in being there
rather than in the experience of the ceremony itself. The real spectacle that is the Changing of
the Guard, in fact, may have nothing to do with the Guard, but rather with the
tourists trying to get a view or at least a picture.
We left at 9:00 a.m. and took the Underground from South
Kensington Station to St. James’s Place, and were in front of Buckingham Palace
two hours before the ceremonies commenced.
I say ceremonies, because the Changing of the Guard isn’t a single
moment but rather a series of moments.
That makes trying to “see” the entire event difficult, especially when
thousands of your closest friends are fighting for position.
Shelley didn’t feel like standing for two hours, and I didn’t
feel like standing period after all the walking we did yesterday, so I found a
spot on the fence next to the forecourt where the bulk of the ceremony takes
place while Shelley went hunting for royalty-related souvenirs at the palace
gift shop. I was hoping she would be
able to find a Queen Elizabeth bobble-head, a souvenir bearskin hat like those
worn by the guards, or at the very least Princess Kate available for a few
photos, but apparently that’s too much to ask.
Just after 11, we started to get some movement, with one set
of guards marching through the area in front of the Victoria Memorial right
outside the from gate to the Palace, followed a few minutes later the Horse
Guard headed in the same direction. A small detachment of guards marched into
the forecourt, and their leader (the one with the sword) kept marching up to
the Palace, bowing and lowering his sword, then returning to his position. At first we thought he was paying homage to
the Queen, but either she’s homage-needy or his act is a way to keep things
interesting while waiting for everyone to get into place.
Our spot on the fence wasn’t as good as hoped. We could see most of the ceremony in front of
us, but those too lazy to get there two hours early pushed forward so that
there wasn't much room to breathe, and tried to hone in on our territory. I thought about asking to borrow a sword for defense
purposes. The ceremony itself involves
some marching, some passing of the regimental flag, and a concert by the
regimental band. All impressive, all
well-done, all British.
Once the Changing of the Guard was done, we crossed Green
Park and got on the Underground to the Charing Cross street area. Charing Cross is known for its bookstores,
and so after lunch at The Porcupine pub, where Shelley had a meat pie after
Fish and chips yesterday, we walked up the street and checked out several book
shops, including Foyle’s, the oldest and largest. One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is
that London takes care of tourists in an important way. At every crosswalk there are painted
instructions to “Look Right” or “Look Left” to help those of us who come from
countries where you drive on the right and aren’t familiar with traffic coming
from the opposite direction you grown used to.
We finished the day with two more stops not far from where
we are staying. The first was at Harrod’s Department Store, a throwback to the days of
the great department stores. Harrod’s
continues that tradition. We walked into
the prepared foods section where you can order steak for lunch or dinner or buy
fancy desserts and snacks. I've never
seen anything like it. If there are
bargains available at Harrod’s, we missed them, and the line of cabs parked outside
the entrances tells me that cabbies know that if you can afford Harrod’s, you
can also afford to take a cab. For our
last stop we walked through Chelsea, a shopping area filled with high-end
retailers, and I checked out one more of London’s best bookstores.
I titled this post, “Minding Your P’s and Q’s,” because the
British are very good at pageantry and also very good at standing in line, or
queue’s. I always thought that “Q,” the
character in the James Bond movies played by Desmond Llewellyn and later John Cleese,
stood for something like Quartermaster, as Q is the one in charge of Bond’s 007
“Gear,” but the broader meaning of that name may be homage to the British
proclivity for order, whether conducting ceremony or just standing in line.
As hard as it is to believe, our adventure is done. We fly home tomorrow. I’ll write a final summary post this weekend.
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