Minding Your P's and Q's

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.