My Dream Trip (6-20 May) - Buckingham Palace Changing of Guards

We work up early in the cold morning to witness the Changing of Guards at the famous Buckingham Palace. The parade starts at 11:30am (you have to check the web few days before to confirm if the parade is taking place at what time), however, we read that we have to arrive early to get 'good spot'. We were there around 10:00am. It was already very crowded than, barriers were not setup. At about 10:30am, the local police start setting up the barriers around the fountain area and on both sides of the gate. The crowd grew terribly fast!

Parade starts at 11:30am and lasted for about 45mins. There is a section that takes place close gate inside the palace that we, standing across at the fountain area, could not see anything, but we have a nice view of the squad marching out.

It was really interesting to see the Royal british guards with the signature tall black furry hat, and some on horses! Is like figures from TV and books coming up real in front of my eyes.

Look at the crowd behind me

St James park neighboring to the Buckingham Palace is a great place for an afternoon stroll, if not for the light drizzle.

The Royal Mews which store and maintain all the Royal horses, carriages and cars. Those on display mostly are still in use currently. The Royal state coach is the highlight, it is only meant for the Queen.

The people serve the royal family here, runs in the family. Generation by generation, they work for the royal family.

We went to Westminister Abbey but it is closed to public for private service on Sunday (we did not refer to our notes correctly), so we took some pictures and came back the next day, which was also the Easter holiday. There was quite a long q, we q in the rain for almost 1 hour before going in, but it was worth it i thought. (GBP16/pax)

We ended the day with some light shopping at Camden Town. There is an interesting mall, previously use as stables. Unfortunately, they close rather early.