Sorry for the lack of blog entries lately! We have been busy clearing out our house in Kent, packing our things to be shipped back to NZ, travelling around Europe for three weeks, and now we're en route to NZ.
We had a fabulous time in Europe, but before we tell you about that, here is a post on our final adventure on London. Last week we finally got to Changing the Guard, at Buckingham Palace.
Changing the Guard is a British ceremony in which guards at royal residences in London are relieved by a new batch of guards. The old guard, troops from St James' Palace, and the new guard, those from the Wellington Barracks, march to the grounds of Buckingham Palace accompanied by their bands. The old guard hands over the relevant keys to the new guard, the bands play music to accompany this ritual, and then the new guard marches to St James' Palace. The old marches to the Wellington Barracks, where they will have a rest from sentry duties.
The ceremony is attended by many tourists each day it is held (usually odd or even days of the month, depending on the schedule), and in front of Buckingham Palace the crowd was 5-6 people deep! We managed to get a spot at the front of the footpath, so had a good view for the troops marching to the Palace, though we couldn't see any of the ceremony that took place inside the grounds.
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