Grey Coats and Charles the First (Part Two)

Right, back again. So after checking out the Palace and the statue in front of it, I walked down to see the changing of the horse guards, which was pretty cool. They all had their tassled hats and ceremonial swords, looking very smart and official!

The horse guard changed at 11, and at quarter past I dashed back up to the Palace to see the changing of the Palace guard, at 11:30. Of course, by then, there were thousands of tourists, so I saw very little of the ceremony. What did surprise me, though, was that the guards were wearing grey coats, not the bright red ones I thought that they did. Jasmin thought that it might be because of Rememberance Sunday. Does anyone know about this tradition?

Anyway, once the marching band had left, I picked up a sandwich and had lunch in St James’s Park, which was cold, but nice by the lake. I also saw my very first squirrel! They are surprisingly agile, and really very cute! From there, I headed over to Westminster Abbey, planning to tour the inside, but I was an hour too late (it closes early on Saturdays). Instead, I walked around the front, looking at all of the Rememberance poppies.

I then decided to go on a tour of the Houses of Parliament, and I’m glad that I did, since they only do tours on Saturdays. I got my ticket, then went through security into Westminster Hall, an 11th century building that was saved from both fire and bomb attacks to be the oldest part of the Parliament building. It has the most incredible wooden ceiling, and despite being a bit cold, holds real historical significance as the birthplace of the Westminster parliamentary system.

The tour guide was fantastic, and she told us of how Charles the First tried to arrest five members of Parliament for disagreeing with him, but that the Speaker helped them to escape and wouldn’t tell the King of their whereabouts, marking the beinging of Parliament asserting its rights. We saw the lavish House of Lords and the austere House of Commons, following the path that the Queen does when she performs the annual state opening of Parliament. I really enjoyed the tour and learnt a lot about British history.

Afterwards, I had an amazing scone with jam at the cafe before heading out towards the Thames to see the Lord Mayor of London’s fireworks show.

I met Jasmin and Owen at Monument and we took photos with the Tower Bridge before having dinner in Covent Garden. It was a tiring but really interesting day!

I’ve uploaded more photos from Saturday onto Facebook (see the link in Part One). Enjoy!