Buckingham Palace
Coming from a country which executed Louis XVI, the last king, by guillotine, I tend to consider monarchy a custom somewhat obsolete and old-fashioned although harmless if a Parliament is in place. We don’t hear that much about the Queen in Canada and I’ve never been very interested in gossip about the Royal Family.
I still wanted to see Buckingham Palace though, as well as the whole area around it. Indeed, once you step on Constitution Hill, you feel like you enter another world. A high wall and barbwire protect the boundaries of the Palace and CCTV cameras seem to be everywhere. Traffic lights have pedestrian and horse crossing lights. Cars are shiny and hordes of tourists are ready to press the shutter button as soon as they see a shadow moving inside the Palace.
Of course, you can’t enter Buckingham Palace. Besides, the Queen was in Ottawa when we were in London — what a shame. Yet, people get as close to the get as they can and take pictures of the guards instead.
You can follow our trip to the U.K here on Flickr: United Kingdom.
 Ah, No Trespassing |
 Traffic Lights for Horses |
 Gate of Buckingham Palace |
 Front of Buckingham Palace |
Buckingham Palace and the Guards
Admiralty Arch
 Buckingham Palace Gates’ Lock |
 Buckingham Palace Gates’ Lock |
 Buckingham Palace Gates |
 Trying to Take Pictures… |
 Buckingham Palace’ Fountain |
 Gate to the Mall Walk |
Buckingham Palace
Towards the Mall Walk
Related articles:
- Gardens of Versailles
- The Summer Palace (颐和园)
- The Forbidden City (故宫)
- Old Beijing (老北京)
- The London Eye
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You got lucky with the weather there! Here in the US, we just had a heat wave!
I thought you could at least visit part of the castle, I guess that it’s better to behead your queens and kings so that you have access to all these beautiful buildings
@barbara — I think the Tower of London is actually the best place to see the guards, or so I’ve heard. I didn’t really try at Buckingham.
@shionge — Nope, not even a deep-fried pizza! I stick with Indian food
@khengsiong — Cool, isn’t it?
@Tulsa Gentleman — It didn’t rain a drop in London so yes, we were definitely lucky. Everything looks better with good weather and under the sun, even people are friendlier!
@Soleil — Yes, I kind of had the idea for the guards. Although because we went early July, we were a bit ahead of the crowd, which made everything easier.
@Linguist-in-Waiting — We had it too, but London is never so hot.
@Cynthia — I think you can but only in August when the Queen is in Scotland.
Indeed, Houses of Parliament is the mother of Parliaments.
While you’re in the UK, the Queen was in Canada. Otherwise, you should be able to her own flag, commonly known as the Royal Standard, flying at Buckingham Palace.
Walking along The Mall, you can notice a lot of statues associated to the sea, eg, lamp posts with ships, dolphins, James Cook, etc all to show off British navy power in the past.
Quand je suis allée à Londres en 2001 our 2002 ils avaient fait des améliorations aux intérieurs de Buckhingham Palace et on pouvait le visiter pendant 1 mois je crois. J’en ai profité pour aller en France à ce moment là et j’ai visité le palace – vraiment grandiose. On ne pouvait pas prendre de photo mais j’ai acheté un livre illustré. Il faudra que je fasse un post la-dessus. J’ai acheté de la crème à la lavande produit dans les terres de la reine cela sentait bon.