Buckingham Palace & Queen's B-day

I went to Buckingham Palace on June 14th for the Queen's official birthday. Apparently this is not her actual birthday, but rather, the state's celebration of her birthday. In other words, no matter who is on the throne, this date will always be celebrated as the monarch's birthday.

I spent a good amount of time waiting around for the Queen's arrival (as did a lot of other people). Apparently, the Household Cavalry and Horse Guards parade with the Queen through Westminster, ending at Buckingham Palace. While we waited we were entertained by the military band and took plenty of pictures of the Palace Guards as they paraded and prepared for the arrival of the Queen.

Finally the Queen arrived in her carriage (notice the blue speck towards the back of the carriage). She was greeted with lots of cheering, waving of flags and music. She then ascended to the balcony accompanied by her family and stood there waving for a few minutes. Somewhat anticlimactic, but then again I don't know what I expected.

After awhile the Horse Guards and Household Cavalry paraded past (below left), followed by the Royal Artillery who prepared the 63 gun salute (below right, Royal Artillery and Band).

After the gun salute there were a series of fly overs by the RAF. The coolest one being the famous Spitfires which saved Britain during World War II, as everyone cheered and applauded. The final fly over was also cool as the jets trailed red, white and blue smoke behind them. Once the fly overs were done the Queen went back inside and everyone dispersed. Again, somewhat anticlimactic, but interesting nonetheless. Notice the royal flag on Buckingham Palace signifying that the royals are in residence (below right).

After the Queen's birthday celebration I went to Appley House (sorry, no pictures). It was nearby and was pretty interesting and had a good (and inexpensive!) audio guide. Appley House was the home of the Duke of Wellington. It was interesting to see a 19th century aristocrat's home as it had been in his lifetime. The historical foundation which administers the house has done a lot of painstaking restoration work to make sure it appears as it did in the Duke of Wellington's day. It was full of his paintings and gifts he received after the Battle of Waterloo. Oddly enough, the current Duke of Wellington and his family still live in a closed off portion of the house. In all, it was a pretty interesting and exciting day which I finished off by going on a pub crawl through London!