Ahhhhhh, the third day has arrived and no lie, it was the longest day of our 3-days in London. This day we actually walked 12 miles, but at least it was beautiful Sunday. On the bucket list of my babe, was to see the Change of Guard at Buckingham Palace. Honestly, I had no idea what that even meant, so I Googled it. Google is my best friend, actually. We had no idea of what to expect but after the YouTube video we were ready and excited.
We took the subway from the hotel to Buckingham Palace, from there we walked through a beautiful green park to the Palace. We definitely were not alone and came across thousands of people. Legit 1000’s of people. As we walked towards to the palace, you see these beautiful black iron gates that have a gold emblem on them. They perimeter the property and then they perimeter the actual palace. We somehow got close to the gate of the palace but we were separated from our group, which actually worked out, because we were able to get two different views of the event that morning. I was kind of out close to the opening of the gates, luckily I am six feet tall so I can easily just raise my arm up and capture whatever video and pictures I could.
The change of the guard starts promptly at 10:45 AM and is complete with soldiers on horses, marching bands and then the actual changing of the guard. It takes approximately 1-hour to complete. It really was quite an experience. The symmetry in their movements and walking was impressive. With the obstructed view we couldn’t see everything behind the gates but it was still cool.
Once the changing of the guard finished, the band began to play Happy Birthday! What comes to your mind if they played happy birthday in London in Late April? Well, the first thought that came to my mind is that Megan and Harry had their baby! But no, I was wrong. It was actually Queen Elizabeth’s 93rd birthday! How cool to randomly come to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of Guard on the Queen’s birthday! Well to me, it was pretty cool. The same thing happened when we went to Rome, we got to randomly see the Pope do his sermon on a Sunday Morning. People will plan out their vacations just to see these things and we just randomly got to experience it.
We had a mini photoshoot in the Gardens of Buckingham Palace where there were very bright colored flowers gleaming of yellow and red. It was a beautiful contrast, up against the black rod iron and gold gates. As the crowds dissipated, we began walking through St. James Park that was so beautiful to walk through. There were flowers in all corners of the park, streams and ponds, where there were ducks and swans swimming freely. I actually think this was the very first time, I have ever seen a swan in the wild. It was beautiful.
As we walked through the park to the end, we came upon The Household Cavalry Museum and walked into yet another changing of the guard. It was again, something random we walked into and it was pretty cool. They guards on horses that just stand there all day, but beware, the horses can bite and kick. So you have behave and just observe from afar. Of course there were people in the horses faces. I do not think anyone should bother them. They are working.
We were walking in the direction of lunch by this point. Lunch was going to be on a boat that sits literally across from the London Eye, it was called Tattershall Castle. There you had several dining options both on the deck and below deck. It was a little more casual on the top deck and little more fancy on the lower levels. We did have an interesting time with the servers, but our server Mike was pretty amazing, the Romainian New Yorker living in London. He honestly saved the day with his witty humor and great customer service, he actually resembled Chris Kattan from Saturday night live.
We walked down to river again and had another photoshoot at the London Eye and caught the subway to Abbey Road. Do you know what Abbey Road is? I have heard of it, but did not think it was anything big, but boy was I wrong. We had some Beatles fans in the group and this was where the intersection was that the Beatles used in one of their Album Covers. HaHa, what a challenge it was! There were lots of people there, not to mention that it is still a very active intersection of a road. People, including us, wanted to take the same picture that the Beatles did many years ago. Between having to wait our turn and dodge the cars, proved to be an interesting task! But we got it!, want to see the picture? Check it out below!
The next stop on our itinerary was Hyde Park. Hyde Park is a beautiful large park that is essentially in the middle of London.
But first a side story, we were walking through the park just to get to Hyde Park. It was Easter Sunday and just casually walking, all of a sudden, our friend Xio, who is a child whisperer had 3 little girls flock to her. There were twins and then an older sister. The twins had matching dresses and one of them was walking with a walker. The child whisperer started talking to them and they were the happiest little girls ever. Their mother was in a wheelchair and following along. Then Marlon told us to sit down to take a picture with the green grass behind us. The little girls wanted to be in the picture too! We told them to check with their mom and their mom gladly obliged, stating that their children are a “kidnapper’s dream.” But here is the picture, right here , isn’t it the sweetest? It really made our day, truly!
Ok, so let’s get back to Hyde Park. It takes about an hour to just walk through from end to end. One of the things that was so amazing to me was the amount of people there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Roller skating is pretty big as we saw many different groups doing roller skating dancing and tricks. Check out the video below. There was a beautiful pond with paddle boats there, people just chilling and relaxing on the green grass and kids running around everywhere. It was actually pretty amazing and I quickly realized how diverse London actually was. It was actually quite refreshing to see essentially every single ethnic background doing something in the park. I wish ALL places could live so harmoniously, that may have been my favorite part.
So we had one last stop after the park and it was actually on the other side of the park and because we stop all the time to rest, take pictures, have a snack, or whatever, it took much longer. The last part of the park was Kensington Palace which actually looked pretty empty. Only to find out that Megan and Harry actually live there. I was so star struck and was incredibly interested to see if by chance we would be able to see them. We exited the park and ended up on a very secure street where you are not supposed to take pictures. There were cameras watching to ensure you didn’t. This street was really something beautiful though. The houses were mansions, the flowers were gorgeous and it appeared that’s where many of the embassy’s and consulates were for many of the countries around the world.
Our last stop was literally a photo opportunity only. Many many months ago, I saw this pub on Instagram and was like OMG, I want to go there, NO I have to go there. It is called Churchill Arms and it was a beautiful pub that was covered with flowers. And not like a normal amount of flowers, like flowers EVERYWHERE! I really love flowers and I love beer so it kinda made sense to go. After all the walking we did (12 miles to be exact), we came upon the pub and I was in total awe. Check out our picture below. There was actually not a seat in the place so we took our pictures and then went to a Spanish Tapa Wine Bar that was next door and wow what a feast that was. We had every kind of food in London except for British food, while in London. Everyone says that British food is less than ideal anyways, but their Indian food and Spanish food is delicious and on point.
After this, we were absolutely done for the day, like no more we had to go back to the hotel. We were legit exhausted and I had to give kudos to my friends for making the track with me to see this pub. But this was the one place that I had to see. It was the perfect way to end our 3-days in London.
We had an early flight in the morning to our next stop, Edinburgh Scotland!
Check out my other favorite places to check out while in London, the links are below. I do think 2 more days would have been nice in London, because there were still things we didn’t get to see. Of course, we didn’t HAVE to sleep, but we NEEDED to sleep. I already have things to see when we go back and I can’t wait!
Other London Posts: Lovely in London: Part I https://healthyworldtravels.com/lovely-in-london-part-1/
Lovely in London: Part II
https://healthyworldtravels.com/lovely-in-london-part-1/
Check out my Pinterest Page for more pictures: https://www.pinterest.com/healthyworldtravels/united-kingdom/london/
Happy Travels my friends!
