Wednesday, June 8, 2011

London Day 12.... June 8th





Day 14…
Today we went to see the Queen, well at least the Palace she likes to call home. Fortunately we didn’t have to leave to early, but we did manage to be the first group at Windsor Palace.

The palace was quite close to the train station today, it only took a few minutes to get there, where we waited for the gates to open. I felt like the people around coming to see the Palace were waiting in line at like Disneyland or something to get on their favorite ride. People from everywhere were coming to see this Palace. We got inside the gates and this was the first place we had to go through security.
Once we were inside we took a guided tour around the grounds where we learned about what and how the Palace worked. I learned that the moat actually never had water in it. Flying buttresses are what hold up the temple
The Queen has a doll house that has very life like rooms that is you were to take a picture of them it looked like an actual bedroom. The rooms I walked through seemed a lot bigger than in any other house/palace/castle I have been into. A large hall has shields representing anyone that has been a member of the order of the garter, and if you were shamed or dishonored, your shield was whited out, which was actually explained by an audio tour guide I had, and that the order of the garter was originally made fun of by people and then was honored once (someone important, if I remember the name I will fix this) made it so. There are hundreds of shields lining the walls and on the ceiling.

Changing of the Guard

I watched the changing of the guard, which is not as extreme as the Arlington Cemetery Changing of the guard. People were talking, laughing, and the band started playing show tune type songs, like the James Bond Theme Song!
Just finished me ice cream from the Icecreamist!!! This time I noticed the names of the ice cream, which totally made my day J It is the second time that I have now been there and I am pretty sure it gets better every time J I know I may have a little bit too much of my mom in me…

~Cheerio All~

Elyse