Day 3 in London-visiting the Queen.

Today the queen becomes the longest serving British  monarch ever- and we thought we really should celebrate with her by visiting for a late lunch...Sadly she didn't get the memo,  but she let us come and see her house anyway. Although this is a very important day (it must be, because they have special souvenir editions of the Buckingham Palace guide produced for it) we opted to do a standard tour of the state rooms at the palace only.  This provided us with  more than enough gilt to last us for a lifetime. (A lot of it on the lavishly decorated ceilings). If I lived at Buckingham Palace (which I will never do) I would also be dying to get away to Balmoral -as the Queen is at the moment-and enjoy some basic beautiful countryside (and maybe some plainer buildings) than the fussy rooms at Buckingham Palace.   Like all over- opulent decoration in state buildings I couldn't help but feel that it is all quite unecessary, although quite interesting to have a peek at.  I found it very interesting to hear and see how they prepare for a state dinner-from invitations, to food, to table settings, to serving. Now I am pre-informed for when my time comes.
I'm sorry, the Queen did not allow any photos inside her palace, so I cannot share with you the wonders of her expensive paintings,  sculpture, opulent rooms, or the grandeur of the whole thing.

We finished off with an ice cream from milk produced by the royal cows at Windsor (at a royal price) as we sat in the royal gardens.(I was allowed to use the camera outside)

Prior to the visit to the palace we walked across to the Thames,  across the Lambeth bridge, visiting the garden next to the archbishop's residence (with lovely mosaic fountain designed by the local kids), then along the bank of the Thames,  enjoying the view of the famous old buildings.  We saw a tug pulling barges which reminded me of the past uses of the Thames, and that it is still not just a tourist river.

Travelling under the London Eye,  we then crossed back on the Golden Jubilee bridge and worked out way back via St James Park  (Where another very friendly squirrel had his eye on our lunchtime baguettes) to the palace.

After the visit we took a stroll through Belgravia (all magnolia coloured houses, and some lovely mews behind the fancy houses where the stables all used to be.

I'm putting this up early because we are heading out to a comedy club tonight to get our last little bit of London nightlife. Tomorrow we will spend a large component of our day on the plane to Dubai-so , Aussies, don't anticipate a breakfast edition of the blog tomorrow.  We will be dropping into bed in our hotel as soon as we arrive, and starting the whole jet lag thing.

See you on the other side.