Why I love London

Growing up, I hoped to move away from Essex.  I always felt that it was a county trapped by London, with it's money, culture and diversity.  Poor old Essex, seemed to have nothing.  Now that I've grown up, I quite like the peace of Essex.  I enjoy the long country walks, the quirky artistic people who are trying to bring culture to the county and (hopefully without appearing racist) the fact the most people speak English (because I like to listen in on conversations and get frustrated when I can't understand them)

But there is nothing that enlivens and inspires me more than a trip to Town.

Smithfield Market

Today, we went to London to visit the Queen.  The atmosphere was brilliant.  Most people were in good spirits, despite how crowded it was in places.  Stumbling across some barriers and a collection of Policemen we were lucky enough to get a really good close glimpse of the Queen, Prince Charles, Camilla, Harry, William and Kate as they drove from St Paul's to Mansion House and Guildhall.  We only had to wait about 20 minutes before we heard, "Queen on Way" over the Policeman's radio.  My son quickly turned this into "Q.O.W.....Q.O.W", which was passed down the line of waiting people.
We stood on the corner where the parade of cars divided.  The Queen went straight on and I took an excellent photo of her driver.

The rest of the Royal party turned the corner to go to Guildhall and we moved to get a better look.  My daughter, clumsily running and waving, caught Kate's eye and received a personal wave, which has made her year.  There was a look of recognition on Kate's face and you could almost see her thinking, "I would have been that girl a few years ago."

Walking towards Mansion House, we thought we could see the Queen.  My camera has better eyes than I do and when I saw the photo I said, "Oh, look! Posh people!".  I really must learn to keep my mouth shut in public, as they people around us found this very amusing.

There were many funny sights that I didn't manage to capture on film.  There was a coach-full of priests and choir boys, snipers on rooftops and lots of very strange hats with feathers sticking out the top.  

After eating, we made our way to Horseguards Parade to wait for the Golden carriage.  We heard the bands playing, saw a few marching military heads and loads of horse poo but were just too far away to see the Queen.  The funny moment came when the Queen was going past and people even further back than us shouted, "put your umbrellas down.!"  The woman next to me looked at her daughter and said, "We've just seen history!"  

If we were less dedicated to our stomachs and more dedicated to watching the parade, we could have got a prime spot like this one.