Watch the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace England

“We arrived two hours early at Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard, and that wasn’t even close to enough time. A crowd at the fence was already stacked a few people deep and overrunning the the statues by the Queen Victoria Memorial across the street. We tried to shoulder our way in closer by filling little open spaces as they became available. It wasn’t happening, though. We weren’t getting any closer. And so we ended up watching the bulk of one of the world’s most well-known military ceremonies over everyone else’s head and shoulders and through a fence.”

“Heck, forget about good, clean pictures, we were barely able to see any of it with our own eyes. The camera actually helped, since I could zoom and snap and then look at the screen to see what was happening. It was pomp and circumstance at its best, and so I smiled. I love tradition, especially ceremonies like this. I basked in the late morning sun and smiled over my good fortune; I witnessed the inspections, saw the troops and horse guards march in, and heard the marching band perform.”

“On my first day in London, I made a beeline for the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, one of the world’s few remaining working royal palaces. This 11am free attraction involved a lot of waiting, especially since I arrived early to grab a gate-side view. The ceremony also took time to go through its paces, some of which took place inside the palace, leaving the audience to their own imagination (and more waiting). Nonetheless, this was about as royal as my trip was going to get, so I stayed put till the end.”