An English Honeymoon: Day 2, Part V

As I was looking back to start writing about Day 3 of our English honeymoon, I realized that I actually forgot about one last part of our Day 2: our long walk to Buckingham Palace. I wasn't too keen on walking all the way over there from Kensington Palace, but Dan wanted to, so we did. The weather was still beautiful, sunny, and cool, and we walked miles and miles from Kensington Gardens to Hyde Park, at one point finding a nice shady spot among the people and trees  to eat a couple sandwiches and some ice cream we bought from an open vendor. It was delicious, we sat and drank wine while people watching, then continued on our walk. Of course, after about 15 minutes, I had to go to the bathroom. A funny thing about public restrooms in and around London is that signs for them are very sparse. Few and far between. Then when you find one, you realize that the sign is just pointing in the general direction of the loo, and that particular loo might be, well, a mile or so away... and somewhat hidden. Either behind a bunch of shrubbery or trees or underground. That was our experience anyway. Even the vendors did this, they would point in the general direction, without clear instructions (none of the extreme detail for directions we are used to: "turn right after a block, then left, then you'll see a Walgreens, then the kiddie corner from that, then walk diagonal east and you'll be there"). No, just... over that way. Suffice it to say, when we finally found the bathroom my bladder was so happy and we enjoyed the rest of the tree-lined sun-dappled walk. 

Then Hyde Park ended and we found Buckingham Palace.

There were crowds and crowds of people surrounding the gates and exiting the building. There was a graduation of some kind (which makes sense, it was Sunday) and young adults and their families were posing for pictures, flowers in hand, all smiles. But it was crowded. We gently pushed through the crowds and reached the front gate.

Peering through the iron bars, I wondered if Queen Elizabeth was looking out, unseen, from one of hundreds of windows. I doubted it, but still, I silently paid my respects to her. It just came to me, I didn't plan it, but I did feel an overwhelming sense of respect that needed to be taken seriously, like I was standing in front of an altar of some kind with a slightly different kind of austerity. God save the queen. 

We hung around for a while, watched the changing of the guard, and left, walking back through the beauty of Hyde Park, then back through Kensington Gardens, then back to our area where we then had dinner at Prince Alfred. 

I'll be back for Day 3, for real this time! :)

- Felicia