We don't have a lot of luck when it comes to weather and parades. Yesterday morning we headed to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. Unlike Bastille Day, we did in fact see most of the formalities (guards in, guards out etc) which was nice. But then, almost as soon as the last red coated guard marched out of the Palace, it rained. And I mean it bucketed down. We hadn't seen so much rain since, well, since the last time we watched a parade in Paris!
It did fine up a bit in the afternoon however, so we ventured out again to look at the Westminster area (Big Ben, Number 10 etc) including of course Westminster Abbey. For some reason (divine intervention?) one of the Vergers took a shine to our kids and started chatting to us. Coincidentally he had lived in Auckland for a number of years. Having made that connection he took us behind the roped off area to show us where the Queen sits when she comes to the Abbey, and allowed the kids to sit in her seat (much to the jealousy of other onlookers), and also the seat of the NZ High Commissioner. Very much the highlight of the day. Sadly you can't take photos in the Abbey so none of this was captured on film.
Today we went up to Camden Market (which isn't that far from us) where the kids got to see some canal boats passing through the locks, and then onto Kensington Park where we checked out the Diana Memorial Playground. Only built in 2000 this is a very cool playarea all themed loosely around Peter Pan (big pirate ship, wig-wams etc). The kids had a great time, while we read the Daily Mail and Independent over a cup of tea.
Final visit for the day was to Knightsbridge and Harrods...to look, not to shop! (For just 2000 pounds we could have left the shop with the bear the kids are pictured with, but decided against it)
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