Day 10
On this bright blue morning, we went to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace.
Unfortunately, I could barely see anything through the sea of people.
But I could hear the music.
Later on when the crowd began to disperse, the guards were still playing their music and if I strained my head enough I could see the back of their heads. Their music was so cute. I thought they'd be playing all sorts of pompous music but there they were playing fun tunes and it was so amusing.
(So I googled the sort of music they play and it turns out they play all sorts of tunes from traditional military marches to songs from musicals and pop songs. Now I have to go back and see if I ever get lucky enough to hear them play a Les Mis song.)
After that, we headed to The Tower of London, which houses the crown jewels.
Mum was so thrilled by this fact that she must have repeated it to at least 10 people when we returned home so I can quote her on this now:
The uncut Cullinan diamond was 3106 carats, and was presented to Edward VII in 1906.
Emphasis on the 3106 carats, obviously.
And there's another really huge diamond currently set in the crown of Queen Elizabeth (wife of King George VI and mother of Queen Elizabeth II) called the Koh-i-Noor.
I'm pretty sure the entire crown jewels exhibit is a large vault because we were walking through those giant vault doors the whole way. Anyway, they were all very beautiful and definitely worth a visit. But I can't say diamonds excite me as much they excite Mum.
We also saw the graves of Anne Boelyn and Lady Jane Grey.
By the way, did you know that Jane Grey was executed when she was only 16? Poor girl, having to be caught up in the whole hustle for power at that time. If I recall correctly, she didn't even want to be queen. She was merely a pawn in her father and uncle's fight for power.
Our tour guide was really entertaining and full of punny humour.
Now here's a fascinating fact. Do you know who the original Humpty Dumpty was? (At least, I'm just going to recount what the tour guide said).
Richard III (who's kinda known as a bad guy - check out the legend of the princes in the tower) was a hunchback. Apparently he was a pretty proud guy. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Then he died in battle after he fell off his horse. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. And kind of got hacked apart. And all the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty together again.
And his body was only recently found. Buried under a carpark lot labelled R for reserved. With a sign nearby that said "Caution: Hump in Road". Or so they say. Make of that what you will.
Also, did you know that the current Queen Elizabeth II is the second longest ruler in the history of England? (The longest being Queen Victoria). Queen Elizabeth II was coronated at age 26.
We had dinner at Gold Mine Bayswater. It's supposed to be famous for either the duck or the lobster noodle, I can't recall which, but we had both and more and they were all pretty good.
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