Royal Day Out

After very little sleep last night, what with the time change and all, we breakfasted in our hotel and then set out to see the queen.

See, told ya! Just didn't say it was a photo of the Queen. The route from our hotel took us diagonally across Hyde Park to Hyde Park Corner. We had some issues along the way with washroom facilities, but that's another story. Generally we discovered Hyde Park to be a well-used mix of manicured and wild parkland.

I'll get better at the selfie, OK? Passing by the Wellington Arch, we knew we were close to the Palace.

The other clues that we were close were the heavy spike and razor wire fences and the recently added heavy metal road barriers.

Before we knew it, we were walking around the front of the palace, already full of throngs waiting to see the changing of the guard, still hours away.

Before that, however, we had tickets to see the Queen's Gallery. As it turns out, this is a display of the art work of Venice master Canaletto and his contemporaries. Interesting, especially if you've been to Venice.

We then rejoined the masses awaiting fleeting glimpses of the changing of the guard. There is some impresive pageantry here, but most can barely see it.

The guard come down the Mall, while the band eventually joins them from elsewhere.

We escaped this lunacy before its end with a trip to the Royal Mews. The Mews were originally intended as birds of prey houses, but eventually became the home of the 100 or so Royal horses, carriages and royal Rolls Royce, Bentley and Daimler limos.

This is a must see part of the tour. The carridges in particular are magnificent. Now was our time to visit inside the palace to the Royal Staterooms. The crowds were impressive. The rooms were art works and the royal gifts were astounding. No photos are allowed in the living part of the palace until we exited, where we had a break at the cafe and enjoyed regularly unseen views of the back of the palace.

As we exited from the Palace grounds we headed to the next London Royal Palace, the first ever in the world and original Hard Rock Cafe. They bought the building next door to sell their merchandise, but we stopped into the restaraunt as well for a drink and nachos. They,ve got some impressive memorabilia here including this Queen guitarist Brian May guitar.

By now Dawn's feet and my back were feeling the brunt of way too many kilometres. We did, however, walk back across Hyde park to the south to view the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, which is actually a wonderfully circular water course for children to play in. It was a fabulous London summer day and the children were indeed having a wonderful time.

The red double decker bus will always be an iconic symbol of London.

Our walk back to hotel was painful and reminded us that covering 13 kilometres in a half day is probably not a good idea. At this point , relaxation was in order until will set out, on foot again - YIKES!!! - for our dinner reservation at Galvin Bistrot de Luxe, one of the better French restaurants in the city. Our route took us past the famous Marble Arch.

We were not disappointed!! Dawn had a salad of Wight tomatoes, watermelon, buffalo mozarella and olives, while I started with Herefordshire escargots - fresh that is. With this we had a, are you ready for this, "on tap" French White wine.

For main course Dawn had Cornish Plaice (fish)in a Parisienne jus, while I had the rosted Scottish grouse - beware the buckshot. Dawn finished with an apple tart tatin, while I had English strawberries with chocolate yogurt. We also finished off with a delicious Rasteau. We (I) were not very successful in getting back to the hotel on a across country route. We were flat lost, with some nice scenery along the way.

Enters the London taxi, which this time was not a rip off and saved our asses. With over 16 kilometres on the feet today, we may not be able to move tomorrow, but what a day, with amazing weather!!!