To all those who think they need to travel on a strict schedule,
Sometimes the best journeys are the ones that you stumble upon.
It was not intended that my mom, sister, and I follow the Royal Procession during our visit to London. However, confusion on the Underground plopped us right outside of Buckingham Palace (even though we had our sights on Westminster Abbey), so we just decided to accept our fate and see where our journey took us.
Our spontaneous outing just so happened to be the same path as William and Kate’s Royal Procession. Our journey was as followed: tourist pictures and guard watching at Buckingham Palace, a quick feeding of the swans at St. James’s Park, a skip along the tree covered Mall, pictures with uniformed horsemen at the Horse Guards Parade, a wave to 10 Downing Street, and prayers at Westminster Abbey.
BUCKINGHAM PALACE
If only history’s kings and queens were to see the tourist-occupied state of Buckingham Palace today, I think they would just turn over in their graves.
Packed like sardines, my mom, sister, and I were three out of almost three thousand tourists visiting Buckingham Palace at that singular moment. Everywhere I turned, I was face to face with some foreign-tongued, camera-in-hand international trying to get a peek at the queen (who, now that I think about it, probably wasn’t in).
There were kids climbing Queen Victoria’s monument, people taking GoPro stick selfies, and pick-pocketers abound, all acting mischievous in some way or another. Almost every tourist at Buckingham also found it in their own right to oddly plunge limbs through the gaps of the ostentatious gates in an attempt to touch something royal. Granted, the tourist inside of me could not resist the urge either, but to be fair, I did so for the purpose of this blog.
HORSE GUARDS PARADE
In all its seriousness, the Horse Guard’s Parade brought to mind nostalgic memories of childhood storybooks. Upon approaching the courtyard from St. James’s Park, the Horse Guard’s Parade resembled some strange amusement park one would find in an episode of Doctor Who with the London Eye sightline in the background. Even after looking past this illusion, all the buildings appeared to have been untouched—as if they were directly rendered from a model play set.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY
A place for both celebration and for loss, where royalty have been crowned, and where royalty have been laid to rest. I visited Westminster Abbey on our last stop along the Royal Procession to pay my respects to both past rulers and current figureheads.
Now, I’m not so much of a history buff, for those are the types of people that would really enjoy Westminster Abbey. However, my interest in the recent history of the Royal Wedding was my main reason for visiting the church that day.
Acting like a giddy little girl, I was much excited to walk along the same path as Kate as she married her Prince. I pretended to hear the angelic voices of the choir boys singing to me and I enjoyed arbitrarily deciding the exact positions where William and Kate were standing in a number of poignant images of their wedding. For me, this was the closest feeling I got to meet the royal family.
Sometimes fate is a blessing in disguise. If I had gotten off at the right stop, then I would not have had such a wonderful day vicariously following the royal procession. While the old me (previous to travel) would have gotten extremely upset that I had gotten lost on the Underground, I recently have learned to just go with it and see where I may end up…a philosophy that I will continue on with my subsequent travels. I thereby encourage you all to do the same.
Yours truly,
Lauren
