Trooping the Colours
June 17th is Angela's birthday and it also happens to be the day that the Queen of England was celebrating her 80th birthday so we decided to go take part in the festivities. We woke up early and were out of the house by 8:00 am. We decided to drive to the northern part of London and take the tube from Epping down to Victoria station. We got out of the underground and started hoofin' it to Buckingham Palace which is just up the road. We reached a point where people were standing around and we thought perhaps the Queen would be coming out of here:
After a few minutes the policeman informed us that no one would be coming out from there. So we headed farther up towards the Palace.
Click here to see a Google Maps view of Buckingham Palace.
We found what seemed like an all right spot at about 10:30 and waited. It wasn't long, about 11:00, when the procession began. There were a lot of military dressed in their best and riding horseback. Some were there showing force and there were some playing instruments. The Queen came by fairly quickly and it was hard to get a very good picture of her. We must have been only about 15 or 20 feet away
This was only the first part. They were all headed down the road so she could perform the actual Trooping the Colour which we did not get to see. I guess it's hard to get in.
Click here to learn more about what is Trooping the Colour
After everybody had passed by people started to leave so we were able to move closer to the road and we were behind only one set of people. Shortly after that someone tapped me on the shoulder wanting to talk to a lady in front of us. It turns out that the lady tapping me was a news anchor for BBC News and wanted to talk to the lady in front of us because she was waving a Canadian flag with a British flag. They talked briefly when the Canadian mentioned it was her birthday at which point Angi piped up and said it was her birthday as well. Off the air the BBC anchor talked with both of them about where they are from and what they thought about the ceremony. Then she asked if it would be ok to put them on the air. After waiting about 10 minutes they went on BBC news live which means we didn't get to see it however Angela and the Canadian each got about 30 seconds of airtime broadcast not just nationally but around the world which is really pretty neat. I just stood there looking good. That was pretty neat, plus we had just seen the Queen so I was pretty impressed with the day at that point. Just after 12:00 the procession started back towards the palace and I was able to get a better picture of the queen. I uploaded the uncropped version to Flickr but it looks better cropped down. Again she was moving fairly quickly, perhaps about 10 miles per hour so it was hard to get a good shot.
People were also waving at her so I have a few shots of just hands. I suppose they were trying to get her to do her Queen wave back to them. The band passed through again as well as some canons and other troops with various weapons. I remember swords, axes, cannons, and what looked like possibly M-16s.
After the procession was over the royal family was suppose to go up on the balcony to view the military planes flying overhead and wave at the crowd. The police were lined in the road forming a sort of blockade to stop people from moving up towards the palace before they were ready to open up the road. By the time they started to pass us we were trapped behind a fence so we could not get out to move up close the palace. Luckily the Canadian women picked up the fence piece and moved it out creating a hole so we were able to get closer. Since we were some of the first people up there we were able to pick a good spot where the fence in front of the palace was not going to obstruct the view of the balcony. Angela was pretty happy about this.
Shortly after 1:00 pm the royal family came out on to the balcony and the planes started flying overhead.
There were a lot of planes, there were probably 7 or 8 sets of different ones. The best were at the end where they sprayed the colours in the air.
All in all it was a really great experience. Obviously we were both tired and burning up from the sunburns we received but we are both really glad we were able to experience it before we left England. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see it. At the end when they finished singing God Save the Queen I was even able to get a picture of her waving before going back inside.
You can view our Flickr page at http://flickr.com/photos/25883797@N00/ or by going here http://jamesnangela.com
After a few minutes the policeman informed us that no one would be coming out from there. So we headed farther up towards the Palace.
Click here to see a Google Maps view of Buckingham Palace.
We found what seemed like an all right spot at about 10:30 and waited. It wasn't long, about 11:00, when the procession began. There were a lot of military dressed in their best and riding horseback. Some were there showing force and there were some playing instruments. The Queen came by fairly quickly and it was hard to get a very good picture of her. We must have been only about 15 or 20 feet away
This was only the first part. They were all headed down the road so she could perform the actual Trooping the Colour which we did not get to see. I guess it's hard to get in.
Click here to learn more about what is Trooping the Colour
After everybody had passed by people started to leave so we were able to move closer to the road and we were behind only one set of people. Shortly after that someone tapped me on the shoulder wanting to talk to a lady in front of us. It turns out that the lady tapping me was a news anchor for BBC News and wanted to talk to the lady in front of us because she was waving a Canadian flag with a British flag. They talked briefly when the Canadian mentioned it was her birthday at which point Angi piped up and said it was her birthday as well. Off the air the BBC anchor talked with both of them about where they are from and what they thought about the ceremony. Then she asked if it would be ok to put them on the air. After waiting about 10 minutes they went on BBC news live which means we didn't get to see it however Angela and the Canadian each got about 30 seconds of airtime broadcast not just nationally but around the world which is really pretty neat. I just stood there looking good. That was pretty neat, plus we had just seen the Queen so I was pretty impressed with the day at that point. Just after 12:00 the procession started back towards the palace and I was able to get a better picture of the queen. I uploaded the uncropped version to Flickr but it looks better cropped down. Again she was moving fairly quickly, perhaps about 10 miles per hour so it was hard to get a good shot.
People were also waving at her so I have a few shots of just hands. I suppose they were trying to get her to do her Queen wave back to them. The band passed through again as well as some canons and other troops with various weapons. I remember swords, axes, cannons, and what looked like possibly M-16s.
After the procession was over the royal family was suppose to go up on the balcony to view the military planes flying overhead and wave at the crowd. The police were lined in the road forming a sort of blockade to stop people from moving up towards the palace before they were ready to open up the road. By the time they started to pass us we were trapped behind a fence so we could not get out to move up close the palace. Luckily the Canadian women picked up the fence piece and moved it out creating a hole so we were able to get closer. Since we were some of the first people up there we were able to pick a good spot where the fence in front of the palace was not going to obstruct the view of the balcony. Angela was pretty happy about this.
Shortly after 1:00 pm the royal family came out on to the balcony and the planes started flying overhead.
There were a lot of planes, there were probably 7 or 8 sets of different ones. The best were at the end where they sprayed the colours in the air.
All in all it was a really great experience. Obviously we were both tired and burning up from the sunburns we received but we are both really glad we were able to experience it before we left England. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see it. At the end when they finished singing God Save the Queen I was even able to get a picture of her waving before going back inside.
You can view our Flickr page at http://flickr.com/photos/25883797@N00/ or by going here http://jamesnangela.com
posted by James @ 3:24 PM
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