6d Buckingham: the changing of the guard

We arrived at Buckingham Palace with a little time to spare before the Changing of the Guard Ceremony began. So we amused ourselves as best we could. 

Lining up in front of the palace--hordes of people on this rather dreary day

A front view of the palace so you can see the fab gates and the balcony from which the royal family stands and waves.  I was kind of impressed to see it in real life!

Bobbies on horseback, charged with keeping us off the statues, out of the fountains, and off the streets.  They also were in charge of periodically telling us to watch our belongings 

 because "there are thieves among us."     If it were up to me, I'm not sure I'd be advertising it...

This is a scary picture. Not sure which is scarier, though:  the bobby with the assault rifle or the bloke in the bottom right hand corner...

or the fact that they continued to remind us about the thieves among us.

The iconic gates of Buckingham Palace and the guards, busy guarding up to the very last minute until they were marched off to do whatever it is royal palace guards do in their free time.

Now we began to see some action on the outside of the gates! Mounted guards, swords drawn, ride up to the gates. But they didn't enter by the front gate but rather by a gate off to the side.

On their way to the side gate, paying no mind to the traffic signals.

This picture cracks me up. Notice the guy in the middle; it looks like he realizes he's a bit behind and he is double-stepping to catch up.

He has now recovered his composure and is right where he is supposed to be, hoping no one saw.

 And we were treated to a bit of a concert there at the end. I was surprised by the songs they chose to serenade us with. I couldn't tell you now what they were but there were definitely not British songs, more like American pop songs. Of the 80's.