Our Accidental Coronation Day

On June 2, at the end of S.'s mid-term break, we made our way to Buckingham Palace with a workaround plan in place to catch part of the changing of the guard despite the inevitable large crowds, long waits, and poor views. When we arrived at Wellington Barracks we were surprised to find that something more grand than we expected was already happening:

We caught two or three marching bands like this one:

We then watched the cavalry line up in front of Buckingham Palace:

Eventually horse-drawn carriages emerged from the palace and everyone except the spectators and guards trooped off.

Since we had such a good view and the changing of the guard evidently had not occurred, we dutifully put in our time waiting for the real event. An hour or so later, we gave up and made our way to the other side of St. James's Park for our appointment at the Churchill War Rooms.

There we found the real action was happening--a magnificent spectacle--at the Horse Guard Parade grounds. All this, I now realize, was part of the Colonel's Review, held one week before the Queen's birthday celebration. Although as far as I know no members of the royal family were present for the rehearsal, June 2 was also the 65th anniversary of the queen's coronation.

I'm not sure whether to be annoyed at myself for not doing my homework in advance, or glad for the surprise--if we had known there was to be a major event we would almost certainly have canceled the trip to avoid the crowds. For her part, s. was terribly disappointed to miss the changing of the guard--which, it seems, never took place that day--but the variety of water fowl in St. James's park almost made up for it:

The Churchill War Rooms were worth seeing too.