Saturday, December 20, 2008

Buckingham Palace - Changing the Guards

A popular event that takes place every morning at 11.30 in London is the 'Changing of the Guard' at Buckingham Palace. This is a well liked tourist attraction and draws thousands of tourists for its 45 minute ceremony. In short, this is a ceremony that involves the new guard taking over duties from the old guard and is accompanied with a lot of Pomp and show.
The New Guard Marches towards the Palace from Wellington Barracks
The guards are led in by a mounted guard
This London Bobby ( nickname for police)
had a tough time controlling the milling crowds of tourists during the ceremony. Living up to the image of the friendly face of the London Bobby, this one never lost his cool ( the only thing he lost was his voice which went hoarse trying to make tourists remain behind the fence)
Anita and Utsav amongst the crowd of tourist to see the ceremony
Tourists gathered in front of the Palace to see the Ceremony
Some Facts
- The changing of the guards take take place every day in summer in the forecourt of the Buckingham Palace and lasts 45 minutes. In winter it happens every 2nd day
- The Queen's Guard usually consists of Foot Guards in full-dress uniform of red tunics and bearskins.
- If the Queen is in residence, there are 4 sentries in the front and when is away there are 2.

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