At the Queen's Place...and the Royal Mews...

Our walking tour of this part of London was so unplanned. That's what was intended and we are glad now.

Guards came and went as we walked along towards Buckingham Palace (the Queen's place, as the kids call it) presumably taking their turns at practicing and upgrading their skills just as those we had previously seen, had done. My Great-grandfather, George Lewis, was foremost in my mind as we watched.

The palace gates and the balcony were familiar from various scenes on TV.

There were people, but not too many. There were still intermittent showers but we were able to dodge most of them.

Queen Victoria's statue is quite spectacular. People gather on the steps around the base of it to gain a vantage point so I was careful not to photograph them. We were very interested to see where the horses lived so we took the opportunity to go around the back of the palace, and sure enough, we found the way.

These are the stables of all those horses we had been watching earlier. Each stall is complete with its occupant's name, fresh wood shavings and beautiful fittings.

It was truly well worth the visit.

The coaches are all housed here at the mews.

The simply beautiful gold coach, Great Brittania, is presented with all its pomp and ceremony, taking two days to remove from its shelter when it is required.

The indoor arena at the Royal Mews is used not only for training purposes for the royal horses. Police horses are trained here too, and we were lucky enough to see some in action, and to actually stand alongside some of these horses. It's then that we realized how tall they really are.

These are slightly blurred because there was no time for fiddling with lenses!

We consider ourselves extremely lucky to have been in the right place at the right time, to have seen and captured the action. The next day, we flew to Amsterdam then caught a train to Antwerp where we met our young friends in readiness for their wedding.