A Day in London {Royal Mews, Horse Guards Museum and Banqueting House}

 We had a lovely day in London last Saturday. It was sunny and it's getting warmer. We're really excited for Spring to officially come to London!

We started off the day at the Royal Mews of Buckingham Palace. It's where all of the royal horses and coaches and cars are kept. There are flats there too for some of the workers to live there full time.

 This is one of the State Limousines at the Mews. It was interesting to learn that they're not painted black, but claret. Another interesting fact is that they are tall enough inside for the Queen to stand up before stepping out of it to avoid any awkwardness or indecency.

There is even a sleigh in the collection!

 Last up was the coronation carriage. It is gilded and completely incredible and gigantic! It doesn't have a place for the driver to sit so that people can have a better view of their new monarch inside, but that means that the drivers are on the horses in front of the carriage. It makes it really difficult because the horse closest to the carriage steers it, so they have to communicate to the guy at the front but with all of the crowds it's really difficult to do. Also, this carriage is apparently really uncomfortable to ride in and is incredibly loud and creaky.

 The Royal Mews is in the back of Buckingham, so we walked around to the front for our first view of it since we've been here (crazy that it's taken 4 months for us to see Buckingham Palace!).

Our next stop was at the other end of St. James Park, so we took the opportunity to have a nice picnic and for the kiddos to run around and chase pigeons for a bit.

 (Grace gets the credit for the picture above and below - she loved having the camera as we walked through the park!)

At the other end of St. James' Park is the Horse Guards gate and museum.

 Grace wasn't too happy I took the camera away from her, but she soon lightened back up :)

 We enjoyed learning about the horse guards in the museum. And like usual, really loved their dress-up section :)

After the museum we headed out to the front for the changing of the horse guards. There was a huge crowd of people gathered and those horses and riders just yelled and trotted right through the crowd. It was a bit crazy!

Next we headed across the street to Banqueting House, the only remaining structure from Whitehall Palace not destroyed by fire. James I built it in the 1600's as a place to throw parties and have gatherings. It was also the place where King Charles was beheaded for treason following the English civil war.

In the basement with the Petts. We seriously love these guys - they are the best traveling companions ever! I'm sure that our time here would be far less exciting without them.There's not too much to Banqueting House but the vault (shown above) and the large main room. The cool thing is the 9 gigantic Rubens paintings in the ceiling (and the bean bags so you can lie and look at them).

We really enjoyed the respite from a day of walking lounging on the beanbags. It was a nice relaxed day. I love our London-town!