April 29.
(If, dear reader, you do not care about the Royal Wedding, best skip this post and read the one preceding.)
We are in London for the royal wedding. Our daughter, Emily, flew in to join us. This was our first attempt at having three adult bodies staying in Rover, and on the whole, she and we bore up admirably. (Emily did OK, too.)
On Thursday we scouted the wedding parade route; already there were lots of people camped out to claim space along the barriers on Pall Mall and at Westminter Abbey.
On Friday morning we were up at 5:30 and on our way by 6:30: walk, bus, tube to Charing Cross, and walk down Whitehall toward the Houses of Parliament. By 8 a.m. we had found an incredible spot perched atop a sort of deep, wide, window ledge on the Old War Office Building. We were about 6’ above the sidewalk, just across the street from where the cars would come out of Horse Guards Parade and turn onto Whitehall on their way to Westminster Abbey . . . and where the horse-drawn coaches, flanked by the Horse Guards, would carry the royal party back to the palace after the ceremony.
Emily (in green) on our perch
We could sit or stand on our ledge and see above the entire crowd,10 deep and choking the sidewalk by the time things started happening. We couldn’t believe our good luck in finding such a place. If we had arrived even a couple of minutes later, it wouldn’t have been available.
We were able to take great pictures of everyone involved on the way to and from the abbey. Afterwards, we made our way to Trafalgar Square, where a huge TV screen had been set up so we and thousands of others could watch what was happening at Buckingham Palace. The whole thing was quite magical and exhausting. It wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun if we hadn’t found that great viewing spot. We were back to Rover by 6 p.m. and bought an extra bottle of wine to celebrate.