Day 11 - The Royal Garden Party

Daniel and Brent’s Royal Adventure

(and)

You only live once!

Day 11 - The Royal Garden Party

The Queen hosts four garden parties every year.  The first one was held on May 15 and hosted by the Prince of Wales.  We picked the better one as it was hosted by the Queen and also attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, The Duke of York and The Earl and Countess of Wessex, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. The doors opened at 2:45pm.  We decided to arrive early by taxi at 1:45.  Was kinda cool to ask the taxi driver to take us to the front gate of Buckingham Palace.  Btw, the buck in Buckingham is pronounced 'book as in look not buck as in luck'. There were about 150 people in front of us and it was nice to chat with others in the queue. We proudly wore our Canadian Maple leaf cufflinks and tie clips. We were finally allowed in, showed our passports and walked through the main doors of the palace.  It was quite stunning with grand paintings and staircase.  We were specifically told that no photos were allowed inside the palace.   The back garden is massive.  I believe around 45 acres and beautiful. We wandered around a bit. There were two bands. We then went for tea.  These are the tea tents. At 4pm the Queen and several family members arrived and the band played God Save the Queen.  She paid tribute to Canada by wearing a Canadian made maple leaf brooch that was given to her for her 60th jubilee.  I expect this was because it was the day after Victoria Day in Canada. They then set up two 'lanes'.  These were areas set aside for the Queen and in this case, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met with selected guests.  We actually thought the guests were picked just before her arrival at the event but soon realised that they were pre-selected.   These lanes had no cordoned off areas with ropes but the guards kept everyone in line.  Our lane had the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.  Then there were the Beefeaters around The Queen with very long and sharp spears!  Not exactly sure if they were just ceremonial!! Easily my best photo of the Duchess of Cambridge The Royal family then went to the Royal tent for tea.  Selected guests were invited as well (not us). After tea was over, the Queen headed back to the palace and the event concluded at about 6pm.  Here area few photos of the Queen.  Please ignore the fascinators at the bottom of the pictures! All in all a wonderful afternoon and all that we expected.  It would've been great to meet one of the Royal family but we can say we were within 6 or 7 feet.