Off to London Town we go. Our two goals were to see the King’s Guard on Horseguards Parade, and to go to Covent Garden to browse the markets.
So off we head with our Off Peak Southern Rail ticket to Victoria Station in London. That ‘off peak’ thing became important later.
We were greeted with the sight below on getting into Victoria Station. No idea where he’s going or what he’s doing. But he was very happy about it, whatever it was. This one wasn’t on the day’s itinerary. Just lucky I guess.
Anyway, enough silliness for the moment, we’re on a mission. We wandered around Buckingham Palace and through St James Park before we came across the Guard’s Band mascot. They were drumming up business for some concert series in the Horseguards Parade parade ground.
On we go. We’ve been in this area of London more than once, and to Horseguards Parade too, but somehow we’ve never seen the guards on horseback doing their guards thing.
And we were a bit nonplussed to see that this week’s guards aren’t the Horse Guards at all, but young women. They all looked about 16 but are surely not. Turns out that this is the King’s Troop, who take over guard duty for 2-3 weeks each year while the King’s Guards head off somewhere north to train themselves and to rest their horses.
The King’s Troop are an artillery regiment, mainly ceremonial, who provide the limbers for state occasions, like carrying the Queen’s coffin to Westminster. They now (obviously) accept women into their ranks.
The afternoon was spent getting to, coming back from and wandering around Covent Garden, where very little was bought – surprisingly.
Back at Victoria Station at 5pm we were a little dismayed to find that the off peak tickets can’t be used between 4pm and 7pm. Bloody hell. I’d looked it up on line, on Southern Railways own web site, before we left, and that only mentioned that they couldn’t be used before 9:30am. So the upshot is that we can either wait around for another two hours and get home at 8:30pm, or we could pay the required ransom and be home two hours earlier. We paid up. Bastards.
Tomorrow is Friday, and the wedding action starts to hot up. I think I’m getting my nails done, or my hair permed, or something. I wasn’t really listening.
We’ll see tomorrow, Stephen and Michelle.