"Her Majesty The Queen" (Tues July 3)

We seem to have finally recovered from our jet lag.  Everyone was up and going at a respectable time today.   We spent most of the day at Buckingham Palace.

We started the day at the Royal Mews (stable/ garage).   

The Golden Carriage.  King George III was riding around in this gilded thing while George Washington was chopping down the cherry tree.  Scott was a bit underwhelmed overall, but even he had to admit--not everyone has one of these in the garage. 

Next we headed to the Victoria Memorial Roundabout for the obligatory changing of the guard.

Break in adjacent St. James Park.  Waffles for lunch--who knew it was such a good idea! 

Aftyerwards we headed to the "Queen's Gallery."  This is where she showcases a rotating display of royal treasures.  (Yes, you pay to see the stuff bought at taxpayer expense--and there is a gift shop too!   I wonder why we revolted?!)

On display this season was the Queen's collection of Leonardo DaVinci's anatomic drawings.   Apparently the royal family bought them in 1690 and left them in a drawer in the castle until 1900.  Meanwhile, Vesalius became the leading anatomist of the Renaissance and DaVinci's work in anatomy remained largely unknown (...thank you House of Windsor).

Leonardo's views of the skull.  The detail is amazing and the accuracy is 98%+ of our current knowledge .  And he did all this with a pen and quill!

Davis demonstrates Leonardo's Law of Human Symmetry (your height is equal to your arm span).

 At this point we headed back to the Palace itself for the tour.  It was surprisingly extensive and took a couple of hours to go through.  It was very well organized and the boys had a great kid's audio guide that was actually better than the adult version.  We did get stuck in an in-palace traffic jam when we got to the point where some of the Royal Diamonds, including the Queen's "working crown," were on display.  Afterwards, we enjoyed a late afternoon tea on Her Majesty's back porch.

Boys had hot chocolate.  Scott had tea.  Crumpets were unavailable.

In the Queen's "back yard" (30 Acre Private Gardens).  There was a gift shop on the right just out of the picture and a concession stand just down the garden path (I am not kidding).  Scott was glad to see that Capitalism was still alive and well in the British Isles.

Back on the Outside of the Garden Wall.  Apparently they're not too keen on you getting in there under normal circumstances.

 We still had some daylight so we headed back to Trafalgar Square and spent an hour whirring through the National Gallery.  What an astounding collection of beautiful work.  You could spend days and days in there.  We saw a few great things, including Van Gogh's Sunflowers, before being shoo'ed out at closing time.

Big Ben from Trafalgar Square.  What's the fuss about such a tiny little clock?

Every tourist climbs the lions at the monument to Lord Nelson

We enjoyed a tasty dinner at the creepy sounding, but very nice, "Cafe Crypt" in the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, on Trafalgar Square.