So on this, the Queen's 89th ACTUAL birthday, the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery fired a 41-gun salute from Green Park (just east of Buckingham Palace) at midday to mark the occasion.
(She wasn't actually there. The Queen takes a week of from her royal duties for a week and has spent her actual birthdays quietly at Windsor Castle with her family and close friends for the past 4 years. At 89, I don't blame her!)
I included both of these pictures because you can see a tiny bit of the mob of people that were out for the celebration. Hundreds of school children, every kind of tourist and more. A local person's nightmare scenario. I missed the midday shots so I made my way to the Tower of London.
The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery take a route down the Mall to the Tower where they would shoot a 61-gun salute.
Walking ANYWHERE in London you can find charming front doors. I love it.
I got the The Tower in time to see the guns rolling in.
I got fairly close. Luckily for me, it was pretty warm that day with the sun at full blast and I'm short. People were impatient to get to other things so they moved out of the way and I got a pretty great vantage point for the shots! They vibrated in my chest. I lost count somewhere in the 30s so I just waited and got some video until they just stopped and packed everything up.
Beefeaters and Royal Troops marching into position.
Ready....
Salute!
Bye bye guns. Until June...
A black telephone box. I need pictures of all the colours that they come in! Red is classic but I have to get the green, blue (Doctor Who) and I think I have seen purple and yellow but that could be a farce.
Favourite place. I love St Paul's. Classic London icon.
The pineapples that are all around used to be used for more than just decoration but as a sign that a visitor would find hospitality within the house displaying the pineapple on the gate.