The Royal Zoo

Maureen at Buckingham Palace

The daily ritual of changing of the Queen's Guard at Buckingham Palace attracts thousands and we were among them watching the marching up and down of the band in their grey coats and black bearskin hats as the guards changed. The crowd was about 10 deep peering in through the iron fence and I wondered who was really in the zoo - probably us! At the end of the 45 minute process the  ‘old’ Guard are matched back to Wellington Barracks and the new troop to St Jame's Palace down the Mall. All quite a spectacle.  

NZ War Memorial
Multiple pylons shaped
 as a vertically oriented cross

Close to the Palace up Constitution Hill are significant War Memorials including that for Bomber Command 70 years in the making.  The controversial carpet bombing of Dresden and other German cities at the end of the war led to the reluctance to recognize the ~54K British and allied airmen who died in the air war - two of my Father's first cousin's among them.  It was emotional to have the chance to pray there for the O'Halloran boys who died in 1942, and their families,and again at the NZ War Memorial close by.  

As the entrance to Hyde Park was across the road we journeyed there meeting many sweatless lunchtime runners trying to race the cold.  We strolled down the path alongside Rotten Row, a sand covered avenue of 1.5 km originally a carriageway for monarchs but now used to exercise the Royal Calvary horses.

The Victoria and Albert Museum was next on the agenda completing the trifecta of Museum's along Exhibition Road, Kensington.  The 
parking spaces along the road were like a car show filled with Porsche, BMWs, Aldis, and the odd Royals Royce and Lamborghini - posh!

As Imperial College London is next door we had coffee with our son John, who studies there, before selecting which galleries of the V&A to tackle.   It is a vast and diverse museum but two things I enjoyed most were: the audio display on what makes people British with comments from comedians and other notables.  One comedian said it was being self effacing, queuing and humour that made people 'British'.  I think that British humor is definitely an element with its great ability to for them laugh at themselves and make fun of bad situations.  The Goons on the radio in the 1960s were my first introduction to humour before the advent of television and started in 1945 - a salve for post war Britain.  A classic example of war humour was the publication of a satiric song by Noel Coward during the War called "Don't Let's Be Beastly to the German's".  Unfortunately the song was incorrectly interpreted by some as being pro-Nazi and banned by the BBC!

700 year old French Door. 
Note ironwork

The other thing I noticed in the museum was its collection of doors - I have seen many in museums but never thought about the story they tell of their context: hospitality or defence, display of wealth or art, poverty or affluence.  Like the eyes are the entry to the soul a door tells us something about the life inside a building and its function.