Trooping the Colour

Ok so I never give 5 stars, I never rate anything ¹⁰⁄₁₀ etc as I generally believe that to do so implies that something is perfect and I believe there is alway room for improvement.
However I have made an exception to the rule on this occasion.
So a friend suggested heading to London for the day on Saturday as it was the Trooping of the Color. I’ve seen this on TV a few times now, both here and as I was growing up back home and always been a little awstruck.
So we headed to London and parked just outside the congestion charge zone and got a tube to green park, we arrived at the Mall about 9 am and there were already quite big crowds gathering. We somehow mangaged to manouver ourselves so that we were around 2 or 3 people from the barriers. You cant get into Horseguards Parade without a ticket, but we managed to position ourselves on the Mall, almost at the bend in the road from the parade ground so although we couldn’t see the actual parade we could hear the bands playing.
The atmosphear was electric, an awful lot of patriotic people all in good spirits and we chatted to lots of folks.
I guess the highlight for me was getting to see the Royals as they passed by. As an American it seems to be almost magical to see the Queen and Co going about their business.
The biggest cheers were reserved for Her Majesty as she passed in her carriage with Prince Philip.
The most awsom part of the day was calling my mom to say «Hey mom, I just saw the Queen»
After the queen has passed and all the guards have moved on, the police open up the Mall and control the flow of people down towards the Palace. This is quite a sight to see!
Eventually the Royal Family appear on the balcony and the cheer was deafening!
After a short while there was a magnificent flypast by a variety of aircraft with the stunning red arrows finishing it off beautifully.
We hung around a little while soaking up the atmosphear before making our way into central london as we had been advised by an excited flag waving eccentric guy that the Tubes and buses would be horific for a few hours.
An amazing day that I will never ever forget and I felt truly privelidged to have seen it. There is nothing which comes close to this in the States (Some guy in a limo driving past is no comparison.
I will definately make an effort to go to this again, even when I move back home!
Well done London, Well done Great Britain!

We were in London and read suddenly about the Trooping the Colour which happened just on one of our days there.
First we made a guided tour through the Houses of Parliament and then there was enough time to spend to the queen :
On the streets men with bowler hats and women up-​dressed with tiny hats. Very funny and impressing at the same time. It looked like everybody was personally invited from the queen herself.
It was difficult to get to the Buckingham Palace because at 10 Street was at the same time an international Meeting of different countries (saw it later in the News).
Somehow we made it avoided the Royal Mall because to crowded and stood still some 100 meters from the Palace. When the Royal Family entered the balcony everybody around us were very excited and then we saw the Royal Air Force flying for the queen.
Exciting.

This really is seeing all the pomp and precession that royalty can put on for the public. The Queen’s birthday is in April, but this is the official celebration where over 1400 officers are on parade, including the band. The parade goes from Buckingham Palace along The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall and back again.
It goes from 10am-​1pm, and I watched the first half on TV, which was the marching and band playing at the House of Cavalry, and then I headed down to St James Park where I saw the end of that, and the Queen got into her carriage with the whole parade driving down Whitehall, up The Mall, and back to Buckingham Palace.
It was crazy, there were people everywhere, but it is one of those events which gives you a buzz of excitement just to be there — and yes, you do get a glimpse of Harry and Wills up in the Royal Box!!!