Trooping of the Colour 12th June 2004

[jimbo23]

Thought I would mention that the Queens official birthday parade and trooping of the colour ceremony and Guards inspection takes place on 12th June this year on a saturday and some people might be in London that day post cruise and get to see it.

Norwegian Dream April 2003



days to sailing away on constellation
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[sgilmore]

That happens to be the one day we are in London. What exactly will take place?
Sally

[jimbo23]

The Queen inspects the foot guards on horseguards parade at the rear of 10 downing street..The area on horseguards is closed off to the public but the whole parade goes from buckingham palace right down the mall and the mall is lined with guards to see her pass for its length. The whole of the royal family plus massed bands from the guards division is in the parade and the queens life guards(mounted troops with silver breastplates is involved along with the mounted bands and the blues and royal regiment another mounted guard. The whole thing is spectacular and if you are in London on that day don't miss it there is a website for it and you can find it by clicking on this link.

[url="http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page370.asp"]http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page370.asp[/url]

Jim

Norwegian Dream April 2003



days to sailing away on constellation
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=111111&cdt=2004;5;22;16;00;00&timezone=GMT+0000[/img]

[Globaliser]

Although it's the sort of thing that tends to drive us Londoners up the wall because of all the disruption it causes, it's undeniably one of the great regular royal occasions. If you happen to be here in London and want to see some real pomp and pageant, don't miss it.

[sgilmore]

It sounds interesting. Does anyone know how far it is from the Marriott Grovesnor to where this all takes place? Also, is it going to be hard for us to sightsee on that day due to traffic, etc? I would hate to miss out on London's main attractions and only see that!
We will only have from 11am till the next morning.
Thanks for your help!
Sally

[Globaliser]

Do you mean the Marriott Grosvenor [B]Square[/B]? (In the UK, don't miss off the end of the street name when quoting it. Over the weekend I've been solving a problem for someone whose hotel was on Sipson [B]Road[/B], not 1.5 miles away on Sipson [B]Way[/B].)

That hotel's location is arrowed on [url="http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=528385&Y=180894&A=Y&Z=1"]this map[/url]. Go to the zoom bar immediately below the map and click the second house from the left. At the bottom of the new map you should be able to see Buckingham Palace. The Mall is the road that leads east-north-easy from there; Horse Guards Parade, where the ceremony takes place, is at the very right hand edge of the map where the curved road just touches the edge. To get from the hotel to The Mall should be about a 15-20 minute walk. Obviously, the earlier you are prepared to go to stake out a place, the better the view you are likely to get.

Getting around this part of central London by road will inevitably be more difficult than usual until mid-afternoon. Many of the roads in the area will be closed, including Whitehall. But the problems are usually reasonably localised - and there are plenty of alternative routes by Tube so you can avoid the roads. If you want to avoid the area completely, you could go into the City (CBD) and see places like St Paul's, the Monument, the Tower of London etc. which are well away from the area. (The Tower may well be firing a gun salute at some stage, which will scare the living daylights out of you if you're nearby and not expecting it.)

Also, if you do go and see the parade, there will be the usual slow crowd traffic on foot into and out of the area.

Whether all of this is worthwhile depends on your priorities. My view is this:- The rest of London will all still be here for your next visit. But your next visit won't necessarily be on the day of one of the best free shows in town.

Some more links for more information:-
[url="http://www.army.mod.uk/ceremonialandheritage/household/trooping.htm"]http://www.army.mod.uk/ceremonialandheritage/household/trooping.htm[/url]
[url="http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/trouping.html"]http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/trouping.html[/url]
[url="http://www.londontown.com/London/Trooping_the_Colour/"]http://www.londontown.com/London/Trooping_the_Colour/[/url]
[url="http://www.whatsontheplanet.com/wow/ptnr/cnn/page.jsp?fx=event&event_id=16112"]http://www.whatsontheplanet.com/wow/ptnr/cnn/page.jsp?fx=event&event_id=16112[/url]

[Mel]

I agree, if you are there for the Trooping of the Colour, you must go and see it. We happened to be there a few years ago and it was definitely the highlight of our visit.
Merilyn

[Sue's Mom]

I try and watch it every year on the television.

[This message was edited by Sue's Mom on 05-05-04 at 04:55 PM.]

[Nickwolf]

For anyone who might be interested I have just watched the parade on TV. The standard was excellent and as a former soldier I speak with a little authority.

I hope those who were in London managed to get to see it.

Nick.

NCL Star March 2004

[Globaliser]

Certainly saw the flypast at 1 pm - the route comes right over my office.

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Jewel of the Seas 1-3 May 2004 - see [url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?q=Y&s=927093444&a=tpc&m=904107102&f=069097554"]my review here[/url], and [url="http://community.webshots.com/album/140741580OdzpCX"]my photos here[/url].

[sgilmore]

We lucked out and our first stop for sightseeing was Buckingham Palace just as the parade was about to start. It was really something to see. I am glad we were there. We did not stick around for the fly over though. To mcuh else to see!
Sally