The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Parade & Moulin Rouge!
Thursday, June 2
If you've ever watched footage of royal events, you might be familiar with these types of parades. Thousands of people gather around Buckingham Palace, British flags everywhere, the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, the Queen waving. Fun stuff. And I was going to be there this time!
Some other people got brave and STOOD on the railing!
And here are Kate and Camilla and the children headed the other direction!
The parade was over and the police allowed people to start filtering into the Mall to head towards Buckingham Palace. Kimber and I were kind of confused; the Queen hadn't come through. But then we realized that she just... wasn't going to. It made sense. She is old. It's hard for her to get around. So she must've just been chilling inside Buckingham Palace the whole time. I was bummed that I didn't get to see the Queen up close, but it's understandable.
I really loved it. I will say that it was quite different from the movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. The talent of the actors and really anyone in a production like this is always astounding. So much work goes into it!
I always assume people know what's going on with the Royal Family, which is silly for me to assume. So in case you didn't know, the Queen is celebrating 70 years on the throne this summer, which is called the Platinum Jubilee. She is the only British monarch to ever reach this milestone, so it's pretty monumental!
The parade began at Buckingham Palace and moved down a long road called the Mall. I wasn't sure what all would be included in the parade, but I knew members of the Royal Family would be present. The parade was scheduled to begin at 10:00 am and would end at about 12:30 pm.
My day started with a quick Tube journey from Victoria to Green Park at about 7:30 am. I knew I had to get there by about 8:00 am to get a spot on the Mall. At Green Park, things immediately felt confusing. There were road and sidewalk blockages. I ended up just following the crowds, trying to watch on Google Maps where I was. I had done a lot of research and knew exactly where I planned to stand.
The walk to my spot was pretty congested already, but everyone was in a great mood and there was lots of security and police. My spot was already fairly full -- probably 8 rows of people back from the Mall. I could've been closer, but I decided to stand at a railing. I knew I would be there for a long while, so I figured it would be a good idea to have the railing as an anchor.
To give you an idea of where I was in the crowd along the Mall, here is a screenshot from the Royal Family Instagram from Buckingham Palace. I'm inside the red dot area!
It's so crazy to think that my little face is actually in this photo!
Here's the first video I took when I arrived. You can see people were already packing in, but it wasn't shoulder to shoulder at this point.
Lots of people-watching ensued. I noticed the woman next to me was asked interview questions by a couple of media outlets. They were asking her where she was from and why she came, what the event meant to her. I heard her mention she was from Colorado, so I struck up conversation with her about being from the States. And thus started the Platinum Jubilee parade friendship between me and Kimber Beasley from Colorado Springs. Kimber took this photo of me sitting on the railing!
Kimber and I discussed solo travel since she was by herself too. She also has visited the UK several times, so we got to talking about where we've been, what our itineraries were this time, and what our plans were after that day. We also had lots of spirited talk about the Royal Family. It was nice to have her to chat to! It definitely made the time go by faster.
These people were being interviewed behind us for a channel called FranceInfo. I was waving idiotically in the background of this footage! I've looked on the internet to see if I could find the clip, but I haven't been successful... yet.
I like this picture above too because you can see how open it was behind us. I was really grateful for my spot on the railing. I feel like I might've felt claustrophobic otherwise!
There was certainly a lot of time just waiting for something to happen. 10:00 came and went. 11:00 came and went. I'm not sure exactly what time things started to happen, but then it was pretty nonstop. Lots of videos to come!
I really enjoyed those bagpipes!
And then came my most exciting footage -- Kate Middleton and Camilla (Charles' wife) with Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis! It was so wild seeing them in real life, even if it was just for a moment.
More parade followed!
I think perhaps Prince William and Prince Charles are in the video below. I know they were on horseback and in uniform, but with the hats it was difficult to tell who they were.
I thought being closer to the palace along the Mall would mean I'd be more likely to get close to it once they opened the barriers, but actually where I was... they never even removed the barriers for me to be able to have access to the Mall. So all I got to see was the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family standing on the Buckingham Palace balcony from the big screens.
In this video you can see the big screens very small in the distance. 😂
During the kerfuffle of everyone shifting around, I lost track of my friend Kimber and I never got to say goodbye to her! I hope Kimber is thriving in Colorado Springs and enjoyed the rest of her time in the UK.
Next were the flyovers and there were many. Before they began, I noticed that there were several helicopters hovering high in the air down the length of the Mall. It made me think of the amount of planning this type of event requires, the high levels of security, etc.
Once again, I unfortunately wasn't in a great spot to be able to see. I thought the flyovers would be right down the middle of the Mall, but they flew directly overhead -- with trees in my view.
All the flyovers were very cool, though, from what I could see. Very impressive.
The whole event was so fun to be at. I'm glad I decided to go. I'm not really a person who enjoys big crowds that require a lot of logistical planning, so it definitely took me getting out of my comfort zone a bit. It's so cool that I was there to witness history. The crowds were all happy to be there; everyone was in a jovial mood to celebrate the Queen.
I did eventually maneuver my way onto the Mall after the event was over. I tried to take some selfies, but it's just not my vibe. But I did take this photo -- it's kind of an iconic British look.
After this, I walked through St James' Park back to my AirBnB and it took a long time because everyone else in London was also trying to get back to their AirBnB. There was some major congestion in the park. There was so much foot traffic that we actually stood at a stop a couple of times. Not the most comfortable feeling for me because I felt trapped, but I made it!
I stopped into a place called Gregg's to pick up a sandwich on the way. I had never had a Gregg's sandwich; it's a chain place and I had wanted to try it. I also went into a café called The Rochester to get a coffee. The girls in there were sweet. They seemed interested that I came all the way from America to be in London for the event. I had an embarrassing moment at this café, though, when the girl at the till said something to me that I couldn't understand. It was one of those times where someone repeats something to you three times and you feel like you just can't go on with the interaction, like you'd rather melt into the floor than ask them to repeat a fourth time. Her British accent was so thick. I had to look at the other girl for assistance. All she was trying to say was my total for the coffee. Wow. I think I said something like, "It's been an early morning!" and darted out of there without making anymore eye contact.
I relaxed at my place for a while, eating my sandwich and looking at my photos and videos from the afternoon, and just trying to commit everything to memory.
I headed back out later to the area of Piccadilly. I explored around here a bit, mostly just popping in and out of stores because it's a popular shopping area.
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| Regent Street |
It was a very busy area. And I did get to see the Queen up close here!
Mostly I was killing time until I could go into the theater to see Moulin Rouge! at the Piccadilly Theatre.
Moulin Rouge! is one of my top three favorite movies of all time. I learned last year that it opened on stage in London, but was sad to see the performance dates only ran through the end of May. I did keep checking back to see if they added more dates and when I saw it was running while I was there, I immediately booked a ticket. It was one of the first things I scheduled for myself for this trip.
Look at how absolutely gorgeous the set design was!
Overall, this was definitely one of my favorite days of this trip. Lifelong memories!
The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return. 💖
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