Buckingham Palace, St. James's Park, First London Meal

Buckingham Palace is one of the homes of the royal family. You know when you see them on the balcony waving? Yeah, that's Buckingham Palace:

It's naturally a hot tourist spot, so there's always people swarming around it. 

Queen Victoria was the first to rule from Buckingham Palace. I don't think she cared for it much. She had a bunch of renovations done to it. 

We appreciated all the flowers on the grounds. 

The gates around the palace are also lovely. I said I'd like to have gates like this around our yard but the HOA would probably bitch about them:

If you come at the right time, you can witness the changing of the guard, but we didn't see it. If you're curious, there are videos on YouTube. 

This is the Queen Victoria memorial. It was unveiled in 1911 and it's right across from Buckingham Palace:

Even with all the people gathered, Buckingham Palace is still neat to look at. You can even book tours inside until September. 

When you grow tired of all the people, walk around the corner to St. James's Park. It's peaceful with not as many humans around. Plus there's ice cream stands.

Then we got on a bus to a spot to have our dinner. We were given steak pot pie, chips (fries), and peas. I notice a lot of British meals randomly have peas tossed on the plate. Like, here's a burger, (and some peas.) Here's a slab of meat (and some peas.) They don't always look like this, sometimes it's mushy peas. 

The food was good, but lacking in seasoning. We added much salt to this. But I'm always happy with a meal I don't have to cook, so it was fine. 

Our first full day in London consisted of The National Gallery, The National Portrait Gallery, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St. James's Park, and dinner. There might have been more, but I was still jet lagged and out of it because we literally came from the airport and was let out in front of the National Portrait Gallery. I think I fell asleep twice near the Queen Victoria memorial and was jolted awake by tourists shouting. I always got excited because I would think, "Is the ghost of Princess Diana here?" If I had been woken up and it had just been Prince Charles--excuse me, KING--I'd have probably gone right back to sleep.

So have you ever been to Buckingham Palace?