Several years ago we visited London, seeing most of the famous spots. This trip was shorter and we wanted to take an easier pace and see a few things we missed before. Honestly, our “easier pace” turned out to be something other than “easy” but we did finish our days earlier than we would have otherwise.

On our previous trip we watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. This trip we went to St. James Palace to watch the beginning of that ceremony. While there were a lot of people there to watch, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as it is at Buckingham. We listened to the band and enjoyed the pageantry. The troops marched right in front of us on their way to Buckingham. If you’ve never seen the changing of the guard I recommend Buckingham. However, if you want to see just a bit of it without quite so much hassle, Friary court at St. James is a good place to go.

It’s about a 15 minute walk from there to the Royal Mews. This is the working stable/museum where several of the royal coaches are stored. Our main purpose in going there was to see both The Gold State Coach and Diamond Jubilee State Coach. These were King Charles’s coronation carriages. Having seen them in the news made seeing them in person even more interesting.

We finished our sightseeing for the day taking a double decker bus across the heart of the city back to our hotel. You can get a bus tour of London, but we’ve found that just riding the local buses is a good, and inexpensive, way to see things.