London was all a buzz the days and weeks leading up to the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and American Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018. Regent St. all gussied up for the festivities.
Our good friends KK and MM live in Windsor and invited us out for the weekend. Since roads were going to be closed, we drove out Friday evening and spent the night at their place (even Roxie!). In the morning we lounged around, having a lovely breakfast of waffles topped with strawberries and (hand) whipped cream, sausages and Royal Wedding Tea. After breakfast we watched the BBC coverage of the wedding on the TV. It was fun seeing all the guests arrive - both British and American stars alike. I was starting to get very antsy about heading out to claim our spot on the Long Walk (the big park leading up to Windsor Castle) but no one else seemed to be in any rush to make a move. We waited until Meghan made her way down the aisle on Charles's arm to meet Harry before finally leaving the house.
Given that KK and MM lived in Windsor we figured they could get us around like locals, finding routes a bit off the beaten path. While good in theory, the security along the parade route was extremely high so nearly every road was closed off and well-wishers were funneled through a select few crossing areas where first you had to go through a metal-detector of some sort. Of course the security details weren't shared ahead of time, but if they had been, I'm sure we would have gotten out much earlier. We were also told that the Long Walk was at max capacity and they weren't letting anyone else in.
We considered returning back to the house but that left us all pretty disappointed so we walked as far as we could until we hit metal barriers at a roundabout across from the Long Walk. We decided this was as good as it would get, but a few minutes later, we were told by one of the officers that they would be opening up the roundabout for people to stand on. We quickly got in line to go through the metal detectors and made our way onto the grassy area Given it was a slight incline our view was actually pretty good and we were only about 3 or 4 rows back. C managed to make her way down in front so had a perfect spot to watch the carriage with the newlyweds coming down the street. The whole event was very festive and exciting and we totally lucked out with our location! From our spot we could even watch the end of the ceremony on the large video screens set up on the Long Walk.
After the carriage went by there was a mass exodus and the crowd quickly dispersed. Half of our group went back home and half ventured over to the Long Walk for lunch & Pimm's. It was a gorgeous sunny day so we sat in the grass for a few hours enjoying the atmosphere.
Originally £5, J bought some souvenir flags for £1 on our walk home.
So glad we were able to be a part of the Royal Wedding - a memory to last a lifetime for sure!
Our good friends KK and MM live in Windsor and invited us out for the weekend. Since roads were going to be closed, we drove out Friday evening and spent the night at their place (even Roxie!). In the morning we lounged around, having a lovely breakfast of waffles topped with strawberries and (hand) whipped cream, sausages and Royal Wedding Tea. After breakfast we watched the BBC coverage of the wedding on the TV. It was fun seeing all the guests arrive - both British and American stars alike. I was starting to get very antsy about heading out to claim our spot on the Long Walk (the big park leading up to Windsor Castle) but no one else seemed to be in any rush to make a move. We waited until Meghan made her way down the aisle on Charles's arm to meet Harry before finally leaving the house.
Given that KK and MM lived in Windsor we figured they could get us around like locals, finding routes a bit off the beaten path. While good in theory, the security along the parade route was extremely high so nearly every road was closed off and well-wishers were funneled through a select few crossing areas where first you had to go through a metal-detector of some sort. Of course the security details weren't shared ahead of time, but if they had been, I'm sure we would have gotten out much earlier. We were also told that the Long Walk was at max capacity and they weren't letting anyone else in.
We considered returning back to the house but that left us all pretty disappointed so we walked as far as we could until we hit metal barriers at a roundabout across from the Long Walk. We decided this was as good as it would get, but a few minutes later, we were told by one of the officers that they would be opening up the roundabout for people to stand on. We quickly got in line to go through the metal detectors and made our way onto the grassy area Given it was a slight incline our view was actually pretty good and we were only about 3 or 4 rows back. C managed to make her way down in front so had a perfect spot to watch the carriage with the newlyweds coming down the street. The whole event was very festive and exciting and we totally lucked out with our location! From our spot we could even watch the end of the ceremony on the large video screens set up on the Long Walk.
Originally £5, J bought some souvenir flags for £1 on our walk home.
So glad we were able to be a part of the Royal Wedding - a memory to last a lifetime for sure!
those flags are so funny....and J bought TWO!
ReplyDeletewould you believe that those were't even the tackiest of souvenirs! we got 2 thinking the kids would each want one...which they didn't ;)
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