Monday 27 October 2008

Buckingham Palace and the Australian War Memorial

A couple of weeks ago (a couple of weeks after the Dover trip, I guess) we went to Buckingham Palace. I know I'd been there several times before, but this time we went inside the palace - and it was all legal. Every year they have a Summer opening, and we went on the last weekend that it was on. This year they'd even set up a state banquet to see as well. Unfortunately you can't take any photos in there, which is a shame, because I know it'll be a long time before I see such opulence again. Much to my nan's disgust, I didn't happen to run into the queen. Guess I'll have to keep trying.

We left the palace and wandered over to the Australian war memorial. It truly does look like a urinal, which is a real shame. It takes away from the serious nature of the memorial. I was impressed however with the way the names are engraved, so that if you're standing close to it, you can read the names of the soldiers, but if you step back, you can see the names of locations of important battles.






Completely unrelated - I think I was channeling Dad whilst we were here. I'd stepped right back to get as much as I could into photos. I had an Aussie couple approach me - I was wearing my State of Origin jersey. They were from Victoria and wondered if I knew the AFL grand final score! Even though the mighty Lions weren't in it, I still knew what it was, which made their day.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

They didn't have the internet? Lol.

Just to be nit-picky, it's not the soldiers names in small print, it's their places of birth, and yeah, Cairns, a bunch of Cairns suburbs and all the Tablelands towns are on there, including one that doesn't exist anymore because Tinaroo was built and it is now underwater. That's the thing that always gets me about that memorial, it reminds you that every little town and city gave up their sons for the wars.

Sarah said...

Seeeeeeeeeeee I said I should have written the updates sooner! I forget stuff!