London Day 18: Buckingham Palace & Fuller's Brewery

I woke up this morning around 10:00 to get ready to go on the Royal London walking tour. A side note: this weekend is referred to as "Love London Weekend" at Faraday House, which basically means that they have planned 20+ events throughout the weekend so that we can get to know London better. Billy Elliot last night was the kick-off, and the activities continue throughout the weekend. So basically, I'm going to do a lot of sight-seeing this weekend.

Anyways, we met at Faraday for the tour at 10:45 and took the Tube to Buckingham Palace. We lucked out and arrived during the changing of the guards, so we were able to watch that for about two minutes before everyone got bored and we headed on to something else. We also saw the parade after the changing of the guards once we were a little farther away from the palace, complete with a marching band. (I have to mention that the band had a bassoonist and two french hornists, but no mellophones. I thought this was odd.)

We learned a lot of random/interesting facts about the Palace. My favorite stories were about how Buckingham Palace apparently gets broken into rather frequently. In one story, three Germans came to London and were planning on camping in Hyde Park for the night. They got really lost, and eventually thought they had found the park. There was a fence in the way, so they decided to jump the fence and set-up camp for the night. They slept, woke up in the morning, started a fire and cooked some beans for breakfast, and then packed up and got ready to leave. It wasn't until they asked a nearby security guard where the nearest Tube station was that they (and Buckingham Palace's security) realized they were on the Buckingham Palace lawn, and had been all night. The second one was by far my favorite. This time a drunken Irishman just walked right in the front doors. Apparently he was so drunk he was stumbling all over the place and managed to set off so many alarms at once that the guard on duty assumed the system was malfunctioning and turned everything off. So, this drunken man walks around the Palace for a few hours, going into the rooms, sitting in the throne, etc. when he reaches a room and opens the door. As it turns out, this particular room is the Queen's bedroom, and she is there sleeping. He gets on her bed (seductively, I might add) and awakens her. Apparently she kept very calm and tried to reach for her panic button by giving him a hug, but she couldn't reach. So, she engaged him in small talk for about 10 minutes before he asked her if he could bum a smoke. She said she didn't smoke, but her doorman downstairs did, and would he mind if she called the doorman to ask him to bring a pack of cigarettes upstairs. When she got on the phone she said something along the lines of, "Hi. It's the Queen. I was wondering if you could please bring up a pack of cigarettes for the DRUNK IRISHMAN THAT IS SITTING IN MY BED!" and in 30 seconds the man was surrounded by guards escorting him off the premises. I think that is a great story he'll be able to tell his grandchildren. (On a side note, he was never punished because there are no laws forbidding you to break into Buckingham Palace. Haha.)

Part of the way through the tour we had to leave so that we could grab a bite to eat and then catch the Tube to the brewery tour. The Tube ride was about 45 minutes long, but we really enjoyed it because a lot of it was above-ground, which was a nice change. It also happened to be a beautiful day in London today (about 45-50 degrees and sunny) so we tried to be outside as much as possible. Once we reached our group, we all got together and made the 15-ish minute walk to the brewery.

Fuller's Brewery was a really cute, small brewery. We got to see actual workers and actual beer being brewed. The tour guides were all very knowledgeable, and at the end we were able to sample all of the different brews that Fuller's makes. They have a wide variety of beers, including one called HoneyBee, which is brewed using actual honey! (And it tastes just like honey as well)

After the Brewery tour, we took a long walk along the river to get back to the Tube, which was really pretty because it was at sunset. We took the Tube home, Christine and I stopped at McDonald's because we were having a craving, and then we headed back to my flat to hang out. I would like to mention that the McDonald's here are very different from the ones in the States. They have a different menu (a lot healthier) with only a few of the same sandwiches, and the burgers taste a lot different, or at least I thought so. When we got back to my flat we ate dinner and then watched Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist with Katie and Sam (roommates) before everyone (roommates and company) headed out for the night and Claire, Alex, and Ramon joined Christine and I for a night in. We ended up watching a bunch of YouTube videos, listening to 90's music, and playing cards. It was nice to stay in since we were all exhausted from being out so late last night.

And now it is bedtime, and I have another long day of tours ahead of me. Hopefully tomorrow's tour (a Beatles walking tour!) will be more exciting than the past few that I have been on. Goodnight.