The Queen's Diamond Jubilee

When I was 11 it was the Silver Jubilee so because of this reason plus a few others I brought my 11yr olds and 10 year old back to England to join in the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

June 2nd 2012

Afternoon tea with my best friend from school, Fiona and her family.



June 3rd 2012

On Sunday we went up to London to see all the boats on the Thames including the Royal barge.

Victoria train station, London.

Met up with my aunt Elizabeth.
Walking through St. James' Park, London.

Stopping for a picnic lunch in the park.

View of the London Eye from the park.

The top of the Queen Victoria Memorial (a guilded statue of Victory with seated figures either side representing Courage and Constancy) can be seen in front of Buckingham Palace from the Mall. The bottom of the Statue (Queen Victoria and angels) is hidden due to the set up of the Diamond Jubilee concert that took place the following evening.

Further down the Mall with St. James' Park on the LHS.

Horse Guards where the Trooping of the Colour is held, on the right of the Mall as we walk away from Buckingham Palace.

Admiralty Arch.
Leading us from the Mall into Trafalgar Square. The central arch is only used on state occasions, the other two large arches are for everyday vehicles and the two smaller ones are for pedestrians.

The old War Office building took 5 years to build and is now too expensive to knock down.

Captain James Cook

Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.

Big Ben.

Trafalgar Square.

We found a place on Waterloo Bridge.....

some people had better (higher) views than others.....

..from offices in tall buildings (The Shard in the background)..

or paying to go on the London Eye (it was filled with spectators)....

 others were invited to view from buildings...

and others were on the banks.

Then came the 1000 boats down the Thames.

boats, boats, boats..

more boats...

and more boats...

and then the beefeaters on the first boat and the Royal Barge behind.

we went to London to see the Queen...

and we saw the Queen dressed in white standing at the front....

and many other member of the Royal Family.

June 4th 2012

The following day we went to join in the fun activities going on at a nearby castle - Chiddingston Castle in Kent.

street parties were everywhere - setting up for the evenening.



My sister, Cecilia, dressed in her patriotic colours.



Outside the castle grounds.

Chiddingstone Castle.

Tug of war.

The boys waiting to start.

It was boys against girls.

and off they go..

and then a second round..

and then a third round not giving the girls a chance.

Then it was the men's turn. (Rules were you had to have max of 9 including one lady). Both Grandpa (wearing a hat) and Olivia (dressed in white) can be seen.

Meeting up with a friend of my sister.

Refreshments on the lawn.

Morris Dancers.

One of the them was dancing blind to entertain the crowd.

Then they invited the crowd to join in. Olivia is in the center.

The Castle grounds.

Supper with the family before watching the Jubilee Concert on the TV and then later at night walking to the lighting of the Beacon in East Grinstead and seeing the fireworks.

Over 4000 beacons were ignited (10pm local time) around the world to create a symbolic ring of light in honour of the Queen. This included many cities and towns in Britain and Britain's overseas dependencies as well as the larger Commonwealth nations e.g. Australia, Pakistan and Kenya.