Clarence House, a couple of parks, and lots of guards

The main attraction of the day was an interior tour of Clarence House (more on that below) but the actual day tour began as we strolled through the first park of the day, Green Park. By the way, 2 pounds will buy you one of the chairs for 3 hours.



Exiting Green Park, we came across one of the most common tourist sites of London, Buckingham Palace.





A view of the palace from the Mall.



Clarence House, which stands beside St James's Palace, was built between 1825 and 1827 to the designs of John Nash for Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence. He lived there as King William IV from 1830 until 1837. During its history, the house has been altered, reflecting the changes in occupancy over nearly two centuries.

It was the London home of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother from 1953 until 2002 and was also the home of The Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, and The Duke of Edinburgh following their marriage in 1947.

Today, Clarence House is the official London residence of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. It is open to the public during the summer months each year. So, technically, we did wrangle an invite to Chuck and Cam's place.

Sadly, only the photo of the garden was snapped by moi as apparently NO photos are allowed AT ALL, even of the exterior and its garden. It is a wonder my camera was not confiscated but in all fairness, no where did it say I could not take photos of the exterior.



Guards outside Clarence House.





Clarence House...a thumbs up! Moving onwards, we strolled through St. James Park.









Next on the top 10 tour, the Horse Guards Building and the Queen's Life Guards. "Here a guard, there a guard, everywhere a guard, guard...".







You gotta feel for these guys...talk about a bunch of yahoo tourists (like me) snapping photos right and left.

The working offices of governement, such as the "Foreign" office and the "Home" office.





Last but not least, we could not help ourselves.