June 16, 2025: Changing of the Guards, British Museum, and Homemade Spaghetti

 (Written on July 17th by Brian)

On Monday, we decided that we truly needed a break, and let everyone lay around the apartment and relax until at least 9am. It might have even been 9:30am, I don’t remember. Everyone loved not running anywhere early in the morning and just enjoying the free time. However, our one chance to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace was this morning, so we decided to get into a taxi to get close. We were extremely happy to also discover that the black cab taxis (the most common taxi) fit 5 people, so no more having to call large vans for our trips.

First time in the official black London taxi cab

We made it in good time to the mall (note: just a big road, not an actual mall) in front of Buckingham Palace, and found a good place to watch the parade. We remembered a large procession 10 years ago and told our kids what to expect.

The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace

Getting in position for the Changing of the Guards

The Changing of the Guard: The Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas

The Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas

The Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas

Foot Soldiers of the Household Division

However, we were pretty disappointed that things had changed in the years, and while the band was awesome, there was not much else besides a small guard following them. We wandered over to near the palace and finally saw the guards in full uniform [meaning the classic red coats and giant hats] marching around, which is what we expected the first time. We found out it is different each time, so maybe next time would be better, oh well.

Buckingham Palace

In front of Buckingham Palace

The Red-coated guards in the background

We decided since we were so close to Big Ben/Westminster Abbey and the kids kept asking if every big clock was Big Ben, we should walk through St James park to see it.

Buckingham Palace from The Blue Bridge, St. James Park

St. James Park Lake from the Blue Bridge

First Views of Big Ben (technically the Elizabeth Tower)

Palace of Westminster-Parliament Building

Savilles and Big Ben

Statue of Winston Churchill, Westminster

A crashed double decker bus

After some pictures in front of Big Ben, we headed to Westminster Abbey and got some photos there as well.

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

We then found some food close by at the Two Chairmen, a traditional pub. The food was fantastic, so fantastic that we didn’t get any pictures of it, but we tried fish and chips, lots of chicken (finally chicken done right!) with piri-piri sauce and Korean BBQ sauce, a burger and salad, and even some loaded nachos for Devri. It was good because we hadn’t yet been able to find some “bereavement nachos” to commemorate the day that her father passed (an annual tradition for her).

Drinks at a British Pub (Non-alcoholic, of course)

When in doubt, pinkie out

Bereavement Nachos, a few days late

Two Chairman Pub Exterior

We then took a taxi to the British Museum.

Sunroof-ed black taxi

Iconic Red Phone booth near the British Museum

The British Museum

I want to make it clear by this point in the trip, the kids are pretty tired of museums and seeing priceless works of art. As this was the last traditional museum (we’ll see a Titanic museum, but that’s it) of the trip, we decided on a list of top 7 things to see in it (thanks to ChatGPT for coming up with that) and focused on only those. 

Our Must-see plus room number

Colossal Red Granite Arm of Amenhotep III, 1370 BC

We saw the Rosetta Stone. Gabe was the most excited to see this one since he had read about it in a book. Unfortunately, I tried Google Translate on it and it didn’t come up with anything, bummer.

Rosetta Stone, ~196 BC

Victorious Athlete: Vaison Diadumenos (ribbon wearer), Hadrianic copy (2nd century AD) after a 5th century BC original in bronze by the sculptor Polykleitos

Reconstructed facade of Nereid Monument, 390 BC, originally from Lycia (present day Turkey)

The Parthenon sculptures. These were removed by Sir Elgin when the Ottoman Empire controlled the Parthenon, and they have been requested to be returned many times to Athens. It was great to see the models of the Parthenon and Acropolis and say “we saw that!” Unfortunately, we somehow missed the 6th maiden statue from the Porch of the Maidens. I think we saw it last time we were here, however, so no biggie.

Marble Statues from the pediment to the Parthenon

The Assyrian Lion Hunt reliefs. These were cooler than that I thought they would be, they showed a full lion hunt done in the Mesopotamians.

Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs , 645–635 BC

Roman copy of  3rd century BC Hellenistic Bronze  statue "Boy with Thorn" or "Spinario", Marble, 25-50 AD

The Hoa Hakananai’a, or Easter Island head. This was pretty awesome to see.

Hoa Hakananai'a, Easter Island, 1000-1600 AD

Ancient Egyptian Mummies, much to Rachel’s nightmares/chagrin.

Egyptian Canopic Jars

Mummifies sacred bulls

We saw the Sutton Hoo treasure, which was an Anglo-Saxon ship buried in the ground. It’s basically a treasure trove from a Viking ship, and was pretty cool to see.

Finally, we saw The Lewis Chessmen pieces. These are world famous for their detail (despite me never having heard of them) and were used as inspiration for some of the life size chess pieces used in the first Harry Potter movie (at the end).

Lewis Chessmen, 12th century

Lewis Chessmen, 12th century

Interior atrium of the British Museum

We were done in about 2 hours, and took the opportunity to go back to the apartment and just relax the rest of the evening. We had found quite a bit of food at the apartment when we first arrived, and after Michael found some spaghetti noodles he wanted to make true Italian spaghetti for dinner. He did some research while I went shopping for some medicine, since Gabe had developed a foot rash (probably from the MSC cruise) and most of us had gone through colds and I was moving into a sinus infection. He sent me the items to get, I picked them up on the way home, and we all just went to sleep or watched shows/played games until dinner time.

I came out to Michael already working on dinner, helped him finish it up, and then served it to everyone. While he was a little sad it hadn’t turned out better (I really just think it needed some salt and was quite good), we were all just so happy to smell food cooking in our apartment and be able to sit down and eat a homemade meal together. It had been nearly 4 weeks since that had happened. Gabe said it felt just like home since they were all on screens before dinner. I was extremely grateful for Michael having the idea and then following through on a meal for us all. It might be one of my favorite moments of the trip with just our family [Gabe brought it up just last week at dinner (mid September), telling us how amazing it was]. We had our home with us in London.

First homemade meal in almost a month

Originally we were going to go out again, but we again opted for a much needed easier night and just laid around until bed.