YatTravel

One of the most well-known ceremonies in the world, the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace in London is more than just a show for the tourists. The guards are real soldiers doing a real job, namely protecting their sovereign.



The Guard on duty when we arrived at Buckingham Palace was not from one of the five regiments making up the Brigade of Foot Guards (Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish, and Welsh Guards).  Since the Guards regiments are often deployed overseas, other regiments are invited to provide the guard.  The honor on this day went to The Parachute Regiment.



While The Paras were winding up their duty at the Palace, a detachment from the Irish Guards assembles in front of Wellington Barracks, just a couple of blocks away. The 1st Batallion, The Irish Guards, had the honor this year of "Trooping the Colour" at the Queen's Birthday Parade yesterday.



While the Foot Guards (and guest Infantry regiments) are changing the guard at Buckingham Palace, the Household Cavalry change guards at Horse Guards in Whitehall. Above, a detail from the senior regiment of the British Army, The Life Guards, proceeds from their barracks in Knightsbridge to Whitehall, to relieve the guard on duty there. They pass by the side of Buckingham Palace and march down The Mall.



All dem peoples waiting for a parade where nobody throws nothin' :-)

We staked a spot out on the "Birthday Cake," a huge statue of HM Queen Victoria that is out in front of the palace. It's so large that traffic is directed via a roundabout around the statue.  Birdcage Walk, which runs along the side of St. James Park, is on the left, and the left-side gate of the palace is visible on the right.



A detachment from the Drum Corps of the Irish Guards escorts the Old Guard detachment from St. James Palace back to Buckingham Palace. St. James Palace is a complex of royal residences and offices originally commissioned by Henry VIII.



The Old Guard detachment from St. James Palace marches to Buckingham Palace. They are let in via the left-side gate, where they form up with the rest of the Old Guard to await the arrival of their replacements.



The New Guard, led by the band of the Irish Guards, having left Wellington Barracks, approaches the palace. They will swing in front of the palace and enter via the right-side gate. The band positions itself in between the Old and New Guards, around the center gate.



Conmal, the mascot of the Irish Guards. The regiment has had an Irish Wolfhound as a mascot since 1902.

Now that the Old and New Guards are assembled in front of the palace, the process of replacing the sentries begins. A corporal of the New Guard escorts each Guardsmen assigned to the first shift to his position, reads the specific duty instructions from the clipboard in each guard box, then returns to fetch the next man. During this process, the band plays a selection of music. This day's tunes were all from James Bond movies.



As the new sentries are posted around the palace, the Old Guard that was on duty at Horse Guards returns to Knightsbridge. This day, the Old Guard was from the Blues and Royals, who, along with the Life Guards, make up the Household Cavalry. The Blues and Royals are so named because they are an amalgamation of the Royal Horse Guards (nicknamed "The Blues") and the 1st (Royal) Dragoons. One of the badges of the Blues and Royals represents the Eagle of the 101st Line Infantry of France under Napoleon I. The Royals captured that Eagle at Waterloo.

On special occasions, the Foot Guards will pause the guard-changing process to do a "present" to the cavalry troopers, but this was not one of those days.



Once all the sentries are replaced by the New Guard, the center gates open and the band leads the Old Guard back to Wellington Barracks.



The Paras can take pride in a job well done as they return to Wellington Barracks. 



A small detachment of the New Guard marches down The Mall to take up duties at St. James Palace.



The ceremony over, the crowd disperses.



The Irish Guards are now are responsible for the palace for the next 24 hours.

Continued from York Minster, Part 1 Wooden model of the Minster.  The floor plan shows the cross-shape of the church, with the octagonal chapter house off to the left. The ceiling of the Chapter House, an octagonal chamber off to the side of the main church. The Chapter traditionally is the "management" of a cathedral or abbey. The Celestial Clock that is the main feature of the Royal Air Force Memorial. Colours of laid-up RAF units. Chapel of the 33rd Regiment of Foot, later the Duke of Wellington's Regiment A colour of the 33rd Foot, dating to the 1840s. Other colours of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment

ONe of my Twitter-friends "tweeted" this, but alas, I can't remember who. Anyway, thanks for doing so! It's a time-laps vid of a NWA B747-400 being stripped of its NWA livery and re-made into a Delta jet. I didn't really think about it during the merger, but now that Delta has acquired Northwest's fleet, they're flying 747s once again.



Now, if I can just get another trip to Singapore or Tokyo in the works!

York Minster, looking from the west

I've already written about my weekend in York, but York Minster was my main motivation for going to the old city.



These two photos are of the western side of the Minster. A "Minster" is a church attached to a monastery or monastic community. York Minster is also a cathedral, being the seat of the Archbishop of York, who is Primate of England. (The official name of the church is Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of St Peter.)

One enters the Minster from the south side, where there is a lobby and then ticket booths where one pays admission. I gladly paid the full admission for all attractions, but now I'm wondering if you just want to go worship, would they charge, don't know.



The church's interior. York Minster is a classic, cruciform, Gothic cathedral, one of the largest of its kind.





One of the many lovely stained-glass windows inside. This one is near the Western entrance. The close-up is St. Christopher carrying the Infant Jesus.



Like Manchester Cathedral, York Minster has several side chapels dedicated to Regiments of the British Army. This one, the chapel of St. John The Evangelist, is dedicated to the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The KOYLI was formed from the amalgamation of the 51st and 105th Infantry Regiments. In 1968, they were merged into The Light Infantry. In 2007, the LI merged with The Royal Green Jackets to form The Rifles.



KOYLI colours "laid up" in the chapel. The Union Jack is the "King's Colour" and the green flag is the "Regimental Colour."



Lovely St. Michael statue dedicated to fallen officers of the KOYLI





Stained glass window in the chapel, featuring the badge of the KOYLI (close-up).

(continued in Part 2)

Lufthansa B747 in World Cup 2006 Livery (Germany hosted WC2006)

The only silver lining to the cloud that was my horrid experience with SAS last Friday night was that the incompetence of SAS forced them to send me back from Oslo to Manchester on Lufthansa, their German partner in Star Alliance.

My initial contact with Lufthansa came just a few minutes after the SAS ticket re-booking agent told me I would have to run through OSL to catch a flight from OSL to MUC (Munich) on an Airbus A320 operated by Lufthansa. I walked fast, and got to the jetway as the gate agent was clearing standby passengers. My assigned seat was an aisle, but the entire row was empty, so I scooted over to the window after the boarding door closed.

Lufthansa fed us sandwiches on the 2-hour flight, your choice of ham or cheese on baguette bread. The sandwich was accompanied by beverage service, which included, at no extra charge, white or red wine. Now, Delta and Air France offer wine on international flights, but this was an intra-EU flight, so I'm guessing that wine is just part of Lufthansa's regular service.

Keep in mind, we're talking Lufthansa here. The German flag carrier. Which means German white wine, specifically Rieslings.

It wasn't enough to get me to take back all the things I said about SAS, but it did make turning my non-stop into a multinational adventure a bit more palatable.

Upon arriving at MUC, I had to clear immigration desk for the Bundesrepublik. The gate agents at the MUC-MAN flight were well aware of this and were holding the flight to Manchester for me. I was last on board, they buttoned up, and i was finally on my way back to the UK.

And they served me more Riesling.

Yesterday was one of those "airport-hell" days, but it didn't have to be.  SAS chose to make it one.  My complaint e-mail to them sums it up:

I was ticketed on SAS flight 4906, OSL-MAN, 8-May, 17:50 departure time.  I arrived at OSL via the 14:45 "flytoget" express train at 13:08 and immediately proceeded to check-in.  When I reached sections "E-G" of the check-in, the entire area was chaos.  There was a line that extended into the other check-in sections.  I was told by passengers waiting that this was indeed the check-in line and queued up.  After waiting almost an hour, slowly moving to the point where I actually was in-line with section "E," the line was actually a crowd that was splitting into baggage drop, economy check-in and business class check-in.  I could have avoided the massive baggage drop line by going directly to check-in, but there were NO SAS employees offering assistance, clarification and directions.  So, now that I was in the middle of sections E-F, I entered the economy check-in queue.  Time was approximately 16:30. 

I reached the ticket agent at 17:30, and was informed I would not be allowed to check-in for 4906, because I was "too late," and was told to go to the ticketing counter for "re-booking." There was a crowd around this counter as well, large enough that I it was difficult to sort out that the counter was a "take-a-number" operation, where I was supposed to puch a machine for a ticket indicating my place in the queue.  Again, there were no SAS staff on hand to offer assistance or directions.  After literally pushing my way to the ticket machine, I waited for re-booking, with 19 passengers ahead of me.  By 17:55, my number was called, and the re-booking agent placed me on Lufthansa, flying OSL-MUN, MUN-MAN.  I arrived at MAN at 23:00 BST, approximately 5.5 hours later than I would have had I taken the non-stop flight I actually booked.  My luggage, which did not even leave OSL until the morning of 9-May (OSL-AMS/AMS-MAN) did not get to me in Altrincham, UK, until 16:00 BST.

I am an experienced traveler, and can be very patient with airline staff who are trying to be helpful.  I've flown on days ranging from 15-Sep-2001 (the day commercial flights resumed in the US) to severe-weather conditions that have closed ATL and ORD for hours. 

My biggest problem with SAS operations at OSL was that there simply were no SAS staff assisting with whatever the situation was.  In my experience, when there is a problem that is creating a back-up at the check-in counter, most competent airlines will post employees in the area to act as "traffic cops," showing people where to go and answering questions.  In a European airport, this is essential, given the mix of languages spoken by passengers. 

Additionally, most competent check-in managers would, when faced with long lines, prioritize the check-in process by calling for passengers whose flights are approaching deadline to move to the front of the line.  Again, since there were no SAS staff on the floor at OSL, the line simply proceeded in order, not factoring in the possibility that a passenger would not be able to complete the check-in process in-time for their booked flight.

SAS' handling of the logistical problems on 8-May at OSL was a complete failure, a failure created entirely by SAS supervisors.  All that was necessary to sort out most of the problems would have been active assistance by staff.  That didn't happen, and passengers were left to fend for themselves.  This resulted in me being having to run through two airports and taking an unnecessary side trip to Germany, all resulting in a 5.5 hour delay in my trip. 

I sincerely hope this was merely a supervisory failure of SAS at OSL and is not a systemic problem for the entire airline.  I am to fly from LHR-ARN round trip in two weeks, and am very concerned about using your services again.  Unfortunately, it is too late now for me to economically change to another airline.

The one consolation about the evening was that they re-booked me on Lufthansa, which is a quality operation.  More on that shortly.
 

Continuing with York sightseeing...
 

St. Helen's Church
  Walking through the streets of York, on the way to the Minster.
 
Memorial to Yorkshire soldiers in the Army who gave their lives in South Africa, 1899-1902

 

St. Michael le Belfry, located directly across the street from York Minster

 

The Dean's Park, behind York Minster
 

A neat old Citroen parked just outside the Minster grounds

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The Shambles, a narrow, winding street that reminds me of "Diagon Alley" in Rowling's Potter novels

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Saturday Market



Chocolate Heaven! 

A street musician entertains the crowd in a small square near The Shambles.

 

At the Sign of the Prancing Mouse

  Merchants Hall, with the huge arms sculpted and painted over the front door.

Having completed my first week of teaching in Manchester, UK, I decided to get away from that city over the weekend and explore a place I've wanted to explore for years: York. 

York was originally a Roman city, constructed at the confluence of the Ouse and Foss rivers.  It became a "walled city" in medieval times and was almost made the capital of England.  It's also the seat of the Archbishop of York, who, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury, are the two "Primates" of the Church of England.  The most significant building in York (and the largest tourist attraction) is the cathedral, York Minster.  York Minster rates a YatTravel post all its own, so these are about the city proper.



I took the train to York, departing from Altrincham, taking Northern Rail from there to the Manchester Picadilly station, and changing trains to the cross-country train whose ultimate destination was Newcastle. My hotel was a Premier Inn just two blocks from the train station.



The Windmill, where I had dinner Friday and Saturday nights. The Premier Inn's main entrance is just to the left of the yellow pub. The hotel wraps around behind The Windmill.

After dinner and relaxation on Friday evening, I woke up Saturday morning ready to explore York. I entered the city through the MickelBar, one of the remaining gates in the medieval city wall:



Those crosses at the top of the gate aren't there for religious reasons, they're slits in the tower where an archer can aim a bow out and cut down would-be attackers.



The shield right above the archway is that of the Archbishop of York. The arms in the center at the top of the tower are those of Richard II. Below Richard's helm and shield are two shields bearing the arms of the City of York: St. George's Cross with the five lions of England superimposed on the cross.



View of MickelBar from the inside of the wall. The arms on the shield are those of the Kings and Queens of England from Henry IV to Elizabeth I.





MonkBar, the second of three remaining gates in the medieval wall.  The arms are those of the Kings of England including James I, Charles I, Charles II, and James II, with two shields bearing the York arms below.



Visitors are able to climb up into the two towers and walk along the wall from MonkBar to MickelBar.



Looking out over the wall. The sign on the building across the street is for "Bile Beans," a laxative product popular from the turn of the 19th Century until the 1930s. The sign has been on the wall since the 1930s, and is now properly preserved.



The River Ouse, on the western side of the city.

(continued tomorrow)

Big cities never slow down, and Manchester, UK, is no exception on a Sunday afternoon.  I've already blogged my visit to Manchester Cathedral, but that wasn't all I did/saw.



My gig over here for Hitachi Data Systems is typical of most of my US travels, to offices in the suburbs. In this case, the HDS office is in Altrincham, which is to the south and west of downtown Manchester. Altrincham is the last stop on the city's Metrolink system of trams, so I walked the 1km or so from my hotel to the Altrincham rail station. Northern Rail trains run through Altrincham on their Manchester-to-Chester line. I took the tram (£3.80 round trip) in to the St. Peter's Square stop. The city is doing work on the Metrolink tracks in the center of the city, so the tram stops at St. Peter's Square and doesn't resume until after Manchester Picadilly on the other side. No big deal, since I wanted to exlplore anyway.



The main public library, at St. Peter's Square.



Walking towards Excange Square, with the ferris wheel in the background. London has the "London Eye" along the Thames, and Manchester constructed a big ferris wheel in 2004, not to be outdone.



"The Triangle," a shopping center



Arndale, another big shopping mall just a few blocks away.



Sinclair's Oyster House and the Wellington Inn, in The Shambles, which is between Manchester Cathedral and Exchange Square. Much of The Shambles was destroyed in a massive 1996 IRA bombing, but these structures survived. (Although being a New Orleanian, I have my doubts about an oyster house in Manchester.)



A little Italian place that caught my eye, so I took this shot to remind me to check out on a return trip. It reminds me of a lot of places in Boston's Back Bay area.



Across from the Cathedral, an inn named, appropriately enough, The Mitre. Note the mitre on the outdoor sign.



Market Street is a pedestrian mall, and this sausage cart was right near the entrance to Arndale. Not sure about the quality of the product, but I like the trolley style of the cart.



Picadilly Gardens, at the head of Market Street and across from Manchester Picadilly rail station. The covered tents you see in the background are the weekend flea market/farmers market.



Walking back from Picadilly Gardens--yes, that's right, a KK in the UK. There was construction at that building, hence the wall inbetween me and the sugary goodness.



Manchester Art Gallery. Notice the street is closed-that's the Metrolink track work in-progress.



Cenotaph at St. Peter's Square, a monument to those who gave their lives in World War II.



And here's the tram, ready to take me back to Altrincham.

There are two hotels within a block or so of the HDS office in Altrincham office in Greater Mancester, the Cresta Court Hotel (Best Western, and the George and Dragon (Premier Inn). The office usually books people into the former. When I learned of this extended work trip to the UK, I dropped a note to a colleague who works for HDS in London, and his opinion was that, while the Cresta Court wasn OK as a hotel, he felt I would enjoy the George and Dragon better, because the Inn is on top of an old pub that has good food and is football-friendly.

He was right. Thanks, Simon, next pint is on me.

Premier Inns are "budget" hotels, at the level of the Roomz Hotel I stayed at in Vienna. No-frills, and the price per night (£52 weekends, £58 weekdays) is pretty good.



There is no chest of drawers or closet in the room, just this free-standing shelf unit. Given that I live out of suitcases anyway, It works for me.



The bed. Queen size, only two pillows on the bed, but there were two more on the shelf.



The bathroom.  I don't care for these high-sided European bathtubs, I feel like I'm going to tumble out and break my neck.  Hotel Zaltbommel in The Netherlands had the same thing.  I guess you get used to it.  Towels are a better quality than the Residence Inns I often stay at in the US.



The workstation/desk.  WiFi is available for a separate charge. 

If you're the type who stays in a hotel for a certain level of in-room amenities, Premier Inns won't be fore you. There's no Bath and Body Works shampoo in the bathroom (but there's Twining's tea). For me, the pub downstairs compensates for what's not in the room. The price doesn't hurt, either.