Royal Garden Tea Party

June 1, 2017

It's actually June 24th but I have wanted to start a blog for the longest time.  I will start by posting my
last trip to the UK.  For six years I've applied to the Canadian High Commission in London for an
invitation to a Royal Garden Party.  This year I was chosen!  Cec wasn't the least bit interested so I
asked my second cousin Jean Burton if she would be my guest!  She was just as thrilled as I was.

I flew to London on the new British Airways A380-800.  It has four classes and seats 469 people!  It's
two floors of seats.  If you haven't seen it go on the British Airways site and check it out.  It's very
quiet and the BA flight crew is awesome! 

Jean and I went to Canada House the first full day I was there to pick up our tickets.  I was shocked to see so many police everywhere and it made us both feel safe.  Canada House moved to new digs and I hadn't been to the new building.  They have tours twice a month but we were there wasn't a tour whilst I was in the UK.  We showed our passports to the doorman who let us in through a very thick clear door.  Then through airport type security and then buzzed in to a reception area.  The receptionist gave me the invitation with all the instructions as to what you can and can't do.  I was pleasantly surprised that I could take in my cell phone which is my camera.  They asked we respect the Royal Family if we took pictures. 

June 1st was a wonderful sunny day.  It was quite warm and there was a nice breeze.  Our instructions told us it would be better not to enter via the Mall but use one of the two back entrances.  We took the tube to Hyde Park station and when we got off the underground saw a nice couple in front of us.  He had a Top Hat and tails on.  She looked great with of course a fascinator.  We asked them if they knew where they were going and they said "no".  We had a good laugh and found our way together to the Hyde Park rear entrance.  There was little security and we entered right away.  One of the nice Palace Staff asked if she could take our picture.  We said "yes" and the we are inside the Palace Grounds with the huge brick wall behind us.

We've done the Buckingham Palace tour a couple of years ago while the Royal Family was in Scotland so we were familiar with the grounds although we certainly didn't walk all around them.  We followed all the nicely dressed people and got to the rose garden.  Not a weed or dandelion anywhere.  The grass was spectacular.  The roses were incredible.

 You can see Buckingham Palace in the background.  I loved the police officer that let everyone take a picture of him.  Some people were getting selfies!

We finally got to the area where the Garden Party was going to take place.  8,000 people were invited from all the Commonwealth Countries.  I wore my red and white and had a Canadian flag on my lapel.  There were ladies in Sari's, men in military uniforms and people with medals around their necks.  We didn't see anyone we recognized but there were a lot of people there.  We found nice chairs in the shaded tree area and sat there to cool off.  Lots of nice people to talk to.

They played God Save the Queen and we were too far away to see them on the steps.  There was a professional photographer there so some of the pictures you will see below are not mine.  We didn't get that close.  My pictures were not good.  The Queen looked very tired and is quite hunched over.  Prince Philip looked great!  The Duke of Kent also looked good and stood very tall.  Even being far away was amazing!  I will never forget that afternoon,

Everyone asked what we had for tea.  Here is the menu along with some nice pictures.  The sandwiches were finger sandwiches.  I had cucumber with mint and egg mayonnaise (that's what the Brits call egg salad).  Both were very tasty.  They had iced coffee but I decided tea was the drink of the day so I had tea and a piece of absolutely delicious fruit cake.  It wasn't sweet.  Cheryl makes my mom's Christmas Cake recipe every year.  Cheryl's is the best but this was a close second.  They also walked around with ice cream Dixie cups.  We passed on the ice cream but lots of people enjoyed it.

There were four bands playing throughout the afternoon.  Here is one of the bands.

This is a great picture of the entire lawn where the Garden Party took place.  It was taken by a professional and probably from either a balcony or the roof of the palace. 

At 5:30 the Queen, Prince Philip, the Duke of Kent and the Duchess of Glouchester went back into the palace.  We followed long behind the Royals and went through the Palace to the Mall.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside the Palace.  Here are some of the pictures we were allowed to take.

Thanks to Janice Charette, the  High Commissioner of Canada in the United Kingdom for the invitation.  It was an honour to be invited and I will never forget that wonderful afternoon. If anyone wants to know how you apply I will let you know.  The applications come out in early January for about two weeks so you have to be ready.  You also have to make sure you can be there because you only get one chance in your lifetime to attend.  You can also apply to Trooping of the Colour and Royal Ascot.