There are a few parks surrounding Buckingham Palace that used to be part of the palace's grounds but are now open to the serfs. St. James' Park is the prettiest, and provides the best vantage point for photos as well. We didn't tour Buckingham Palace because it's only open during the summer, but I've done it previously. I would definitely recommend it but mainly because you'll feel like you missed something on your tourist checklist if you didn't. But it's not really that interesting. It's grand but not over the top enough to be memorable, and it's scrubbed of any sense of someone actually living there. There was a tv show about the real life at the palace, and people working there would talk about the queen eating cereal out of tupperware containers and stuff like that. Now that's a tour I'd like to take.

Because it was Sunday, we had the questionable pleasure of seeing the changing of the guards. It's nice because the main roads become pedestrian only, and the horse guards are interesting. The actual ceremony behind the gates of Buckingham Palace is a bit boring for me, but judging by the enormous crowds that come to see it, I'm very much in the minority.