God Save the Queen! (and Chris Martin)

This past weekend was Jubilee weekend here in the UK!  The Queen is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee which commemorates 60 years on the throne.  There has only been one other Diamond Jubilee before and it was with Queen Victoria!  The city has been going crazy with all of the celebrations!

On Sunday, they had the Jubilee Boat Pageant on the Thames River.  The river was filled with over a thousand boats and barges.  Our plan was to find a spot on the river after church to watch.  Well, our church ended at 1:30, our train left at 1:45, and the pageant started at 2:00.  That didn't give us much time, especially when people had been camping out overnight for a good spot on the river.  Long story short, we wandered for an hour, running into dead ends and HUGE crowds of people before we gave up and went home to watch it all on TV.

HUGE crowds

All dressed up for the holiday!

Monday's big Jubilee activity was a concert in front of Buckingham Palace, but I had another concert in mind... COLDPLAY!  We had standing tickets, so we got in line at 3:30, doors opened at 5:00, and Coldplay finally came on at 8:45.  We were so close to the front and at one point we were even shown on the screen!

Concert shirt, Xylo band, and the Stage!

Chris Martin!

THAT'S US! (To the middle right, holding the red camera up :) )

My favorite songs of the night were Vida La Vida, and Fix You.  In Fix You, the entire crowd was singing along, to the point where you could hardly hear the band anymore!  Plus, there were fireworks throughout the entire concert.  It was AMAZING.

The Jubilee event on Tuesday was a service at St. Paul's and then a processional and an appearance on Buckingham Palace balcony and a RAF flyover.  We had class in the morning and then a trip to the Churchill War Rooms so we couldn't go camp out somewhere, but we finished in time to try and catch the processional.  We were lucky enough to get a spot in Parliament Square, right in the shadow of Big Ben!  The Processional came by and we saw THE QUEEN and WILL AND KATE!!!  It was only for a few seconds, but WE SAW THEM!!  I think it's hilarious because I had put "See Kate" on my list mostly as a joke, but it came true!

Waiting to see the Royal Family

THE QUEEN! (She's the white hat in the carriage. Camilla is next to her.)

WILL AND KATE! (Kate is in the cream hat and Will is next to her in a top hat.)

Our last Jubilee weekend hurrah was a tea party!  We dressed up, and had scones with jam and clotted cream and tea (aka juice) while we watched the processional and Buckingham Palace appearance.  I felt so British!

All dressed up for tea!

On an unrelated note, we had a small mourning party last week...Jimmer is now married.  Of course, we spent the night stalking following all the pictures online while we mourned...