Changing Tourism at Buckingham Palace

I listened carefully as I could hear drums beating from beyond the mall. The mass crowds of peoples’ ears pointed upwards and the loud roar from the crowd emerged into quiet whispers. The drumming continued to get louder and louder, and finally I could see the Queen’s Guard contingent slowly walking from St. James’s Palace, off The Mall on Malborough Road beating their drums and walking as though they were mannequin like figures with stern expressions across their faces. Over the large crowds of people surrounding the railings at the Victoria Monument, I caught a glimpse of the large bearskin hats that are the stereotypical feature of the British guard. As I stood in front of Buckingham Palace I was awestruck at its majesty and eagerly waited the changing of the guard, one of the greatest traditions of England’s royalty. As the daily ceremony commenced, I could not help but notice the reverence of the assembly and the countless faces amongst us. So many people had come to witness this traditional English ceremony and it made me think about how England’s historical past had become a tourist attraction.

The procedure of the ceremony begins at St. James’s Palace, situated off of The Mall in Marlborough Road. A detachment of the ‘Old Guard’ forms up there in Friary Court at 11:00 am for an inspection by the Captain of The Queen’s Guard. This contingent then makes its way down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace at approximately 11:15 am preceded by a Regimental Band or Corps of Drums.The other half of the Old Guard is already on duty at Buckingham Palace and is inspected while awaiting the arrival of the St. James’s Palace detachment. The St. James’s detachment enters the Palace Forecourt through the South Center Gate and takes up position beside the Buckingham Palace detachment on the left hand side of the forecourt. Now complete, the Old Guard awaits the arrival of the incoming ‘New Guard’ from Wellington Barracks situated at the Buckingham Palace end of Birdcage Walk.(http://www.trooping-the-colour.co.uk/mounting/index.htm)

The changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, or more formerly known as Guard Mounting, is a popular London tourist attraction, close to the main London hotels, drawing thousands of visitors to Buckingham Palace to watch. The changing of the guard takes place in the courtyard of Buckingham Palace and is free to anyone to watch daily. The easy access to the ceremony makes it a desirable for London visitors and is also conveniently affordable. Tourist attractions like the changing of the guard mark a new era of tourism in the last decade of the 20th century (Ostergren and Rice, Ch. 11).

Traditional mass tourism in Europe was always to beaches or the mountains, yet a new variety of tourism has emerged. This new abundance in traveling stems from an emerging consumer preference for something different then traditional packaged European tourism. The demand today is more flexible travel arrangements and is being met by revolutionary changes in European transportation. As I traveled to London, I was able to take an easy Jet that is advertised for 69 euro’s roundtrip. The implementation of trains, buses, and advanced infrastructure also allow easily accessible transportation that caters to those wanting to see the main attractions of a city. Today, the preservation of historical buildings and landscapes is a relatively recent phenomenon. Upholding and maintaining these historical buildings and monuments allows for cities to develop these sites as main tourist attractions. As I visited Buckingham Palace and witness the Mounting of the Guard, I could see the historic nationalism present in the royal family and the traditional meaning of the ceremony, but the large crowds of people allowed me to witness the affects of changing tourism.

The "United" Kingdom

When Americans think of the United Kingdom they mostly picture England. Especially with the World Cup in full swing national unity is at full tilt on the island off the coast of France. After visiting London though, I quickly realized that was certainly not the case. There is regional pride much like the Catalan region in Spain present in the ‘United’ Kingdom. With England in the south and Scotland in the north, there isn’t much common ground to be found between them.

Having been to Scotland before, I understood their opinion of the English. In 2007, I stayed for 10 days with a student my age outside of St. Andrews in a town called Wormit. The picture above is me in St. Andrews Castle overlooking the city. While there, I noticed many things about their culture that differentiated them from the English. Not only does Scotland have their own flag, a national anthem called “The Flower of Scotland” but they don’t cheer for the England national team or totally embrace the English as countrymen. There was a girl in our group named Hannah who was from York, England and was teased playfully for not being Scottish. In arriving in London, I almost immediately saw how this was a definitely reciprocated feeling.

Stepping from the Tube onto Great Portland Street in London, I immediately became jealous of my friend Will. He had been living in a flat with 5 other guys in a very sheik, young part of town. Making sure that I was looking the correct way to avoid traffic, Brad and I were taken to a local pub. It was called the Mason’s Arms and a sign on the wall noted that Ian Maclean frequently drank there. To the right is a picture of it I found online. I made my way to the bar and asked Will which beer I should get. A gentleman sitting at the bar who was probably in his mid to early 40’s and wearing a sport coat and tie turned around and asked if I was from America. I replied that I was and he immediately grew a big smile on his face. He told his name was Harry and said that he went to New York about 6 years ago. While there, he was met with much acceptance and insisted on buying me drinks to recipricate the kindness. The next thing I know, I am surrounded by 3 or 4 local Englishmen asking me questions about being abroad and American politics. Several of them asked why I chose Luxembourg as a place to study and they also gave me tips on how to impress English girls. I joked with them on how the oil spill was caused by British Petroleum, not American Petroleum which made them all laugh. Eventually, the conversation steered towards football and they told me about how the people love certain teams based on location and region. While on the topic of region, I immediately thought of our class discussions about them. Being an inquisitive person, I asked them if the stereotype is true about the English and the Welsh having poor relations. All of them laughed and said that it wasn’t the Welsh they had the problems with; it was the “bloody Scots”.

From a historical standpoint, Scotland and England were never supposed to get along. The well known revolution lead by William Wallace, depicted in the movie Braveheart, occurred in the early 1300’s. It was in this revolution that the Scots earned their freedom. This freedom lasted until the early 1700’s when Scotland unified with England to create one country under the Acts of Union. This happened despite the national outcry by the people of Scotland against it. In class, we read in McNeil about the reaction to the movie Braveheart when it was released in 1995. It was received with two different reactions; one was a worry that all of Scotland would become a Braveheart theme park. While the other was a modern day push for Scottish independence. The Scottish National Party was the main group to voice this protest. Right now, a man by the name of Alex Salmond is leading the SNP and has been called a “Modern Day William Wallace”. He claims that “an independent Scotland would have no larger a fiscal deficit than most members of the European Union and would easily meet the Maastricht criteria for joining its Euro single currency.” http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9903/14/britain.scotland/

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777806.html?pageno=2.

In the bar, one man in particular explained to me that the Scots want to be their own country despite the fact that it could never work out. When I asked why it wouldn't work, he said " A place where men wear skirts could never run themselves". I silently disagreed but did not want to start a debate with someone who lived in England about Scottish rights. When I speak to my Scottish friends, they all say that it is possible for Scotland to be free but it is also unnecessary. They have independence as far as they are concerned and least they can be civil with their English neighbors. I will only ever have an outside looking in perspective on this issue but I believe that William Wallace died to free Scotland, and although they are not independent, they are certainly free.

London: not your average European city

Every city in Europe definitely has its own outstanding personality but London is clearly not part of the continental Europe because it was staggeringly different than any other European city I have been to.

First, I noticed many obvious differences like the way the cars drive, the money that was used and the fact that everything was written in English! (finally!) What was most surprising was they type of people that I saw and the multitude of cultures within the city. According to Eurostats, The UK has had one of the highest rates of immigration over the past thirty years. I was expecting to arrive and be pleasantly greeted by some nice British gentlemen with a lovely British accent. Ha! I saw and met lots of people from all over the world including Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Spain, and Columbia. Soho seems to be the most diverse area for people to live in. The wealth of England along with its location on the Thames River makes it a desirable location for immigrants. London seems to be a very popular spot for young people to move and start a new life. The city has a very liberal culture and which is pretty accepting for new cultures. It reminds me of the United States and “melting pot” of different cultures. Below are some snapshots that I took while wondering the streets of busy London and it shows London’s diversity in culture.

While walking around the city, we stumbled into the Borough Market. It reminded me a lot of the markets that we saw while in Spain but this one definitely had a London flare. The Spanish markets were covered in fresh fruit and other produce, meat, and cheese counters. The Borough Market did not have quite as many fresh produce and meat but it appeared to have way more mouth-watering dessert items….yum! I held back my temptations and continued to notice more and more ethnic stands. In Spain, we noticed that the markets can tell you a lot about the type of culture. This market definitely screamed about London’s diversity.

London is a big city in population (“Greater London” has a population of 7.2 million) and territory. In other words, it is not an easy walk to get from one end of the city to the other. Public transportation is a novelty and huge part of London’s culture. When thinking about going to London, I was excited to see the typical touristy transportations like double-decker busses, the uniquely shaped taxis and testing out the “tube.” I was blown away when I saw the gas prices, 11.9 pounds per liter! I would use public transportation too!

Another major difference in London is the currency. While the United Kingdom is a member of the European Union, they chose not to use the Euro. “Money is a powerful source of everyday identity,” says Donald McNeill in New Europe: Imagined Spaces. He mentions the 2001 British election when the UK Conservative party warned the people that if the Labor government were re-elected, the pound would cease to exist. Good call on their part because these days, the pound is doing way better than the Euro and the Dollar. The exchange rate was a little hard to get used to and it was easy to spend way more that I wanted to.

While in the EU, it was still necessary to go through customs upon our arrival. At first, the line for the EU member citizens was extremely crowded and I was happy to go to the non-EU member citizen line. But after about thirty minutes in line, it was finally our turn and the EU member line was completely empty. They clearly had an easier time going through customs. Tourism in Europe is on the rise and The UK is one of the top spenders in the EU. They spend a lot of money attracting people to come and see their plethora of attractions. I tried to see and do as much as my budget would allow. From my expensive but well worth it trip up in the London Eye along the Thames, we could see all the hot tourist spots: Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Millennium Bridge, Globe Theatre, Tower of London and Herrods.

A Royal Adventure

Over our long weekend in London, the massive tourist appeal and curiosity in the royal family became very apparent. After doing a little research I found that London alone attracts 25 million overnight visitors a year and in 2009 these visitors spent an estimated £10.6 billion. (London Tourism Statistics). Some of the top visited attractions include the British Museum, the National Gallery and the Tate Modern Art Museum all having nearly 5 million visitors a year, not to mention the free admission probably does not hurt all three of these places.

London was a place where I found government and tradition to prevail throughout the city and everyday life. On our royal walking tour our first stop was Buckingham palace right in the midst of the changing of the guard ceremony. If you ever plan to see this ceremony, spectators start finding their perfect spot to watch up to two hours before the ceremony begins. In essense, all I could see peeking over other visitors heads was the Queen’s guards simply marching around and tooting their horns. As we regrouped with our guide, who explained to us that this tradition was started souley for tourism to try to improve Queen Victoria’s popularity at the time and since then this traditition has only expanded and attracted tourists from all over. I think many tourists come to London hoping to catch a glimpse of the Queen or one of her sons out in the city. This fascination goes as far as being about to follow the British Monarchy on Twitter (http://twitter.com/BritishMonarchy). Another way of getting a taste of what it would be like to be royal is visiting the Jewel house in the Tower of London. We were all surprised at how much there was to do at the Tower of London and how big it was. We had come for one purpose and that was to see the Crown Jewels. The Crown Jews include crowns and coronation regalia from past and present rulers. It is considered a working collection because things are actually sometimes taken out for royal use. These items house some of the most and largest precious stones including a 105 carot diamond in the Queen Mother’s Crown. Although you are not allowed to take pictures I can never forget the beauty of each of the pieces.

Tourism is already a major part of London’s economy however, this is about to see yet another huge expansion in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London. “The UK inbound visitor economy is forecasted to benefit by almost £2 billion over the period 2008-2017”(Source: VisitBritain estimates). Some of the upcoming improvement include 13,300 new hotel rooms available, a £1.5 billion dollar Olympic park and new and improved infrastructure (Investments and benefits of hosting the Olympic game for London). We already noticed them working on the Underground system over the time we were visiting and you can tell the excitement from everyone who talks about this grand upcoming event. I find myself wondering if I do return to London what will be different because of these upcoming events.

More Links:

Facts about the London Olympics http://www.etoa.org/Pdf/visit_britain_olympics_response.pdf

More on the Importance of Tourism and the Olympics in London http://www.culture.gov.uk/news/ministers_speeches/7162.aspx

Tough Travels in London

After traveling all over Europe to places like Prague, Valencia, Madrid, Barcelona, and Paris, going to an English speaking country for my last weekend trip seemed like a blessing. I thought there was a much better chance of something going wrong in the other cities I traveled to rather than London because of the language barriers, but I was painstakingly wrong.

Traveling with my good friend Dave, we arrived into London Wednesday afternoon just in time for the start of the England vs. Slovenia world cup match. There seemed to be a pub every two buildings on the streets, every single one filled to capacity with people watching the match from outside the pubs, drinking beer of course. England ended up winning the match one to “nil” as it is said in London. After the game, Dave and I met up with our fraternity brother Will to crash at his place for the next two days (he was studying at the Literacy in London program through Miami).

Thursday was our day to sightsee. Dave and I took the “tube” (the British word for metro) to the obvious first destination in London: Big Ben and Parliament. These magnificent sculptures were everything I thought they would be and more. Overlooking the Thames River, the giant building of Parliament seemingly had never ending spires on its top. Big Ben was built in 1858 and is the biggest bell clock in the world located at the north end of England’s Parliament. The United Kingdom’s Parliament building was rebuilt almost to its exact original form in 1834 after it was destroyed. The original Palace of Westminster (also known to many as the House of Parliament) was built in the 11^th century.

http://www.visitlondon.com/attractions/culture/big-ben

http://www.aviewoncities.com/london/housesofparliament.htm

After seeing Big Ben and Parliament, we ventured around the city to see Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. After this our sightseeing was done; it was time to prepare ourselves for our all-day adventure on Friday: Hard Rock Calling Music Festival in Hyde Park. Hyde Park is the largest park in London, and was almost completely shut off by twelve foot fences for this huge music festival. With 80,000 screaming fans, Pearl Jam came on the stage around 8:00 and finished around 10. Dave and I were so tired we could do nothing afterwards but sleep to get ready for our next adventure: a day trip to Edinburgh, Scotland.

This is the part where our story goes sour. Dave and I spent two hours in line trying to check into our flight to Scotland. Once we finally checked in, we had an hour to kill. A half an hour later we checked to see which gate our flight was at and found out our flight had been pushed back an hour. An hour later we checked the departure monitor again with the same result: it had been pushed back another hour. Finally, an hour later we discovered the nightmare of our trip: our flight had been cancelled. We quickly grabbed our bags from the baggage claim, only to again wait in another two hour line to get our flight rerouted.

When we were finally able to talk to an employee from Easy Jet Airlines, we told them we HAD to be back in Luxembourg by Sunday. The only possibility for us to get back to Luxembourg Sunday was for us to take a flight from London to Munich at 7:30 Sunday morning. Thankfully we had our Eurrail passes, and we agreed to this deal. By this time it was 12 at night, only giving us 4 hours of sleep before we had to wait in line another two hours to check into our new flight Sunday morning. We finally arrived in Munich around 10:30 in the morning on Sunday, and had to sit around until our 1:30 train to Luxembourg. We were originally supposed to arrive in Luxembourg around 5 PM Sunday if we had flown in from Edinburgh, but the train took 8 hours, not letting us arrive until 10:30 Sunday night.

Overall, my time spent in London was great. I saw Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. I was blessed to enjoy the biggest music festival I have ever seen with 80,000 other people. The biggest drawback was the mode of transportation to and from London. They do not use Eurrail passes in London because it is not on the actual European continent. The only reasonable way for two college students to travel to London is through an airline. Since we are college students we decided to take the cheapest airline possible. This in turn ruined our trip to Scotland. It was great to be around people who spoke English, but in the end, our London weekend turned out to be the most troubling weekend traveling of all.

Changing of the Guard

My first day out in London, I had to do everything touristy. I immediately went to the corner of Hyde Park where they were giving free tours so I could experience all the main attraction points in just a few hours. London is one of the world’s leading tourism destinations. You can see everything in London in just a day by visiting the three palaces, Tower of London, Big Bend, London Eye, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Harrods, and the nightlife at Piccadilly Circus. For more information on popular tourist areas in London go to http://www.londonpass.com/londonTopAttractions.asp?aid=211&gclid=CNq4o7evwKICFVOY2AodRio26Q.

My favorite attraction was Buckingham Palace. This Palace was built in 1702 by the Duke of Buckingham. The front of the Palace has remained unchanged from the original design over 300 years ago. Queen Victoria was the first monarch to reside in Buckingham Palace in 1837. Today, Buckingham Palace is not only the home of the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, but it is also used for administrative work for the monarchy. For more information about the history of Buckingham Palace go to this website, http://www.changing-the-guard.com/buckingham-palace.html#history.

The most exciting part for tourist is the changing of the guard that happens almost every day in the months of June through August. This event happens most days at 11:30 and last for 30 minutes. On certain days the changing of the guard does not happen so check the schedule at http://www.changing-the-guard.co.uk/guards-schedule-times.html. This is a formal ceremony where the old and new guards face each other and exchange keys of the Palaces. This has become a tourist attraction because it has been going on for many years and signifies the handing-over of responsibility from the ‘old guard’ who have been standing guard at St. James’s and Buckingham Palace, to the ‘new guard’. Even though it was very crowded when I made it to the Palace, I was still able to get up to the gates and watch some of the guards march in a procession. My tour guide said that the people living in London do not think this is a big deal at all. She said that the reason they do it every day in the summer is for the tourist because they want people have something to watch when coming to the Palace.

Buckingham Palace is what a lot of people think of when they think of London. Certain landmarks and monuments define London. Buckingham Palace represents London as a territory and as nationalism because they are very proud of it because there is so much history behind it. The changing of the guard represents territory not only as a nation, but also as a territory because they are protecting the Palace.

After experiencing London and the many tourist sites for four days, there are still so many more sites I want to see because there is so much history behind everything. Even though the changing of the guards does not have much significance in some people’s minds, I would still recommend it because it is a huge tourist attraction to others.

Palaces and Statues Oh My

Palaces and Statues Oh My

I was able to take a great trip to London, which I never thought I would have the opportunity to do. To anyone who reads this I would want to tell them to take in everything they can but most importantly the palaces and statues that are all over the city. The first and most beautiful place that we saw was Buckingham Palace, it was gorgeous. Interestingly enough what struck me most about the Palace was how in love with it both tourists and English people were with the palace. It building that they honor and that has been around for very long time. It just shows how in love with their history they were. Not only did it show at Buckingham palace but also the other places as well. We did some research on the palace before seeing and we found this site that really went over everything. http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/ Then outside Buckingham Palace is another piece of history, which is a fountain and statue named the Queen Victoria Memorial. It commemorates the death of England’s longest-reigning monarch Queen Victoria and was unveiled by George V in 1911.The statue was carved from a two thousand pound block of solid marble, with figures representing Truth, Peace, Constancy and Motherhood. Link: http://www.londondrum.com/cityguide/queen-victoria-memorial.php

When we stood in front of the fountain we tossed a pence into the fountain and made a wish. I felt a little like a tourist but it was amazing to stand in front of this monument that the people of England treasure. Both in Geography and English I have learned how important these buildings that are pieces of artwork to our eyes are to the people who live there and have actually lived through the history. The third place, which I found to be a little more mythical then, I would have expected is Kensington Palace home to many princesses including princess Diana. The reason being that it is mythical is due to the fact that they had an exhibit portraying seven princesses but it a rather childish way. It was again a gorgeous piece of architecture and I still got the impression that people were so proud of it. I also felt though that people were unsure how to feel about the palace at the time and the way in which it was being displayed. http://www.hrp.org.uk/kensingtonpalace/ I honestly did not know very much about Kensington Palace until after I toured and really got an understanding for how these princesses lived. I thought they must have had very glorious lives but that was not always the case and most were very unhappy because they were taken away from their families and forced to marry men who they did not love. It was a very interesting way to learn about the history of this palace. The fact that the palace is so well reserved shows how much it means to England and how much they want to share with whoever wants to learn.