LONDON

Royal London
London is a royal city. The British king or queen has a palace there-Buckingham Palace. Queen Eluzabeth lives there now. Important visitors often go to the palace. They meet Queen Elizabeth and the royal family inside the palace. Tourists go to Buckingham Palace too, but they don´t go inside, and they don´t meet the queen. They stand outside and see the Changing of the Guard. There are always guardsmen outside the palace. Every day a new guard of thirty guardsmen marches to the palace and takes the place of the „old guard“. That is the „changing of the guard“. The changing of the guard is not a big ceremony. London has important royal ceremonies too. The State Opening of Parliament and the Trooping of the Colour are two of these. The queen does not go in a coach to the Trooping of the Colour. She rides there, and she watches the ceremony from her horse. The „colour“ is a flag. The guards „troop“ (march with) the colour for the queen.

Royal occasions
The British people like the queen and the royal family. They like important occasions too.
A royal wedding is always a big occasion. The royal family goes to the weding in a procession, and people love proccesions. The people watch the procession, and they see the royal family in their coaches. Horse guards ride with the coaches, and the procession goes between lines of foot guards along the road.
The Jubilee of Queen Eliabeth II-queen of the UK from 1952 to 1977. The Jubilee is a big ceremony. Important people come to London from every part of the world.
But there are occassions called Street party. The people of this London street are having a good party. The party is on the day of the Jubilee, and it is a Jubilee party. But it is not for important people. It is for the people of the street. The children of this street are going to remember the Jubilee.

Westminster
Tourists in London always want to visit Westminster and see „Big Ben“. They want to see the clock in its tower, and they want to hear the bells.
„Big Ben“ is really a bell. You hear it at every hour. It is the big bell (13,72t) with a deep voice, and it counts the hours. You hear its deep voice on the radio: „This is the BBC. The time is six o´clock.“ And you hear the deep BOOM of Big Ben six times.
The famous clock tower stands beside the Houses of Parliament. The country´s leaders speak in the Houses of Parliament. The men and women there are the voice of the British people.