For eight weeks during the year, while the royal family are away, Buckingham Palace is opened up to the public. This year access is available from 25 July until 27 September, and we arrived into the country right in the middle of this short time frame. Of course we had to visit!
There are multiple different tours you can book - The State Rooms, Royal Mews, Gardens and The Queen's Gallery. The State Rooms are the more public sections of the palace - sitting rooms, ball rooms, etc, that are used by the royal family to receive, reward and entertain guests and dignitaries. The Mews contain the royal transportation, including cars, coaches, carriages and horses. The gardens are the gardens (surprisingly), and the Gallery is a public art gallery showcasing pieces from the royal collection.
On the day we visited there were no tours of the Gardens left, so we decided we would like to view the State Rooms and Mews. We chose not to go to the Gallery as it is open at other times of the year anyway. We bought our tickets online the night before, but still had to line up early to collect them the morning of the tours. The State Rooms have timed entry, but the Mews did not. As our State Room entry was mid-morning, we decided to look through the Mews first. We didn't realise, however, that they did not open until 10am, and we had our tickets and were ready to go outside the door just after 9. This resulted in standing outside the side door to the palace for almost an hour, playing tour-guide to many confused tourists who thought this was also the entrance for the State Rooms and/or tickets.
In order to make it a bit easier to read, this story will be split into two parts, one for the Mews and one for the State Rooms.
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