We were lucky that while we were in London last September, it was Buckingham Palace’s Summer Opening, which means it is actually opened to the public.

The date was Sunday, Sep 14th 2008. The time was 13:45. It was a historical moment that Carol and I entered one of the most readily recognised buildings in the world. Unlike many of the historical buildings in the City of London, Buckingham Palace is not a museum. The Palace is working headquarters of the monarchy where Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II carries out her official duties as Head of State of the United Kingdom and Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen spends her working week at Buckingham Palace, and is normally at Windsor Castle at the weekend.

It is possible to tell at glance whether Her Majesty is in residence by looking up at the central flagstaff. If the Queen is in residence it will be flying the Sovereign’s standard. Otherwise, the Union flag will be seen.

At Christmas and for the month of January, Her Majesty resides at Sandringham which is her private estate in Norfolk. In the months of August and September, the Queen will spend her summer at Balmoral in the Highlands of Scotland. That is the time when Buckingham Palace will be opened to the public.

This year it was opened from July 29th until September 29th from 09:45 hours until 18:00 hours. During this time, there would be a lot of people visiting the palace especially during the weekends. Queue at the ticketing counter was extremely long. Entry is time based in order to control the crowd. While we were wandering outside the park, I overheard a tour guide from the Big Bus company was telling her tour pack that the queue is quieter after 3pm.

We arrived at 11am because we wanted to catch the changing of the guards, a daily ceremony that attracts thousands of visitors daily.

I was looking forward to take photograph with one of the guards but much to my disappointment, they no longer stand outside the Buckingham gate. They were moved to inside the compound.

Ticket to see the State Rooms is £15.50 per person. It took me more than an hour to queue for the tickets. While waiting for our entry we wander outside at East Front compound.

Major attraction at the East Front is The Victoria memorial and The Mall.

Visitors are not allowed to record video nor capture photographs inside the Palace. You can imagine the interior by reading from here. Basically, the tour of the State Rooms comprised:

• The Grand Entrance and Grand Hall
• The Grand Staircase
• The Guard Chamber
• The Green Drawing Room
• The Throne Room
• The Picture Gallery
• The Picture Gallery Lobby
• The Silk Tapestry Room
• The East Gallery
• The Ball Supper Room
• The Ballroom
• The West Gallery
• The State Dining Room
• The Blue Drawing Room
• The Music Room
• The White Drawing Room
• The Ante-Room
• The Ministers’ Staircase
• The Marble Hall
• The Bow Room
• The West Front
• The Garden

The audio guided tour took between 2.5 to 3 hours. At the end of the tour you’d exit at the West Front which is the back of the Palace, facing a lust green field overlooking The Garden and lake.

The 16 hectare Garden forms part of an extraordinarily large and varied landscape at the heart of London. It provides a habitat for hundreds of plant and animal species.

In the end, it was a once in a lifetime experience. Carol and I were both glad that we included Buckingham Palace in our London Tour. We hope to visit it again one day with our children.