Wedding, Continued

So, we left off with the arrival of the Princes! (I can't believe I'm actually typing that. I saw Princes?! What?!)

The in-laws were next to arrive - a blurry Camilla.

 With Prince Charles (my co-Trinitarian)

 Absolute madness in the crowds.

 Various clergy waiting for the Queen!

 Refuse :(

 Still waiting..

 Aaaand... the glimpse of a yellow hat!!

 Her Majesty :)

 The news people are in full gear.

 The time is approaching!!

 Bridesmaids!

 Very, very cute.

Kate arrives...!

 Accursed auto-focus preferred the police officers..

 But managed to capture a blurry wave!

 During the ceremony we tried to watch it on the screen. They also broadcast it on speakers, but it was quite difficult to understand what was going on. Fortunately, Liz had a radio tuner on her phone so we kept up to date with everything. We could hear the music quite well on the speakers, and the crowds joined in for 'Jerusalem' and 'God Save the Queen.'

 As things were winding down, the procession gathered outside.

 And here they are! The new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. (This is immensely exciting - maybe they'll come visit!)

 This horrible blue arm is in way too many of my photos..

 Getting in the carriage..

We noticed the flag on the abbey changed, but couldn't figure out why. This flag was waving for most of the morning.

 But then.. it was this one during the service:

We realised it changed because the Queen was in! This was an exciting revelation indeed. :)

After everyone had left the Abbey, it descended into insanity. 

 We headed towards St. James's Park to attempt to find toilets/somewhere to sit down. Looks like this guy got a little lost..

 We found an American woman with a Phillip Tracey - watching in style.

 The one bridge across the massive lake that divides the park had been limited to one way traffic - the opposite way we were headed. So we walked rather a long way to get around it.

 But we did get a view of Buckingham Palace!

 Hordes.

 A surge of people heading towards the Palace.

 Finally we found refuge under a tree, and enjoyed some of the masses of food we carried with us.

 We managed to make it onto the Mall to see the flyover.

 Tourist!

At this point there wasn't much else to see, so we made our way back to the Park. We hung around there for a little while whilst trying to get up the energy to move again.. Finally we propelled ourselves back across the park, and walked past Clarence House where there was some kind of official something happening!

 Wandering in the streets of London!

 We took the Tube back to Liz's flat, and we were impressed at how quickly things had dispersed. There were still a lot of people in St James's Park, but the Tube was running smoothly and wasn't horrifically crammed. After snoozing our way back to the flat, we drank a lot of Coke to keep us going back to Cambridge. Highly caffeinated, we headed back to King's Cross on the Tube to get the train, and stocked up on souvenir newspapers. These kept us occupied all the way back to Cambridge, and once I made it back to my room, I crashed hard at around 9!

Overall, it was an amazing amazing day. The entire experience was seriously surreal. Standing outside Westminster Abbey for 7 hours? Seeing the entire royal family? Actually witnessing an essential moment of history? People have been standing outside in hordes to catch glimpses of the Royal Family exactly like we did for centuries. It was at times painful, uncomfortable, and boring, but it was worth every second. As Kate and Wills grow up and eventually become King and Queen, I'll have been present when it all began.