Long Live the Queen!

I was fortunate this week to catch the state visit of the president of India to greet the queen in Windsor. They had big procession through the streets up to the castle.

The castle is decked out with flags for India, Britain and the queen.



For this occassion, every bear hat in the country must have been out. Here the band hangs out and then shortly started playing Star Wars music, I kid you not. I laughed really hard when I heard the Darth Vader march. I'm not sure how many of the Brits really got that....

This is the first time I've seen the furry hat guys with guys. An assault rifle none the less.

Then all the furry hat guns came marching down the road!

There were even snipers on the rooftops. Well, maybe not a sniper since he was police. But I bet he had a gun. Safety first!

The procession starts with the two scouts in the front, leading the charge. I thought to myself, 'they seem to be moving pretty fast' and they were. The procession came charging by - I was quite impressed.

Now, I know this was a show event and these are not battle horses and the polished silver battle axes were ceremonial only, but I have to admit, it was quite daunting have these guys come by as if ready for war. If this was real, I most certainly would have cowered and begged for mercy or just wet my pants.

Here she is! The Queen! Um.. yeah. Not the best photo. She's the blue shoulder at the left of the carriage. I did actually see her face though.



Then came more horsemen. (The battle axes are in the last row)

Prince Charles doesn't get to ride in a bullet proof carriage. Do you think that says something? Can Camilla's purple hat be any bigger?

I didn't get a good picture of the Indian President (also in a bullet proof carriage) but here is the VP I think. All in all, very cool.