Happy Birthday Tower Bridge!

June 30, 1894, Tower Bridge in London was opened...

truly an engineering marvel...

an iconic landmark.  Here are several photos from a couple of visits, including some taken from the Thames from a lunch/sightseeing cruise we did...

One visit we took the Tower Bridge Experience which takes you inside to see how the bridge decks are opened using the gigantic cantilevered bascules.  When the bridge was opened, it was an architectural and engineering marvel...and it still is!

You enter from the Southwark side and if you go, be prepared for lots of stairs, or long elevator waits. But it is fascinating! 

Tower Bridge was designed to blend in architecturally with the MUCH older Tower of London and I think it's a wonderful accompaniment!  

So happy birthday Tower Bridge!

Happy Birthday Prince William

Wishing a happy birthday to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge...

born June 21, 1982... above photo from a few years ago with his beloved grandmother, Queen Elizabeth...

This is one of the many plates that commemorated William's birth to Prince Charles and Princess Diana...

Now married to Catherine and father of 3 children...

amazing how time flies!

I think this antique Happy Birthday postcard says it all! 

Birthday Greetings

With affectionate wishes

for your future

happiness 

Trooping The Colour For the Queen 2018 On Her Official 92nd Birthday

Saturday, 9 June, the Coldstream Guards will Troop their Colour for The Queen's Birthday Parade, a ceremony that has marked the official birthday of the Sovereign for over 260 years.

Although the Queen actually turned 92 on April 21, 2018, the official celebration is always in June when weather is generally more predictable.

It is always made extra special when the guard of honour on this occasion...the one of the Queen's Brigade Of Guards regiment presenting the Colours for the Trooping in Her Majesty's honour...falls in rota to the Coldstream Guards, as that was my husband's regiment.

Last year, the Queen and the Duke rode in a carriage, as she has done for the last several years....

Until 1982, the Queen always rode herself, until an attempted assasination during the procession down the Mall...

Now it's her kids and grandkids who ride during the procession...

And the climax is always the Buckingham Palace balcony gathering with a military fly over...I assume the new Duchess of Sussex, Meghan, will join Prince Harry! Probably not Prince Louis though...and perhaps Princess Eugenie's fiance? Fun!

Happy (Official) 92nd Birthday