BRITAIN: PAST AND PRESENT - London 2015 - page 816

pad—plus good exhibits on Victoria, William and Mary, and the Hanovers; Clarence
House, the London home of Prince Charles and Camilla; Althorp Estate (80 miles
from London), the childhood home and burial place of Princess Diana; Windsor
Castle, a royal country home near London; and the crown jewels in the Tower of
London.
Your best chances to actually see the Queen are on three public occasions:
State Opening of Parliament (mid-May, next in 2015), Remembrance Sunday (early
November, at the Cenotaph), or Trooping the Colour (one Saturday in mid-June,
parading down Whitehall and at Buckingham Palace).
Otherwise, check the “Latest news and diary” section of www.royal.gov.uk ,
where you can search for future royal events.
The tradition (if not the substance) of greatness continues, presided over by Queen El-
izabeth II, her husband, Prince Philip, and their son Prince Charles. With economic prob-
lems, the marital turmoil of Charles and Diana, Princess Di's untimely death, and a re-
lentless popular press, the royal family has had a tough time over the past few decades.
But the Queen has stayed above it all, and most British people still jump at an opportunity
to see royalty. With the worldwide hubbub surrounding the 2011 wedding of the Queen's
grandson, Prince William, to commoner Kate Middleton, it was clear that the concept of
royalty is still alive and well in the third millennium.(And, according to pollsters, just one-
fifth of the Queen's subjects are in favor of abolishing the monarchy.)
In 2012, Queen Elizabeth marked her 60th year on the throne—her Diamond Jubilee.
Only her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria (see sidebar on here ) , had a longer
reign—but Elizabeth is on pace to overtake her in September of 2015. While many wonder
who will succeed her—and when—the situation is straightforward: The Queen sees her
job as a lifelong position, and legally, Charles (who wants to be king) cannot be skipped
over for his son William. Given the longevity in the family (the Queen's mum, born in
August of 1900, made it to the ripe old age of 101), Charles may be in for a long wait.
Architecture in Britain
From Stonehenge to Big Ben, travelers are storming castle walls, climbing spiral stair-
cases, and snapping the pictures of 5,000 years of architecture. Let's sort it out.
The oldest ruins—mysterious and prehistoric—date from before Roman times back to
3000 B.C. The earliest sites, such as Stonehenge and Avebury, were built during the Stone