Changing of the guard

Went to the Royal Palace on the island of Gamlastan, which is the old town today. Cost £14.00 to tour the royal rooms, together with the treasury for the crown jewels and also 2 museums within the palace. Not very expensive at all.
I was also able to see the changing of the guard within the grounds of the palace, this takes place at 12.15 each day. As you can see from above the guards wear bright blue uniforms and the ceremony is NOTHING like you would see at Buckingham Palace, in fact it was all I could do at times to stop laughing. The guards appear very lax in that when they are standing on post they can talk to visitors, unlike those in London. They also carry old rifles that are single shot bolt action with bayonets fitted - well I suppose Sweden is a neutral country, but the rifles appear so, so old.
The parade started with the band riding in on horses as the current guard is a mounted regiment, they were followed by the guard riding in behind them with swords out and held up. The mounted soldiers, men and women then rode around and stopped in what could loosely be described as 2 lines, foot soldiers then made their way between the lines to hold the horses whilst the mounted soldiers dismounted, whereupon the soldiers changed helmets and the foot soldiers led the horses back to the barracks. The new guard then formed up and did a little bit of marching, doing a right foot stamp every so many paces. They then lined up again and amd a semi run forward, looks so funny. After changing the guard the mounted band rode around playing music which was the highlight.
At the end of the parade a soldier carrying the swedish flag lowered it and started to twist the flag pole he was carrying in order to roll up the flag, however, as he did this he did a sort of skipping dance, again I had to stifle my laughs, Buckingham Palaice it aint.
Following that and the tour of the palace I had a wander around the old town before I was defeated by a heavy rain shower. Reverse logic told me to buy a brolly, which I did for the silly sum of £4.00. I put the brolly up for all of 5 minutes and it stopped raining - it works every time.
I will be breaking camp tomorrow morning and riding into Stockholm to visit Skansen which is an area covered in old houses bought from all over Sweden, the people in the village dress in old fashion clothing so this may be interesting, will also try the science museum if I have time as there is a NASA exhibition on.
I then have to cathch the overnight boat to Tallin, so possible no blog entry tomorrow as I don't think I will have internet.