Not everyone will get an invite to Buckingham Palace! You can, however, be like me and invite yourself during August and September - when the Queen makes her annual visit to Scotland, the palace's 19 Staterooms are open to visitors.

Buckingham Palace is the London home and office for Her Majesty The Queen. Here the Royal Family receives and entertains guests on state, ceremonial and official occasions in the Staterooms. Such grandeur and protocol is apt to make guests edgy and nervous, but the Queen herself is expert at putting people at ease. She has no pretentious airs and graces everyone, but show respect towards her.

During the tour, you advance at your own pace, with the help of an audio guide, through the richness and grandeur - it is overwhelming. The building contains sculptures by Canova and Chantrey, exquisite examples of Sèvres porcelain, and some of the finest English and French furniture in the world. Red carpets cover floors extensively, and it is easy to develop a crick in one’s neck looking up at the ornate ceilings.

History and occasion are everywhere. In the scarlet and gold Throne Room sit the coronation chairs used by Her Majesty and Prince Philip in 1953. The magnificent Ballroom, extending to 122 feet, dates from 1856 in Queen Victoria's reign to celebrate the end of the Crimean war. She and Prince Albert were fond of costume balls and music - costumes, musical instruments, manuscripts, photographs, and souvenirs from that period are on display in the Ball Supper Room.

Investitures are held in the Ballroom. Earlier, the queen would do her homework to have a suitable question ready to put the nervous recipients of the awards at ease. The sword used is on display.

The picture gallery designed by Nash contains paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer, Poussin, Canaletto, and Claude. The vibrantly coloured silk walls in the Green Drawing Room provide the perfect compliment to the beautifully coved and gilded ceiling. In the State Dining Room, the red silk damask on the walls makes a fitting background to the state portraits of Kings and Queens from George III to George IV. The dining table itself, when set, has the plates and cutlery set out using a ruler.

The Blue Drawing Room, another of Nash's spectacular rooms has 30 fake onyx columns and a Sevres porcelain table made for Napoleon. From the semicircular bow window of the domed Music Room, there is a clear view of the garden and grounds. The 39-acre garden is an oasis for wildlife, and offers superb views of the Garden Front of the Palace and the 19th-century lake.

Perhaps most magnificent of all is the White Drawing Room, furnished with French antiques and English-cut, glass chandeliers suspended from the ceiling, the delicate colours of the furnishings standing out against the white and gold walls.

Unfortunately, so much grandeur in so many rooms tends to merge as a blur in one’s memory.

Admission: Adults £9

After several years of renovations the new and enlarged Queens Gallery opened in May 2002 to celebrate the Queens Golden Jubilee. It is now a very impressive structure not the small hole in the wall that it used to be. Not that I didn’t love that little whole in the wall and somehow for me this new structure though beautiful is quite cold and the staff much more formal than before.

The exhibit was entitled Royal Treasures and what a treasure it is. You come up the formal stairway and are greeted by a bust of Her Majesty. There was a young man stationed beside it who was more than happy to gush on about it, but I was more interested in getting into the gallery.

The first gallery, the Pennethorne Gallery has bright green walls that make a dramatic back drop for Van Dykes monumental equestrian portrait of Charles I. It grabs your attention as soon as you enter the room. Opposite it stands a magnificent boulle secretaire made of ash, oak, pine, brass, copper, tortoise shell ebony, rosewood etc. from the collection of George IV, I’m sure you can get the picture. A small room off this gallery contains a cabinet of miniatures including three by Holbein that are particularly beautiful. I have to admit that miniatures are a real favorite of mine.

The depth of the Queens Collection is obviously immeasurable. On the right wall you have Vermeer’s Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman and Cranach’s Apollo and Diana and across from them is George de la Tours St. Jerome. In a second cabinet room are Grannies Chips the 3rd and 4th largest Cullinan Stones 63 and 94 carats. Also in this cabinet are the necklace that the Queen wore to her coronation and also her collection of Faberge. I am only touching on the surface of what was here. This is truly magnificence on a magnificent scale.

The Nash Gallery has bright red walls and again they are the perfect backdrop for the paintings chosen for display here. Hogarth, Copley, Stubbs, Zoffany, and Viger LeBrun. It is however Sir Joshua Reynolds portrait with the red jacket, Sr. Thomas Lawrence’s Pope Pius VII with his red cape and chair and Thomas Gainsborough’s Johann Christian Fisher in a maroon suit that really play to the room’s color. These three paintings are all on one wall for maximum affect.

There is a room of sketches that includes a DaVinci, a Michaelangelo and a Raphael. I was impressed. The only jarring moment came when confronted by the hideous Lucien Freud portrait of the Queen.

Even the bathrooms here are luxurious. Make sure you pay them a visit. The gift shop is extensive and expensive. This time I chose to look but didn’t buy.

This particular exhibit will be on through January 3, 2003. But if the past is any indication this is just one of many that the Gallery will have to offer.

Admission is included in the London Pass and is something like L11 otherwise. There is a discount for seniors (60+). The Palace is only open to visitors at a certain time during the year, since the Queen actually lives here. The 2001 opening was 8/4 through 9/30. You have to get your tickets in advance, because they are sold for a certain date and time (15-minute entry window). Sometimes that means that you get your ticket and go right in, and other times it means you have to come back the next day. Here you can see the gorgeous furniture, graceful statues, staircases, paintings and other things. You get to walk through rooms that are used for official functions. This is a fascinating place to visit. Photography and videotaping is not allowed inside. The Changing of the Guard ceremony also takes place here, at around 11 AM. There is a sign in front of the Palace that tells you when the next ceremony is going to be (they're usually held either daily or every other day). The ceremony is fun to watch, and includes a marching band and cavalry in full dress uniforms. Be sure to come early if you want to watch this, as huge crows gather around the fence and make it rather difficult to see. The plaza in front of the Palace has a large statue of Queen Victoria. There are beautiful flower beds all around the area. Go to http://www.royalresidences.com for more information.

I was able to tour inside Buckingham Palace in 1994 when the Queen first opened it to the public to raise funds to rebuild Windsor after the fire. I didn't think the outside was all that impressive, especially since I knew that Nash had remodeled it for George IV in the 1820's - I had expected more. What is inside makes up for whatever is lacking on the outside in terms of opulence and over-the-top decor. I can't imagine being a child inside the palace - priceless pieces of furniture, gold inlaid stairs and all kinds of other things, priceless art objects and paintings and portraits, mirrors everywhere.

We weren't allowed to take pictures anywhere inside or even in the courtyards or the lawns. You can buy postcard pictures of the rooms you were able to tour though. As far as I know the palace hasn't been opened to the public again, but with all the anti-royal sentiment and use of tax pounds, it probably will be (or has been and I never noticed). The Queen Victoria Memorial at the center of the traffic circle is a good place to sit and look at the Palace, watch the tourists, watch the guards not move. The changing of the guard only takes place every other day, at 11:30 a.m. but get their early so you can see.

After viewing Westminster Abbey, we walked along up Storey's Gate Road and made a left onto Birdcage Walk, which runs along St. James's Park. As you approach the Palace, turn right and enter the courtyard through the gate. The courtyard has a large statue memorial for Queen Victoria and you will find many opportunites for interesting photos. If you're lucky, you'll find yourself there on a day where the Changing of the Guard happens. Our guidebook told us that in September, it happens on odd days at 11:30am. However, it did not commence on the 15th of September this year. We were very disappointed. Please call 0839-123411 to find out when the Changing of the Guard occurs on the days you are in town.

You can tour the Palace's State Apartments for about £10.50. However, our guidebook had this to say, "Many people find the visit overpriced and disappointing." Also, the queues were very long for the tour. We also decided to save some time and we skipped the tour.