Day 8: London

Day 8

Our second day in London, Monday, we had completely planned out from beginning to end! This would be the only day while we were there that the Changing of the Guard would be taking place, so we planned that for our morning. We got to Buckingham Palace early to stake out our place so we could see the show.

It all took place in stages from about 10:45 to 12:00 noon

I'm not really sure how to describe it except for a lot of pomp & circumstance and not what we expected... but very cool to experience

Other than reading the description in my guidebook, you had no idea what or why things were going on, you just watched...

my favorite part was when the Royal Band played "Dancing Queen" (I got it on video on my Flip & may download it one day)

It was very cool to be at Buckingham Palace & experience the ceremony. The Palace is humongous (much more so than it appears from the front)

once zooming in on this picture, I realized that some of the guards may be female...

After the ceremony, we went to a little Pub around the corner from the Palace. Of course Ben got a pint of Ale & I had "fish & chips"... I just figured I HAD TO since that's what I hear "they" eat, and it was yummy!

And then it was time to meet up with our tour guide. We had a guide for the afternoon to take us to a few places we had not yet been... and he was great!

First, we went by Parliament & Big Ben... this was the first we had seen it during the day.  Our guide called this photo op the "money shot"... I agreed... it's gorgeous & there were news cameras broadcasting from this exact same angle

Then we walked across the street to Westminster Abbey and he gave us a tour inside (no pictures allowed)... It was absolutely beautiful.  We went to a lot of beautiful places of worship on this trip and I was just in awe of all the architectural beauty and details and history... 

This is where Prince William & Kate Middleton are getting married (they announced their engagement the NEXT day after we visited here)!

side entrance to the church (potentially more beautiful than the front)

The day before was their version of "Veteran's Day" (Remembrance Sunday) so these crosses & poppy flowers were everywhere to honor fallen soldiers from around the world... it was extremely moving to be there at this time & see the sea of crosses

Next, we drove across town to The Tower of London (a palace, castle, prison, & home of the Crown Jewels)... along our drive, we learned a lot about the city's history

From here was our best (and such a gorgeous) view of the Tower Bridge... the biggest misconception is people calling this bridge the London Bridge (which is next to this bridge and actually very nondescript & boring in comparison)

My favorite thing at the Tower of London was seeing the Crown Jewels... it was so much more than crowns & jewelry (even though that's pretty cool, but Ben really enjoyed it too)... our guide told us all these cool stories and the history behind the stones and where they came from and how they made it to the crowns & everything was just stunning.

The grounds at the Tower were very cool too. There are Ravens living there, an execution site, massive towers with 15 foot thick walls, this cool cannon

we got our picture with some Beefeaters (the guards of the tower who actually live on the premises with their families and now give tours)

When we left, we saw the Tower Bridge lit up at night....

This was the only night that we had reservations for a nice dinner... a restaurant that had been highly recommended to us, RULES (considered the oldest restaurant in London)

the decor was very eclectic and the food was perfect

Finally, we went to see GREASE... it was so much fun to see a "Broadway" play in London... everything was the same, but when they were speaking you could hear a hint of a British accent in their voices

We had such a fun time & were singing the songs the rest of the night! We were just so sad that the next day would be our last :(