Friday, July 31, 2009--The Last Day for the Changing of the Guard

Hello from London!

Friday was a day full of pageantry and tradition. We set off around 9:30 to secure the perfect spot to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. It was quite the spectacle.

There were TWO marching bands and two sets of guards and a group of mounted guards. The horses were enormous. (Mom you would have loved them!) We secured the perfect spot on the Queen Victoria monument. We had a great view of almost everything that happened. It was great to see all of the tradition that went into this ceremony.

This man was kind enough to warn the crowd that the even usually attracted "pick-pockets and bag thieves." He then recounted the events of the past 15 minutes in which a woman had 20 pounds, 15 euros, and 18,000 Japanese yen stolen from her bag. He educated the crowd about the proper way to hold your bag and how to take a picture while holding on to your valuables. The police are quite nice in London.

Queen Victoria Monument-we were right behind the big statue on the right.

Next we set off to the Winston Churchill/War Cabinets museum. This was an old subway/bunker under the British treasury. The top-secret headquarters was stationed here during WWII. Many of the rooms were just as they were left so many years ago. After that we went to Westminster Abbey. The Abbey was a great example of gothic architecture and included many historic figures that were either memorialized there or buried there. Many influential people in both literature and music were represented at the abbey. That was especially interesting for us to see. Debbie likes this quote: “The first condition of human goodness is something to love; the second something to reverence”-George Elliot, who is memorialized in Poet’s Corner. We are only beginning to understand the richness and the vastness of Great Britain’s history. It is a lot to take in but it is amazing to be in a place that is older than anything we can see in America (besides some of the trees of course).

This is the 3rd Church built on this sight. It has been there since the 1300's.

We think it is important to discuss the snack we had after Westminster Abbey. We had the most wonderful ice cream in the world. It was called super soft ice cream. It looked like whipped cream and kind of tasted like it too, but it was ice cream! (Poppa- you would have loved it!!) After Westminster, we came back to hotel for a quick nap and then went off to find the mysterious Hyde Park that we had yet to see! It was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. Once there we found the infamous Peter Pan statue. It is said that this is the place that Peter landed after he had gone sailing in the book. He appeared “as if by magic!” Hyde park was beautiful! The British know how to do parks, that is for sure! We then ventured to Piccadilly Circus for dinner. This place is comparable to Times Square in New York City! As Jennie says, “It was hoppin’!” After a late dinner we returned to the Hyde Park Randor Hotel and got some much needed rest.

All the signs for the Underground or "Tube" look like this.

Much Love,

Debbie and Jennie