Buckingham Palace

After a nice long walk up the streets of London, we arrived at Buckingham Palace. After seeing the magnificence that is Parliament and Big Ben, Buckingham Palace was smaller and less imposing than I had imagined. It is still lovely and much too large for one family to inhabit, but not as big as I had mentally pictured.



We weren't there for the changing of the guard, but I had already been talked out of sitting through that by Bill who has seen it and said it is a lot of marching for a very long time and can be quite tedious. We did get to snap some fun photos of the guards along the side of the building. That was very much as I had pictured. Bill joked that if we walked through the open gate, he was pretty sure we could get a reaction out of those guards. He decided against it, as he was afraid that being arrested may interfere with his ability to get to his Chelsea soccer game the next day.

The Palace was a definite must see, but after shooting some quick photos, there wasn't much else to do there. Our feet seemed to be holding up ok, and it was getting late enough to be past closing time for the museums and churches, so we decided to walk to Harrod's to do some shopping and get a look at that very famous department store.





Harrod's was quite impressive and imposing. The outside of the store looks like it could be a castle itself. That is until you walk in, and then it turns from a castle into a pyramid. Very Vegas like. It was almost like going from the Excalibur next door to the Luxor, but with much more expensive things to shop for. Every major designer and brand was represented. Also they had a "Toy Kingdom" with every possible toy in several different toy "wings". We bought them a beautiful book from the 1950's called "This is London" to let them see a bit of what we experienced London town. It was then that I missed the kids. They would have been in toy heaven.



Bill was also in his own little heaven when he found the team gear and picked out a very sharp looking Chelsea zip-up jacket. Can you believe it, we found a way to make Bill a happy camper in a department store. We also learned about the VAT tax and what is was and how to use it at the Harrod's tax free area. After spending more money than we meant to, we decided it was time to get back to the hotel. I was creeped out by a couple of Polish men eyeing us in the elevator (or should I say "lift") in the tube station. I told Bill about it and then told him again when I saw them waiting on the dark street for us to come out of the station. One started following us and then the other and Bill and I took off walking super fast and jogging back to the hotel. It was the only time either one of us felt even a bit unsafe the entire trip. Sorry, no pictures of the large and small polish thugs.