Coach tour through London

(Photo 1) St. Paul's Cathedral




(Photo 4) The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Bridge


(Photo 5) Big Ben


(Photo 6) Westminster Bridge


(Photo 7) The Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace






(Photo 9) The girls at Buckingham Palace


(Photo 10) Charles and Camilla's residence is in the background




(Photo 13) British History Museum


(Photo 14) The Dome at the top of the Museum


Today, we woke up to a beautiful day with bluebird skies. It was a perfect day for a whirlwind coach tour of London where we hit all of the high spots. Our first stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral where Princess Diana married Prince Charles. We only saw the outside, and Amy wants to go back to see the inside on another day. Our next stop was Big Ben where Hallie tragically lost the use of her brand new camera. Canon will definitely be hearing from us when we get home! The demise of Hallie’s camera was followed by some kind consolation from her “half sister” Gaiten. Gaiten wiped Hallie’s tears and fought off our attempts to photograph them as we tried to preserve the Kodak moments at Big Ben. Buckingham Palace was an anticipated stop as we were going to arrive in time to see the “changing of the guard”. We also saw the residences of Charles and Camilla, and Princes William and Harry. We drank some fabulous hot chocolate in St. James Park next to Buckingham Palace where we also had a close brush with nature that involved pigeons, geese, swans, squirrels, and men peeing in bushes! It was getting close to lunch time and that meant a trip to Covent Garden for lunch and a little shopping. The group split up for lunch on our own. We chose a little Italian restaurant and had paninis and chicken club sandwiches. It was different from home but still very good. It was almost time to return to the coach, so we window shopped a little and made plans for a return trip on another day. Our last stop was the British Museum where we went reluctantly, wishing we were still shopping in Covent Garden. It turned out to be very interesting. Highlights included the infamous Rosetta Stone (Amy took a picture for Jase), Classic sculpture from Greece and Rome (a favorite of Hallie) AND the Elgin Marbles. These are not round, shiny, marbles like Sara Beth had us searching for. After standing in a room full of reliefs from the Parthenon, we asked where the Elgin Marbles were. We were told they were in the room where we were standing. Seeing nothing round and shiny, Sara Beth returned to the bookshop and found a book of Elgin Marbles that looked remarkably just like the relief tablets we had just been viewing. We got a big kick out of our naivety. Country had indeed come to London. We returned to the hotel where we had a wonderful meal provided by our hosts. The girls practiced in their one and only rehearsal and earned a spot on the third row of eight. They came back from practice very excited. Sara Beth and I stayed in and looked through our pictures to pick out some for the blog. All in all, it was a very fun day in London.