Changing of the Guard

Today we went to Buckingham Palace. It was, by far, the most crowded any tourist site has been. The palace is obviously magnificent and there are guards patrolling the building at all times. The big event to see there is the "Changing of the Guards", which is when new guards are trumpeted in and they switch. This happens every day at 11:30am sharp. I thought we were going to a rock concert, and like a rock concert, Lauren had to stand up on a small rail and use me to balance to see the show. It was quite the spectacle. It was also kind of funny that while they did have those old fashion guards with the bushy black hats and red coats, they also had other guards carrying machine guns and wearing huge bullet proof vests lurking in the shadows. Because the Changing of the Guard was such an event, we couldn't get tickets in time to go inside the Palace. The only reason anyone is allowed inside is because the Queen is away on vacation. So we are ordering our tickets right now and are going to see the inside tomorrow. While we are in the area, we are also going to see Westminster Abbey, The Parliament, and go on the London Eye. Tomorrow will be an eventful day.

Today we are taking it easy. We saw the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace and then at lunch in St. James park, which is basically the front yard of the Palace. It was very nice. Then we had to go shopping because we found another famous shopping street on accident. I knew this one was famous because it was full of Lamborghini's, Maserati's, Porches, customized BMW's and other exotic foreign cars I have only seen on TV. (Don't worry mom, I didn't buy anything).

The plan for the rest of the day is to just do laundry, organize all our activities, catch-up, and rest.

Lauren & Harrison

P.S.

We have pictures on the phone now. We just have to get them to the blog. It's tough to do when you only want to pay for 20min and have other things to do as well. Hopefully we can send them to my email tonight. Then the next time we get on I will have them.