A short walk took us to Buckingham
Palace where we got as close as we could to the gates to wait for the Changing
of the Guard to start. We were a good 45
minutes early, but we still weren’t at the front so it was a little difficult
to see. The ceremony was fun to watch; every
time a guard took a step you could see the fur on their hats bounce up. They wear the funniest uniforms! When we were
there they were in their gray winter coats instead of the more well-known red
coats. The ceremony itself lasted about
an hour and a half! After a while the grandeur starts to wear off as you watch guards
march back and forth 4, 5, 6 times. It
starts with a 20-30 guards and more march in slowly until there are 50-75 plus
the guards playing in the band. The best
part was when the band played Thriller… unfortunately they did not do the dance
to accompany it, but it was still hilarious! 
After the guards marched off we bought tickets to a city sight-seeing bus tour. It turned out to be an amazing idea as our bus had a hilarious tour guide constantly commenting on all of the monuments, streets and passengers. Plus it was double-decker which Jed (Dakota’s 8-year-old brother) loved! At one point we pulled up next to another open air double-decker that was a rival sight-seeing company and he teased that they didn’t look like they were having fun at all and proceeded to tell lots of jokes to brighten both busses’ passenger’s faces!
We dismounted the bus at Westminster Abbey and entered the
huge church full of very famous dead people.
Royalty and nobles of Britain have been buried there for centuries and
it also houses memorials to famous writers such as Charles Dickens, Chaucer, and
Shakespeare. The monuments are huge and
many are very ornate. Be warned though
it is very expensive!!!
Right next to Westminster Abbey is Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament which we took photographs of and across the river you can see the London Eye as well.
Our next stop was the Sherlock Holmes Museum where we observed lots of period artifacts and funny wax figures reenacting scenes from some of the stories. All the people in the museum were dressed as maids and police officers from the time too. And of course it was all located at 221 B Baker’s street!
Jed and Neal’s favorite thing to do while they were here in England was to eat ice cream; at least a cone or two a day. Strangely, the weather was in support of it being warm and sunny (instead of the usual cold rain). But, we found out London is not the place to support the ice cream habit –Jed got a cone and it cost 4 pounds –so $6 dollars! That is an expensive snack!
We ended the day by rejoining the tour bus and we were glad to end up back with the hilarious guide we had on the first bus. We rode it around looking at lots of the famous sights in London hearing quirky little tidbits about each:
·
The lions in Trafalgar Square, we learned, were
designed by a man who had never actually seen a lion! Instead he modeled the
way they are lying down after his Labrador –so if you ever think they are
sitting like a dog you are right!
·
Arizona (the state) tried to buy the most famous
bridge in London. They meant to buy
Tower Bridge which is the one leading to the Tower of London with blue
suspension cables and towers on it. But
Arizona mistakenly thought that it was named London Bridge which is a bridge a
little ways down the river and purchased that bridge instead! So instead of the
famous Tower Bridge they got a relatively plain bridge to put over a body of
water in the States… Although I’m not sure why, because Arizona is not
particularly known for its bodies of water…
·
Most of the clocks in London –and England- have
an
incorrect numeral 4 on them. Instead of IV they have IIII!
This is because King Louis the XIV (14th) of France banned clocks having IV on them because it was part of his name!
incorrect numeral 4 on them. Instead of IV they have IIII!
This is because King Louis the XIV (14th) of France banned clocks having IV on them because it was part of his name!
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