~London~

May 9

On the Third Day of Our Trip Jeff Gave to me... Three Palace Guards!

We hurried over to Buckingham palace so we could see the changing of the guard at 11:30. It was Saturday so I imagine that is why there were so many other people there. It was pretty neat to watch the fuzzy soldiers march in with their serious faces. I was secretly hoping they'd start doing the nutcracker. Sadly, the closest they got was their marching and screaming at each other. I wanted to that they had to take turns guarding and it would be more appropriate to ASK the other guards to take a turn, not bark at them. I don't think they would've listened.It seemed like a lot of work just to do a shift change. Does this bother the people of Britain that there is such a show (waste of taxes) when the guards change? What a long shift to have if they only do it every 12 hours, too.Jeff was super cute-despite being really sick he made the best of a busy day. He had me hop up here to take a photo and it wasn't long before there was a line of other tourists wanting us to take their pictures as well. I should have charged.We then ran over to see Westminster Abbey. They told us the line would be about two hours, so in hopes of killing two birds with one stone Julia and I waited in line while the boys went and scoured for some food. Only, two minutes after they left the guy on lunch break came back and opened up three more entrances and our two hour line went to a ten minute one. So, Julia and I hung out at the front of the line with a wonderful gentleman who, after we waited for an hour for the boys, gave us free tickets and told us if they didn't come soon he'd take us home when he got off. Westminster was amazing-it was totally worth the wait and I wished I'd had a whole day to spend there.We walked through St. James again and harassed this poor guard. I wonder if he had any idea when he took this job that he would be in hundreds of tourists photos every day.

The bus dropped us off close to the National Gallery-we had twenty minutes before they closed so I ran in to the back and saw their Leonardo DaVinci sketch. It was the one with Mary and the Christ child. It was stunning to stand in front of such an old piece of work from such a great artist. I wished I could've spent more time. We also saw the Van Gogh's they had on display. Jeff recognized the flower one as one he had in the bathroom at his house growing up. We arrived at St. Paul's too late to go in but enjoyed the steps and the view on the outside. Eventually we just decided to ride the buses around til the line ended. That didn't take long, but the bus rides were fun. You got to see a lot of the city that way. We found a very old restaurant and had fish and chips. Walking along the Thames was beautiful, the sunset was spectacular and I enjoyed watching the people. I wished we could've stayed out later and enjoyed the streets at night, but after one short game of "London Bridge" on the London Bridge, everyone was pretty tired. London was absolutely beautiful, although being in the city for so long can get tiring. Next time we come I want to see more of the country side.