London --October 8

DAY 4
Tourist day, basically. It was the first day we didn't have any pre-purchased tickets needing to be used so we had a lot more freedom this day. And by freedom, I mean sleeping in. By the time we finally roused our weary carcasses out of bed, it was late morning and time to get a move on. We decided to go all out on the tourist schtick and bought a London Pass (a superb way of getting into all the major attractions of London at a discounted price. Can't recommend it enough) and tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus (the best way of getting to all of the attractions. These buses are everywhere and you are free to jump off at any stop to check out the site and then hop on to the next bus that comes around).

Included with the bus pass were walking tours, and we arrived just in time to go see the traditional Changing of the Guard ceremony with one of the walking tours. What was neat about this tour was the fact that we saw where the new soldiers about to begin their duty start out before marching down to the Palace. It starts at a different, older castle where the monarchs use to live. The soldiers are all inspected before the brisk march begins to trade with the other guards who are to be relieved from their 48 hour shift.

According to our guide, the Changing of the Guard ceremony actually began as a punishment for the guards. The Queen (I forget which one, but not the current one) had been away on vacation and returned a day earlier than scheduled. She found the guards to relaxed and ordered for the whole ceremony to happen as a punishment in order to whip them into shape. It was only suppose to last a few months, but over the years turned into a tradition that now attracts unbearably large crowds. As you can probably tell from the picture. And yes, the building is Buckingham Palace.

Since there is such a large crowd for this event, our tour took us back routes so we could get quite close to some of the soliders. However, a police officer decided to hold us up which set us behind the schedule which meant at one point, we were sprinting down the mall in order to catch up to the Guard. It's unbelieveiably how fast those men can march!  It's kind of cheating when they ride horses, though. Anyway, we wound up losing half of our tour group by the end of the tour. The guide congratulated us for surviving until the end. I just wished I'd done some leg stretches beforehand. 

After that, we finally jumped on a bus to begin the city tour. London is a beautiful city, a strange mixture of modern and history on every street. The architecture of some of the buildings is so eye catching that I snapped off pictures left and right of things that just looked neat, but afterwards i couldn't even remember the purpose of the building. We did stop to wander at St. Paul's Cathedral, a breath taking church teeming with history. And we drove across the London bridge. Luckily, it wasn't falling down, my fair lady. Its quite sturdy, as you can see.

Our next stop was the infamous Tower of London. The Yeoman Warders, or better known as Beefeaters, offer hilarious tours through the keep. While explaining about the numerous deaths that had taken place at the Tower, our guide was thrown off by a little girl asking why he was wearing a dress. Personally, I thought his "dress" was rather adorable. Probably not something an honored and decorated solider would want to hear about his uniform...

Dotted all along the grassy areas of the Tower, ravens watched vistors with dark beady little eyes. There are 7 ravens kept on the premise at all times, wings clipped so they can't go flying off. A legend states that if all six ravens ever leave the Tower, then the kingdom will fall. They keep a seventh as a spare, in case one of the six gets sick, dies, or manages to escape. However, the birds don't seem too eager to vacate the premise seeing as they are fed chunks of raw meet and blood soaked biscuits several times a day. Yum... The crown jewels are also kept at the Tower and visitors are allowed to gape wistfully at the royal bling. Personally, I'm not sure how they were able to balance those massive crowns with snapping their necks.

Back on the bus! This time we stopped to see the Shakespearean Globe Theater. It is a reconstruction of the 1599 theater Shakespeare worked and wrote for, and built only 750 feet from the original theater site. The reconstructed version opened in 1997, and puts on actual performances every year that are reminisce of how it would have been in Shakespeare's time. Meaning there are no fancy props, no speakers or microphones, and groundlings have to stand around the stage and stare up at the actors. It was also an open air theatre, so weather can play a big part on how a show will go.

Unfortunately, some construction work was going on around the stage when we visited. But it was still a grandoise view! The entire stage, and theater, is made of oak and oak nails. Handmade oak nails. Not something I'd want to have as my job, but the finished product was amazing. It would be a dream to get to see an actual production on that stage someday. Especially Hamlet. Anyhow, by that point it was early evening so we scurried back to the bus to get in as much time riding around the city.

Dinner was a very exciting affair. We ate at the Sherlock Holmes pub! And I even ordered a pint (okay, not really, I just got a small one) of Sherlock Holmes ale. If I'm honest, the food left something to be desired. The beer was great though, and they had a big selection. The place was absolutely packed with Londoners unwinding after work. But even better was the fact that it was crammed with Sherlock memorabilia!

Upstairs they had a corner roped off and dedicated to all things Sherlock. Basically a mini museum to the great detective. Even their menu board said "Mrs. Hudson's Kitchen." The windows had cutout Sherlock silhouettes. It was a really cute place and a great way to wind up the evening.

To check out more photos, take a look at my Shutterfly site.