Sightseeing in London, Day 1

We started our sightseeing with a trip to Buckingham Palace. It was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel & we went that morning to see the Changing of the Guard. Apparently during the summer it happens daily, but this is considered their slow season & it only happens every other day. They told us to get their early but apparently we didn't get there early enough:

 

I had no idea it would be so crowded! Buckingham Palace is huge - I heard it had 700 rooms! No wonder everyone was there at the same time. We were there for about an hour & somehow managed to push our way to the gate as close as possible so I was able to get a few pictures:

 

 

To be honest, I still don't really understand why they do this. It was a big deal. They had a band that marched around & played songs, they kept switching positions & I noticed that some of the soldiers had guns & some had knives. It lasted almost an hour but we were entertained with the music. They even played the James Bond theme song!

 

 

When it was over, it cleared out a little & we were able to take pictures:

 

 

That is the balcony that we always see on tv where the royals come out to wave to everyone. We took some up close by the gate:

 

 

And then we stepped back to the statue so we could see the entire palace:

 

 

Sadie was so impressed when we told her we got to visit the palace where the queen lives!

 

From here we caught a tour bus that took us all over London:

 

 

Everyone suggested we take one of the tour buses & it was a great idea! They have stops all over the city & there is constantly buses going along the same route so you can hop on & hop off whenever you want. Plus they have guides that give commentary along the way which we enjoyed. Our first stop just happened to be at the Hard Rock Café:

 

 

I know it is not a historical stop, but I have collected Hard Rock pins from everywhere I have traveled since I was a little girl. We never eat there, I just like to go in & buy my pin!

 

Along the way, we saw St. Paul's Cathedral which was beautiful, but we didn't have time to stop & tour this time:

 

 

We did spent a lot of time at our next stop: London Tower & London Tower Bridge:

 

 

We walked around London Tower & then we walked across the bridge. The bridge was absolutely beautiful! It is currently under construction so you can not drive across it but you can walk:

 

 

And I got a really good picture of the Shard from the bridge:

 

 

Remember this building because we went to visit it later in the evening.

 

At London Tower, we went to the dock & boarded a river cruise down the Thames river:

 

 

I'll be honest, I have always heard of the Thames, but it didn't live up to what I had imagined. It was very muddy & brown. And it seemed to mostly be used for tourist, not for commercial use. When we got off the cruise, we saw Big Ben:

 

 

Here's a fun fact I learned. I have always heard of Big Ben, but did you know that is actually the nickname for the bell inside the clock? So you actually can't see Big Ben! It was beautiful & Bryan kept commenting on all the gold. We actually heard it chime several times. It is connected to The Palace of Westminster, which is where parliament meets:

 

 

Then we walked to 10 Downing Street which is where the Prime Minister lives:

 

 

Obviously it is like the White House & was heavily guarded! But he talked to one of the police officers & they pointed to a grey building which is where they actually live:

 

 

You can faintly see the grey building behind Bryan's right shoulder in this picture. This is where they usually do interviews outside his residence so Bryan recognized it from the news.

 

At this point, it was starting to get dark & everything was closing so we headed to the Shard. Remember, the picture of the tall pointy building above? Bryan traveled with a colleague, Jim, who met us for drinks. We also met up with Calvin, who lives in London & also works with them. Since he was a local, he suggested we have drinks here before dinner & it was an awesome suggestion! Check out our view:

 

 

Unbelievable! If we ever go back to London, we will definitely make reservations to eat there next time.

 

After drinks, we headed to:

 

 

for dinner with Jim. We also met another colleague of Bryan's who flew in for meetings from Montana:

 

 

The restaurant was beautiful & the food was delicious! I would definitely recommend them or come back again. The detail on the ceiling was so ornate & the chandeliers were beautiful:

 

 

We didn't meet for dinner until 11:00 & didn't get to bed until 2:00. Yikes! We never do that anymore! Needless to say it was a long day sightseeing followed by a fun evening out with friends but we were eager to get up & do the exact same thing the next day :)