Since our tickets for the hop on, hop off bus tour were still good until 11 a.m. Monday, we went back to Trafalgar Square again to go on the final walking tour that showed us the changing of the guard. Of course, this was after we'd checked out and hiked through Hyde Park with our bags, so we weren't in the best of moods. The tour sure helped with that, though. Since it is crazy crowded in front of the palace for the changing of the guards, our guide took us around the side to see the building where all of the guards and the band leave from instead, which was just as interesting. First, though, we saw some other important royal stuff.
Here, for instance, are the statues of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Albert, the two most-loved monarchs of England according to our guide. We heard the story about how Albert's older brother left the throne to marry a divorcee, and even though he didn't want the position Elizabeth convinced him to take it and take speaking lessons.
Then we started to see mounted police riding by...
And the first group of guards too.
But here's where the action started. The guards lined up to get ready to march down to do the longer ceremony of changing spots.
But the band got to go first! Heh, awesome. I recorded them, so watch the video!
Buckingham Palace is down at the end there. I never got to stand in front of it, so don't have any really good pictures.
We were told to be thankful for the sun a million times, so here's my tribute.
At another spot in the city, two more guards sit out front all day. Talk about patient horses. And a sore butt.
Not sure what this is, but it sounds creepy.
Can I go in here?!
Some famous bookstore according to our guide.
The British Museum! We were such scoundrels getting here...like I said before, our tickets to use the tour buses expired at 11. Well, we managed to use them until 6 ish and not get caught, basically meaning that we didn't have to walk all the way to the museum and back. We were lucky in not getting checked, but at the first stop the guy asked if he could marry my "mom," Courtney, and at the second one we must have looked so frantic that they took pity on us. With my heavy bag, I was very grateful.'Nuff about that. The museum was AWESOME!! I wish we could have spent more time in it.
Okay, let me just say that Alice and Courtney made me, and I have no reason for putting it up here except that it's so so so random. Walking through a room full of these naked dishes reminded me of my naked man shirt that I bought after a trip to museums in New York City, the one that I didn't realize was anatomically correct until I got home. I can count on my fingers how many times I've worn it since then...such an awkward way to start conversations.
The real version of what is at the Johnson Art Museum.
I took pictures of all the different types of writing I could find in the museum. This is Assyrian.
Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Can't really see it, which is probably why I forgot which it was.
I miss my kittens!
The Rosetta Stone! I completely forgot that it was here, so running into it was a nice surprise. It's so much bigger than I expected.
I want to live in this room!
I can't imagine the size of the rest of the statue for this ginormous foot.
More writing.
By the time we had walked around for a couple of hours, we looked like this guy. It wasn't pretty.
The only thing I didn't like about the museum was the huge hallway filled with mummies. I hate mummies. They give me a stomachache. I stayed near the walls and didn't stop to look. Ugh.After the museum, we took the bus to Trafalgar Square then walked to Victoria Station to catch our overnight bus to Glasgow. We had a bit of a scare again when we found out that Courtney had decided not to print her ticket, but it ended up okay after some frantic phone calls. The bus was uber crowded and it was hard to get comfortable to sleep, but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures...so I slept anyway. Every time I woke up someone was laughing at me or poking me. Jerks.
Let the tour continue!
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