Buckingam Palace & London Touring

We had breakfast at the famous place again—McDonald’s then grabbed an Uber to our Buckingham Palace tour. I kept saying we were going to have tea with Queen Elizabeth but it turns out she was out of town so we just showed ourselves around with the others. ;)

It was so interesting to see inside one of the last remaining “working palaces” in the world. They had so much art! Prince Charles recorded a lot of the information for the tour and he sounded like an alcoholic to me. It was so strange to hear his voice. He was nothing like I expected. I think the palace hid his drug addiction. You were not allowed to take photos and there were so many employees around that I didn't even try to sneak any! That may be a first!! 

After the tour we had a lovely little dessert break at their garden cafe. 

Cappuccinos (surprise!), water in a can and desserts
that were really good!

I had a strawberry shortcake said to be favored by the Queen (I'm always willing to try something if they tell me the Queen likes it- ha!!). It was quite delicious. Mom tried the vanilla slice and didn't love it, sadly.

Mom behind the Palace

Teaching Mom to selfie

They had a little store built behind the castle where Mom did some damage buying gifts for people. I got Jackson a pair of socks with Corgis on them (the Queen's favorite dog) and MacKenzie a little tartan for her collar.

The Queen's love of dogs makes me love her

A better view back to Buckingham Palace

We left the tour just in time to catch a changing of the guard. I don't find this to be all that impressive and prefer the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery myself, but it was still something to see and I was glad to get Mom out there to see it!

The changing of the guard

We’d booked a hop on/ hop off tour so we grabbed our ride and headed out to see the city. It turns out that Saturday traffic is awful in the early afternoon.

Touring!

After a frustrating hour we finally hopped off and grabbed a taxi back to the hotel. We took a little break to let traffic calm down a bit.

We eventually headed back out and took the boat part of our tour. It was hands down the best part. We even saw a boat crash into the Tower Bridge! We decided to walk across the Tower Bridge.

Touring from the Thames

St Paul's Cathedral

The Tower Bridge

Crossing the Tower Bridge

I love this shot looking up at the Tower Bridge's
second level

A lot of building going on!

The Shard

Touring!

Then we grabbed a quick bite near the Globe Theatre at my favorite place: Nando’s!

Nando's for dinner!

Shakespeare used to drink here!

We caught another tour bus back to our area of town. The idea of touring later in the day was a good one!

Also, Heidi sent me this adorable photo of little Jocelin going to a tea themed birthday party that day back home in Fishers. I loved it!!

Jocelin having tea with the Queen, too!