21 July
We got up relatively early and jumped on the tube to take us from Clapham South (Meg's house) to Trafalgar Square where our walking tour for the Changing of the Guards would start from. We were slightly late, but caught up with the tour at it's first stop. Have been so lucky with our guides so far, all have been very charming and entertaining as well as being extremely informative! The group decided to watch the guards guarding the queen mum's place leave, and then move and watch the new regiment leave their barracks to take over, rather than watching the guards at Buckingham palace. This was a great idea as we got so up close and personal with the change and had front row seats (or front row standing rather) with only like 50 people, whereas at Buckingham there was thousands of people!
The bands were absolutely amazing! apparently they play really modern songs as well as the old, and they have even played 'look on the brighter side of life' haha!
We got a tradtional one, but i was happy with that, and then they set off down the street with the guards following. We then moved onto the Barracks and when we got there the band had just finished playing Tina Turner - Simply the Best! pisser! then they set off down the street. Check the photos out, really awesome!
We also stopped and saw the guards that aren't allowed to move, and our guide told us a story about how you used to be able to get right up close with the guards, but then a couple months ago, a Frenchman was being an absolute wanker and being very sarcastic...the day was a scorcher and so the guard clearly fed up with the heat and stupid people, dropped his gun and then proceeded to drop the stupid Frenchman in one punch! how hilarious! will teach the guy to mess with a professional army man, they are all Special Forces trained! lol
Was about lunchtime now, so we stopped at a Bakery and Lisa nearly died because they had sausage rolls, which apprently you can't really get anywhere in Europe so had been over 7 months, and she was very excited to eat one...even though it was pork - for some reason sausages and everything else are pork and not normal meat...weird...
So we decided to walk along the Thames, saw London Bridge (which has been replaced 4 times!) then Tower Bridge, and walked over this and was going to go to St Paul's Cathedral, but decided that Oxford street was calling us, and shome shopping was in order!
We were there about 5mins, before the mass of people started to annoy us, so jumped on the tube, and was good timing to catch our train back to Kent. Dave (ruth's dad) picked us up from Faversham train station, and we are now staying with a close family friend of their's, Marion, in Boughton.
Heading into Canterbury today, to hopefully(!) see the Cathedral, and then later tonight with head to Ashford to the cinema complex to watch Harry Potter!
Hope everyone is well, and i'm not boring you too much! hehe ;)
