Forward march.......about turn for yet another cruise!

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UK & Europe, May 1993

London again...this time we had a bit longer to explore - two days instead of one. No visit is complete without looking at the changing of the guards. So much pomp and ceremony!

Paul's highlight though was watching the sidelines: the best part for him was watching the new guards preparing for the changing of the guards and being inspected before marching off to the palace.

We had pre-booked tickets for another musical, this time at the Drury Lane Theatre - Miss Saigon. Just as spectacular as Phantom of the opera, with the highlight being the ‘evacuation’ of the last Americans by helicopter – it was quite realistic, considering .

In true form of the rest of our tour, we went for another cruise: this time on the Thames. Along the way we saw a few of the usual sights of London.

The Cutty Sark and Greenwich also deserved a visit. Another place that Paul thoroughly enjoyed himself, looking at all the displays and reading all the finer details. The British certainly have a good way of showing off their history.



And then...shopping! More bribery to assuage our guilt of leaving our sons at home, we bought some lavish toys with the money we had left. We went to Hamleys and I think Paul had just as much fun in the toy store as our sons would have had if they were with us. Then we went to Harrods. I always think back of my parents having been to Harrods so I just had to see it for myself. My word! We shopped with our eyes, because we certainly couldn’t shop with the couple of pence we had left!!



Time to go back home and as much as we had enjoyed our trip, we were both looking forward to seeing our sons & family again, with so many tales to share of all we saw. We had a great time and were so thankful for this opportunity, but it would have been so much more enjoyable if our sons could be with us, although at their age they would probably have been rather bored with half the things that we did.



Thankfully our sons were pleased to see us (although I am sure they were far more pleased with their gifts than us) and didn’t disown us after abandoning them with my sister for so long!

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Photos

London
Big Ben and Westminster Abbey

London
Inspection time for the new guards

London
Palace and the guards

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Quick march..

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Lovely to listen to

London
Paul at the golden gates, not pearly gates

London
Note the sign: Passengers must be seated! Obendient tourists? Hmmm!

London
Cutty Sark

London
Place cheesy caption here: This is the captain of your ship!

London
Amazing rigging

London
Greenwich - standing over the meridian line - time warp?

London
Apologies for the blur! Howzit, my buddy Nigel! Paul's hero of the 90's