Day 15 - London

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Today began with a walk through Hyde Park, I would love to see it in snow. A hugely pleasant place, joggers jogging, cyclists cycling, horse riders riding riding horses, all in all a wonderful place. We continued through Wellington Arch and down Constitution Hill to Buckingham Palace to see The Changing of the Guard. It was a bit drawn out to be honest, but very impressive. The Royal Band was there and played all kinds of music, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, along with some ceremonial music. The guards were resplendent in their scarlet jackets and black furry hats, boots shined to a mirror sheen. They all carried semi-automatic rifles with fixed bayonets. We then walked down The Mall to Trafalgar Square to have coffee and watch the world go by. Down the road, past Downing Street, which is the Prime Ministers' office, so was guarded by men with machine guns. Along down to Westminster Abbey, which wad simply stunning. So many people are buried under the stones there, and the interior was so ornate, with carved wooden everything, stained glass windows everywhere and all manner of gilded thingamywhatsits. I saw the graves of Sir Charles Darwin and Sir Isaac Newton here. We walked along Westminster Bridge, past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament to the London Eye, which was well worth the money. It takes about half an hour to do a full rotation, and you have a grand view of London all the time.

Waiting at the bus stop, in a matter of minutes it went from sunshine to thunder, lightning, hail, and heavy rain. The bus took us to Harrod. Most of the items had no price tag on them, if you have to ask, you can't afford it. We went directly to the chocolate section, where Zac bought some truffles. Zac tried on a watch that was worth about NZ$6,500. Mark and I bought a few Harrod souvenirs that were within our budget and we caught a taxi back to the hotel. What a place Harrods was, we barely even scraped the surface, it has 5 floors and is spread over 2 city blocks. We had dinner at a local pub, which was fantastic, and collapsed into bed about 11:00pm. Another epic day on our journey.

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