Walking Tour....and sore feet

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Today Taylor and I took a walking tour around the Westminster-Trafalgar Sq area. We started off to Buckingham Palace through Green Park to watch the changing of the guard at 11:30am. However, in September the changing is every other day according to the brochure. Ok, so we get there and it’s apparently every EVEN day…which means its tomorrow. Big bummer! So after that hit we went and visited St. James’s Park which is gorgeous and fun to walk around. We then saw the Horse Guards Parade or ceremony (I think). We then walked over past the Cabinet War Rooms to 10 Downing Street which is really hard to see because they have all these gates and police there as security guards. We skipped over the Banqueting Hall because it’s not something special, (at least to me) but let me know if I missed out and I’ll come back and do it again. We then walked over to see Admiralty Arch which was a let down, since it really kind of blends in and is no where in the realm of the Arc de Triomphe, and on to Trafalgar Sq and the National Gallery. We had planned to do much more than this on our walking tour but our feet hurt and we were tired so we decided to get some food from Sainsbury’s and go back to LSE and organize ourselves (ie. pack so we don’t have to in the morning). Tomorrow Taylor and I will have Hotelink get us from LSE around 11 or 11:30am and take us to Heathrow Airport. We’ll then catch the coach pick-up to Nottingham University for the Welcome Programme.

P.S. I just remembered that I might have to write my work for university in the Queen’s English which will be hard I think but interesting. So if I do, please just ignore it or learn something new than what you may already know.

P.S.S. Europe is an expensive area of the world, but it’s easier to accept that than to continue converting all money transactions. Prices are fairly comparable here it seems to US prices except that it will cost us more in US dollars to pay for something that is marked in pounds. Just a thought.

Quiz Anwers: The Millennium Bridge is called the “Wibbly-Wobbly” Bridge because on opening day there were so many thousands of people on the bridge that it began to sway and was unsteady. They have since reinforced the bridge and it no longer wobbles.

The Waterloo Bridge is said to have the nicest curves because it was a WWII wartime project. The women who had stayed at home were now in the jobs of their husbands while the men fought in the war. Thus because women built the bridge, they say that it has the nicest curves (referring to its arches).

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Photos

Buckingham Palace
Note the flag is at full mast...the Queen was in residence.

Nelson's Column
The column is a huge statue in Trafalgar Square that can be seen most everywhere.

St. Peters's Park ducks
There are TONS of different species of ducks and birds in the park, which has beautiful foilage as well.

Circle Lady
One of the many performers in the Night Carnival, part of the weekend-long Thames Festival.

Dancer
One of the many performers in the Night Carnival, part of the weekend-long Thames Festival.

Sun
A very interesting sun design that I liked.

Walking Dead person
Another Thames Festival Night Carnival act.