Hey! There's the Queen!

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Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236

Since Jerome is a huge music fan, specifically of the Beatles, going to Abbey Road was a must-do. Unfortunately, you can't tour the studios, but you can do your own version of the "Abbey Road" album cover -- if you can find a spot in between the traffic. However, an early start to the day (like, 7 am....on a Saturday) meant that we had the zebra crossing pretty much to ourselves. We got some good shots of the boys paying homage to the album cover, then it was off to St. James Park, for the Trooping the Colour.

We found a spot that we thought would be really stellar – affording a view of the grounds as well as the road – but after the boys had gone off to find a Tesco (to get sunscreen.....yes, in England), I realized that the space in front of us would be filled up with scouts and school groups. I moved to the Mall to find a more up-front spot. They found me, and we waited another hour or so, before the parade came by. We did get to see Camilla, Kate & Harry, and though we missed seeing William & Charles (wasn't expecting them to be horseback), we saw the Queen quite clearly.

Afterward, we went to the Churchill War Rooms, which were much less crowded than I'd anticipated. Pretty interesting, and a good reminder of how fortunate we are, to have never experienced war on our home land.

We went up to Kings Cross station, hoping to play a bit at finding Platform 9¾, only to find that you now have to have a ticket to get onto the platforms. Oh, well. We walked over to the British Library, where we spent about an hour looking around. I'm always amazed at some of the documents that are there: the napkin on which John Lennon scribbled the lyrics for "Yesterday"....Lewis Carroll's illustrations for "Through the Looking Glass"....and Handel's score of "The Messiah". Oy.

We needed to kill a little time before our next appointment, so the boys dozed a little on a bench in the main foyer, while I kept watch. 😊 We took a double-decker bus (top level, of course) down to High Holborn, and hiked over to the Cittie of York pub. We waited about half an hour, before meeting up with Robbie Duncan and his girlfriend. Robbie's a fellow MacRumors moderator with Dejo.We had a lovely chat with them, for about an hour and a half.

For dinner, we sought out Bizarro (my favourite London Italian restaurant), and had a lovely meal there. Their vodka tomato sauce with smoked salmon is as good as ever. Then we walked back to the flat, which was a little further than we'd anticipated). Back to bed, and ready for a full day on Sunday!

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Photos

Abbey Road
Hooray for the sports mode on my camera!

Oh, yes....the studios.....
Jerome and the Abbey Road studio entrance

Gnorm is ready for the Queen
yes, of course Gnorm was there!

Wil and Vince are ready for the Queen....
Though Wil couldn't join us on the trip as planned, I wanted to get her into the picture (and Vince, too, of course!)

I always feel like.....somebody's watchin' me....
There were plenty o' troops, all in fine colours. And they had guns. I'm certain that, beneath those trigger covers, are working triggers an' bullets an' everything.

Camilla & Kate......
Royalty!

..and Harry
Actual royalty!

Yeah, yeah yeah yeah....
I believe this is David Cameron the Prime Minister

The Queen
I'm certain she was looking at us. :)

Backs of royalty
Though we didn't realize it at the time, this is Princess Anne (on horseback, in the Napoleon hat, on the left), and Princes Charles & William (2 of the 3 guys in blue sashes).

Gnorm tries to be helpful
Gnorm offered to hold up a MacRumors business card, in hopes that Robbie would spot it and know it was us sitting at the table. Turns out, maybe Gnorm is too short.