Tourists

Our first full day in London were we out of the hotel by 8 AM and ready to go! It was like we had a checklist of all the iconic things associated with London and we were on a mission to check them all off. First on the list was Big Ben. For those of you who know the iconic line from National Lampoon's European Vacation, we couldn't wait to see this

Look kids, Big Ben, Parliment

We really just couldn't get enough of these landmarks. We spent at least an hour walking around. We couldn't help but notice that the actual government workers weren't exactly thrilled to be dealing with all the tourists, and trust me, there were a lot of tourists.

Across the street and river was the London Eye. We opted not to go up in it due to the size of the line and how that compared to our total time in London (2 days).

Back across the river and next to Parliment was West Minster Abby.  As we walked past I asked Chris if he wanted his picture in front of it. He said, "not really." I said he had to because one day he may be gone and this would be a picture I could look at remember our morning together.  He found it a bit unnerving that I was taking "in case you're dead" pictures, but that's just logical I say.

It was at this point we realized that Bukingham Palace wasn't too far away and off we went.  There was a really nice park along the way.

In the park in front of the palace there is this map. If you can make it out, there are gates around the palace that point in the geographical direction of lands that were once ruled by Britain. I think you'll notice there is one obvious country missing. There's the Australia Gate, South and West Africa Gate, and the Canada Gate.

When we got there, there was a sign saying that the changing of the guard was everyday at 11:30. It was about 11:15, so we were in luck.

Until an armed guard came out and said, "Not today." Oh well.

For lunch we headed to Picadilly Circus (more on food later).

This area felt very much like Times Square. The buildings aren't as tall, but the flashy aspect was similar. There were also a lot of American stores here. The most welcome to me was Starbucks. Although there is a coffee shop every which way you look in Sweden, none of them serve decaf, but Starbucks does! I'm happy to report that I got a salted caramel latte, mmmmm!