London Day 3

Day three in London sees the last day in London. We packed up all our things very messily just to that they would fit and put them in the baggage room and went out to explore. Today was the missed Westminester Abbey and Buckingham Palace and we thought we would try the subway.

Wondered down to the Bayswater underground staton, we had already worked out which station we needed to get off at, got a day pass (was only £6 each) and trained off to the Abbey. Didn't take very long and it wasn't rush hour so the train wasn't very packed, but still there were lots of people on it.

Made it to the Abbey with no hassle. Wondered around the Abbey for a couple of hours. This was quite amazing here lay tombs of Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses and all kinds of people that influenced Britain King Henry VII, Elizabeth I, Mary, Charles and many others (except of course Henry VIII who rebelled against the Church and is buried at St George's Chapel at Winsor. (Can you tell I'm learning lots about the royals). What was funny at the Abbey was we ran into the Ozzie couple that were on the Hong Kong Tour with us. Small world even over here.

After walking around the Abbey for a while we then walked up to Buckingham Palace to try and catch the changing of the guards. We you know what happens when you rush, something goes wrong... it sort of it, they decided not to change the guards that day, so we waited around for 30 mins for nothing. But oh well, that happens. Then we had to wait in line for about 30 mins to get tickets to go into Buckingham Palace, and we decided to go to the Mews (Stables) as well.

The carriages are quite spectacular, not exactly what I thought, but still it would be cool to ride in them. Got to look at a couple of horses wow, but hey now I can say I've seen Royal Horses. The stabes were amazing, each horse is named by the Queen and had two name tags, one that hangs in his/her stable and the other goes with it where ever it goes. Useless bit of knowledge for you.

We finally got into Buckingham Palace, and I wasn't sure what to expect. The rooms were amazing, drawing rooms for africa and each a different colour, lots of armour. Each King or Queen had remodelled something to put their stamp on it (sometimes because of fires or damage to a particular area). Its incredible to think how many Kings and Queens have walked the same halls I walked. Not that the royals intefere with our lives but it is still humbling. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but once we got out into the gardens we could. And the gardens seem to go for miles around. If only my garden could be that big (hmm maybe Rowan wouldn't like that, he'd have to mow the lawn, and he'd probably make me)

We looked at the time after Buckingham Palace and knew we wanted to get to the train station rather early for Madeleine to pick us up so that we weren't in rush hour traffic. so we caught the train back to the hotel picked up our gear and trained to Ruslip Gardens, where we'd meet Madeleine (whom Row had not seen since he was a young teenager). As it was it was easy to recognise her, she was waiting just outside the train station for us. It was nice to see a warm and friendly face.

We got back to their place, had a couple of much needed drinks and a nice home cooked meal. Went to bed reasonably early, we were still trying to reset our body clocks to London time.

The next day awaited, but it was after a nice long sleep.

R&M