Meeting our group and Day 2

Our new hotel in London



We met up with our group at our new hotel after our Princess Diana Day. Read Em Utz's blog if you want to know about our unfortunate adventure finding the group.

After we arrived and checked-in to our new hotel, we went to a local pub to meet everyone. I will tell you all about the group when I get home (and can tell you in person). We did not stay long because we were all tired from the day.

Our tour started out in the morning on the coach bus. We pretty much just drove around the city and had an awesome tour guide! She was very fun and told us so much interesting information about the city. We went to Buckingham Palace to see the end of the changing of the guard. This can be a very long ceremony so we just saw the last 10 minutes which is the most interesting part. Around lunchtime we were finished with our group tour and we were on our own. We have decided we like being on our own a lot because a) we have already mastered the city...everyone else was holding us back and b) we can be on our own schedule and spend as much or as little time wherever we go. It was great to have a tour guide to tell us so much cool stuff. She did point out the Queen's bedroom window to us. It was not very easy to see but here is a picture. Look in the center at the arched window and balcony... there she is waving to me!



We traveled on our own to see the Royal Mews (the Queen's horse stables). This was really an excuse to technically be in Buckingham Palace. We got lunch and rested our poor feet. We then found our way to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. After taking lots of pictures, we went to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Since Big Ben is right at Westminster Abbey, we decided to go to the worship service. It was pretty awesome to be in there. We wanted to worship AND get in Westminster for free... what a way to kill two birds with one stone! We spent some time laying in the grass outside of Westminster to eat a snack and listen to Em's ipod... we are such locals! We are getting ready to go back to the hotel and get some sleep before our 6:15 am wake-up call and trip to France. Bonjour!