Europe 2013!: London- real day one

We were up and out early since we had to check out, walk to our home for the next 5 days (not close to each other) check in, and get to the meeting sight for our free tour by 1045

Yay free tours! Our guide Stephanie was fabulous. She does a hodgepodge of things including the theatre so I think that really helped with her presentation. I feel it now be mandatory for history teachers I have a minor in theatre or something along those lines. I believe it would help :)

Se took us to all of the good places and told us a lot of great information about London.

This is another reason I love it here. Thanks London for the reminder :)

We went to The Mall (the street that leads up to the front of Buckingham Palace) just in time to see the pomp and circumstance of the changing of the guards.

Buckingham Palace and gates

Big Ben. Apparently there is one main bell (Big Ben) that rings every hour and then "little Bens" that ring every 15 minutes. Lol

10 Downing Street. Not as impressive as I wanted it to be :/

That canopy is the entrance to the World War II underground headquarters (cool!)

The Queen Victoria statue in front of Buckingham Palace. The clouds are awesome

After the tour, out guide took us to a pub called The New Monk. We split the fish and chips as well as the Bangers and Mash. Yum! I am not usually a Dan if gravy but this one was delish!

Gardens outside Buckingham

After lunch we went to Trafalgar Square where we walked thought the National Museum. The square was cute and had two water fountains ( that actually had clear water in it- take note Italy!) and lion statues that you can climb... We did :)

Lobby floor was amazing...

There was A LOT of art in this building. It was never ending!

M&M store in London. NYC they put you to shame!

We walked down Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus exploring their stores and gorgeous architecture to get to the West End. Where we saw....

THE BODYGUARD!!!!!! It was ah-maze-balls. I know this for a fact because right after I stated this to Bill we passed a girl who pretty much repeated my statement verbatim. It was great! Heather Hadley is the woman who played Rachel Marron. For those of you who are into this circle, she was in Aida. Voice is ridiculous! I was just in awe. Staring, so absorbed in it. If she follows this to NYC, I'm going.