Day Ten - The Queen, Shopping and A Good Bye London Dinner

Months ago we had purchased tickets to Buckingham Palace.  We are visiting during the two months the Queen is in Scotland and opens the Palace to visitors.  Our tickets are for 9:45am but we arrive early hoping to get in early.  We find ourselves first in line to enter.  We clear security and head through the doors of the Palace.  It was easy being all alone to pretend we are guests and not tourists.  It was so fun to enter the grand entrance and move up the gorgeous staircase all by ourselves. Though the palace is open when the Queen is scheduled to be out of town, the flag was flying signaling she was in residence.  We crossed our fingers that her path might just cross ours, but no luck.

The tourist flow had slowed as school was beginning in a week.  Most of the English seem to have been off buying school supplies and new Wellies and not sight seeing.  We took our time through the palace listening to all the information our audio guide had to offer.  It was quite quiet in the rooms as everyone else was listening to their audio guides as well.  It was a beautiful palace with grand rooms and a remarkable art collection.  There was a great special display showcasing "The Queen's Year".  It was very interesting to see all the events Queen Elizabeth participates in throughout the year.  She may be in her 80's but she has a schedule that would exhaust someone in her 30's!

After touring the palace we split up.  Ellen and Carol Jean made a beeline for the Changing of the Guard while Heide and Janet made a beeline for the shops.  There were still souvenirs to secure!  Ellen and Carol Jean did not have much luck getting a look at the Changing of the Guard and headed off discouraged only to find themselves with a front row position to see the leaving guards and band march by.

Heide and Janet made a stop at the National Trust shop and then headed to the V&A gift shop.  While there they realized there was a brand new Beatrix Potter exhibit.  They grabbed a map and with a few instructions from the information desk headed upstairs to see it.  It focused on Beatrix's first book about Benjamin Bunny and was quite adorable.  We then were off to meet Ellen & Carol Jean at Harrods.  We met them by the tube stop and Carol Jean showed us her longed for Harrods bag now safely in her possession.  Heide and I made a run inside taking, of course, the Egyptian escalator to a quick tour of the food halls, the Princess Diana and Dodi Memorial, and the "football" department - the true English tour.

Westminster Abbey

We rejoined Ellen and Carol Jean and headed for Westminister Abbey.  We arrived at 3:40 - ten minutes after the last allowed entrance.  Major bummer.  Our guide book had said last entrance at 4, obviously wrong.  Very disappointed, we turned away.  Carol Jean decided to return to the hotel to rest her aching feet while Ellen, Heide and Janet took the tube to Oxford Street before the 5 o'clock tube strike was to begin.  We are on a mission for football jerseys.  It was not an easy mission.  Who knew in football crazed London it would be hard to find gear from any team?  Thanks to Sports Direct she was victorious in securing the desired teams, well the second choice teams, (apparently the London team Fulham had fallen out of favor and their gear was no where to be found), but victorious none the lest.  We continued our walk home.  It began to rain - how appropriate, we began our trip in rain and now would end our trip with rain.  But we had 8 1/2 glorious days of sunshine in between!

Back at the hotel we packed and repacked.  Blast those luggage restrictions!  Who can be expected to bring home a suitcase under 33 kg when you travel to England!  We are finally all convinced we have them packed just the right way so as not to encur any overage charges.  We head across the street to Villandry's Kitchen for our farewell to England dinner.  We had a delicious dinner filled with reminiscences about our wonderful but ending trip.  It was early to bed for a change because tomorrow it will be an early morning.