Everything Royal

We began the day with a trip on the Tube to the Green Park station and walked through the Queen's Park (just next door to St. James Palace) where we made our way to Buckinghamd Palace to get in line to watch the changing of the guard. We were close by--but so was everyone else. We met a school group from California--who said they noticed our accent (What accent?) and they were reeling from the news their tour guide from UK had left them-quit! and they were only on day 2 of a 17 day tour of Europe! I volunteered to stay--(but they said no!).

Meanwhile, the changing of the guard is full of pomp and ceremony. On Saturday we will get to see the Trouping of the Colors which is the official recognition of the Queens BD in April. Complete with parade and pomp-we'll be there on the mall. However today---amidst the paegentry and such, the Queens Band played a mini-concert of sorts while the changing of the guard took place. Not your regular British Marches and such, but---get this--the theme from DALLAS> Bum Bum Ba Bum Ba Bum Diddy Bum Bum Bum Bum Bum Diddy Bum--(J.R Theme--sing along with me) Then a complete salute to Disney! It felt like a half time show as we were all singing along. Even sang "A Spoonful of Sugar" with some Spanish students and they laughed as we sang it in English while they sang it in Spanish.

We walked across St. James' park in order to get to Hard Rock for lunch--but Que there was 3 hours for lunch and especially busy for the Birthday part of Hard Rock today (Burgers for 60p!) WE then opted for something better---Texas Embassy (A Tex-Mex place in the Trafalgar area---we found the Texas flag most comforting. Lunch was great and very much like home (in fact we smelled a little like Body O (you Snyder folks will laugh when you read this). We even met a young girl and her dad from Texas. She had a TEXAS TECH sweatshirt on.. will be attending there in the fall as freshman. RAIDER NATION!!! Get yer guns up! What a Small world ("it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all...never mind)

Then off to buy some gifts (see picture) and then a trip to Kensington Palace (Diana's former home) to see an exhibit about her--very nice--but it was very stuffy and hot in there.