London-Day 6

Today we were committed to seeing the changing of the guards. We knew that the chance for rain was high, but I decided I would regret it if we didn't see it. So we set out with our rain gear and got a great spot on Queen Victoria Memorial. From this point we were able to see both the parade route and the guard changing. And, it literally only rained 8 drops of water on us. 

This was my highlight of the day-musicians on horses...not just riding, but playing their instruments while traveling down the street!!! I told Scott that I think this could be a new trick that his students should work on - grin.

I'm glad we went- it was definitely worth it! When all the pomp and circumstance was done, we headed down the street to do some shopping. As my back was getting tired, we popped into a cafe to share some lunch and then decided to hop on a bus to our next destination. Let me just say that Adrienne and I have this transportation system down pat! We've got our city map (it's actually a book with pages of streets divided by neighborhoods), our tube map and our bus map. I bought each of us a 7-day travel card and it was the best purchase I've made. We can ride anywhere for "free". If we mess up and get on the wrong train, we don't have to buy more tickets to get on the right one. We just swipe our cards again and away we go. We are also queens of turning around... Today I finally figured out why we usually get turned around when we come out of a tube station... It's because to get out of some stations, you follow these underground passage ways and sometimes you cross streets underground... So when you are reading a map that says the exit for a station is on the east side of the street and you actually have come out on the west side, it's a little disorienting! No worries, we get our bearings at the next street crossing. 

After lunch we ventured to a place that we wanted to find early on our trip, but that I was too afraid to venture to because it was just outside of our city map. With feeling confident after so many days of travel, we decided to try it and we were so glad we did! We made it to Spitafields Market (which actually wasn't that far away from our hotel base) with only one turn around. It was a fun atmosphere of antique and street vendors and reminded Adrienne of being at Swappers in MN. Then, we got caught in a thunderstorm! It started looking like it was going to rain, so I got my raingear on and we headed back toward the tube- but the heavens opened up and rain started coming down in sheets. We took cover under a tarp with about 10 other people and waited it out. I think it only lasted about 15 minutes. Our shoes/feet/legs were soaked, but otherwise we were fine and dry. It was however, time to go back to the hotel to rest for a bit!

Tonight we had cheeseburgers and beers at the Old Bell Tavern and then took a walk around our favorite St. Paul's neighborhood and river walk. Thank you Scott for letting us big girls do these adventures! Tomorrow will be our last day of fun and then Adrienne and I will head separate ways for 3 months!!!! (I'm not thinking about that now.) I do greatly miss my Tootsie who is my constant companion and am looking forward to hearing all about your last day of school. Love you guys at home!!! Hope you boys are behaving!