July 9 - Day 10: Breakfast at the hostel was an experience. Very crowded and lots of steps to get the food and then to find somewhere to sit. We are all about sick of cereal and toast.
First stop is the Guards Museum near Buckingham Palace. Interesting, especially for the musicions and marching band guros in our group. The one good thing about the stupid Lonely Planet book we had was that it suggested seeing the changing of the guard where it starts near the Guard Museum, rather then trying to see it at the Palace, with 10,000 of your closest friends.
We had a terrific view for the inspection, the band practice circle, and then the formal procession.
We head over to the Royal Mews (carriage house) and Buckingham Palace, but both are closed on Fridays! Boo Hoo!
So we decide to go ahead and get lunch. Donna and I tried to order crisps with our sandwiches and ended up with chips (french fries). We were not sure where to sit to eat, so we started walking a bit. Like a beacon in the night, the Guiding office shines out to all of us. Donna says - maybe they have a place we can eat in there? And of course, they do! Downstairs to the Members area, complete with sofas, air conditioning, and friendly employees who were more then happy to chit chat with us about all sorts of things.
After eating, we head to the back area where they have a small display celebrating the 100th anniversary of Girl Guiding. They also have a troop area that is decorated like a large tent, complete with tree stump closets. We could have slept here if we wanted to sleep on the floor (we are happy with our hostel!)
Upstairs they have an interactive area for younger girls, but we were there alone and ready to blow off some steam. We enjoyed all the games and displays as much as any Brownie would! An improtu puppet show was good for a laugh and they had a treehouse movie room with a movie playing all about Guiding. Girls are the same everywhere.... even on the other side of the ocean!
A short walk from the Palace area is Westminster Abby. Only Trina and Melanie went inside. The rest of us enjoyed and ice cream cone with a wierd chocolate wafer thing.
Some pics with Big Ben followed (yes, yes, I know... Big Ben is the name of the BELL not the CLOCK).
Off to a modern art museum that turned out to only have one display... a large wood structure that went through the whole room, walls, and hallways. Interesting in a way that made us all say... what?!?!?
Off to Covent Garden for more shopping (ugh... enough with the shopping already! but that is what 18 year olds do...) and then off to Maxwells for dinner. The waitor here was super cute, the food was good, and the atmosphere was a bit more hip then any other place we had been to.
For about 5 minutes there was total panic as I tried to locate my credit card to pay the bill. After a purchase, I slide it into the wrong pocket, and then I couldn't find it. I dumped everything out of my bag and started figuring out plan B for how to pay, when Jessica found the card for me. Whew! Too bad that cute waitor didn't come over to help me out! ;-)
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