Had a very royal day today, and how does a good royal start their day? In Buckingham Palace of course. With Mrs. Queen away on holidays in Scotland, Sally and I thought we would pop over and have a look at her joint in London. Talk about fancy, I mean it's not quite my room, but it's okay. No, it is actually super fancy with loads of guilding on the walls, very old and precious furniture (including a table that took 6 years to build) and even a collection of Faberge eggs and jewelry on display. We also saw unimportant things like the wedding cake from the recent royal wedding (a replica of course) and the real live wedding dress, shoes and jewelry that Kate wore on the big day (looking at the dresses dimensions confirms to me that William chose very well indeed). Whoop de whoop. Sally loved it though (surprise). We then raced through the palace gardens and over to the other side of the building to not see the changing of the guards. Don't get me wrong it was happening, there were just so many people you could barely see anything at all. So instead we went to the Royal Mews. Contrary to what I thought this wasn't a bunch of cats in crowns meowing, it is where the royal coaches, cars and some horses are kept. Surprise surprise the Australian made coach is the best and most comfortable (there is 5 coaches we saw as well as miniature coaches for play). The best looking one was the golden coronation coach. It is covered it gold leaf and takes two days to get out of it's stable. We also saw the royal Rolls Royce Phantom. Very luxurious. Our next stop in our royal day was Westminster Abbey. The Abbey is 800 years old and hold the bodies of many monarchs, scientists, poets, musicians and actors. A few examples of these are Queen Elizabeth I, King Henry VII, Mary Queen of Scots, King Edward Longshanks, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Geoffrey Chaucer, Handel and Laurence Olivier. The building itself amazing and is brilliant to just be able to see and walk through such a famous building. We then had a royal lunch of sandwiches and chicken wings at Piccadilly Circus (I know, jealous much...). The last major stop wasn't a royal stop but it is a famous stop in these parts, Apsley House. This is the house of the first Duke of Wellington, the man who masterminded victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. Once again very ornate with lots of artwork everywhere (oh yeah I forgot to mention Buckingham Palace has artwork in all forms everywhere) and fancy fittings and silverware. There is a room filled with gifts given to him from Europe's monarchs in gratitude for defeating Napoleon that has to be seen to be believed. I would love to show you, but you can't take pictures in most buildings we go in, so boo. This room is filled with the most amazing china and silverware imaginable, unbelievable. Outside Apsley House is Wellingtons Arch which is like the Arc d'Triomphe but less intricate. Still good though. In the corner of these gardens is an Australian War Memorial which is quite moving. So a good end to a great day really. We also rode in a double decker bus, so we just have a London cab left for famous modes of transport. We change hotels tomorrow so that will unfortunately take a bit of the day, but we should still see heaps of stuff hopefully. Anyway, from sunny London (it was like 25 and sunny today, I don't know where this rainy reputation has come from) see ya later.
Alex
No luck on the cop yet.