Naked Queen

I planned to meet Hannah and her friend Julie today at eleven at Buckingham Palace, but my chronic tardiness and some ill-timed tube closures thwarted our plans. Even so, I arrived there at eleven thirty, in time to see some of the excitement. I walked through Green Park on the way to Buckingham Palace and was astounded by the beautiful blue sky above me. Today was warmer than any day so far, and the sun made everything more beautiful. Through the ancient trees I saw a legion of guards leaving the grounds on horses, dressed in red and wielding long sabers. I assume this was part of the changing of the guard, because they were replaced by another group of guards holding machine guns, who completed a circuit around the parade path before taking up their stations around the palace. I heard a band playing nearer the palace and decided to go investigate. I found a band composed of palace guards playing songs from the Pirates of Caribbean and the James Bond movies, so I stood in the crowd and watched them through the gate for awhile, joined eventually by Hannah and Julie. Hannah immediately began speculating loudly what would happen if Queen Elizabeth were accidentally changing by an open window and everyone saw her naked.

We left to go take pictures with the guards, but were disappointed when we saw they were wearing their gray uniforms, and we couldn’t even get very close to them. We took pictures anyway though.

We wandered around the city for awhile, stopping to get something to eat and looking for a post office, and eventually ended up by Big Ben on the Thames. We wanted to ride the London Eye, a tall Ferris-wheel-like contraption which offers a beautiful view of the city, but we didn’t have enough time to ride in it. Hannah made me promise to visit her in Rome sometime, so much to my dismay I’ll have to spend a week in Rome before I return. If I weren’t such a selfless person I may have refused, but if my friend wants me to go to Rome, I guess I’ll have to go to Rome.

The ladies were going to a play with a friend of Julie’s tonight, so we didn’t hang out. Tonight was very nice though. I played very laidback poker for about three hours with my two friends in the kitchen of our flat. We played with pennies and other assorted coinery all the way up to ten pence and listened to music and talked. It was very nice.

I've included quite a few pictures today. There is one of the new guards coming on duty at Buckingham Palace, one of a cop and the guard band, one of Hannah and I being guards, one of Big Ben and one of the London Eye ferris wheel dealy.