LAST DAY IN LONDON

Thursday was our last day. We had an early flight Friday morning and had to transfer to another hotel near the airport that night. But we crammed a LOT into that last day!

 We started off with a tour of Buckingham Palace. The palace staterooms are only open to visitors in August and September while the queen is in Scotland on holiday. So we got lucky and got to go inside! Bad news is no pictures were allowed inside. But it was REALLY cool. It's absolutely beautiful with amazing art and furniture inside. We saw the throne room! We also saw the special diamond display since this year is the queen's diamond jubilee. All the royal diamond jewelry and tiaras were on display, very cool!

Audio guides were free, which was nice.  I think I got a children's audio guide by mistake though.  Mine was a lot different from Mahlon's commentary.  It's ok, I probably liked it better. Anyway, I learned about the queen's dogs.

We were allowed to take pictures outside in the garden.

We ran around front after the tour just in time to see the very end of the changing of the guards.  We saw them all leaving.

We did some last minute shopping.

Mahlon knew I wanted to go to Harrod's department store, so he insisted we get over there.  It is the greatest store in the whole wide world.  There are so many beautiful clothes and housewares and a godiva cafe and a year-round Christmas shop!  I could've spent the whole vacation there.

Also notable were the tributes to Princess Diana.  I expected to see much more about her there, but this was about it!

Best store ever.

On the way back, we stopped at King's Cross Station, made famous as the station where Harry Potter boards a train at platform 9 3/4 to go to Hogwarts.  We thought we'd give it a go.

And that's the end!  We booked it back to the hotel to get ready to leave in the morning.

Here's the London wrap up:

FAVORITE SITE
Me: Tower of London
Mahlon: Stonehenge
Dexter: Hamley's Toy Store

FAVORITE ROYAL
Me: The Queen
Mahlon: Does not like the royals
Dexter: The Lego ones

COOLEST THING LEARNED
Me:  A man broke into Buckingham Palace one time in the middle of the night.  He found the queen's bedroom, went in and sat on the edge of her bed.  The queen woke up, sat up in bed and asked, "Can I help you?"  He explained that he needed some advice and just wanted someone to talk to.  Apparently she listened to his problems and gave him some very good advice, because he was happy and satisfied when he was arrested.  He remained in custody until the queen had finished a cup of tea, and decided not to press charges as he had a wife and kids at home.  Coolest queen ever.
Mahlon:  Salisbury used to be up on a hill but they moved the whole town into the valley where it is today.  They even moved the whole cathedral!
Dexter:  London has a 5 story toy store.

BEST THING ABOUT LONDON
Me: The people!  They're the nicest people in the world!
Mahlon: The people!
Dexter: Hamley's