Saturday 21st September - London

This morning I had a booking for a tour of the state rooms of Buckingham Palace at 9:30 - Errol decided he wasn't interested, so was going to amuse himself for a while. It was a cool morning, but was forecast for a reasonable day, although little sun was expected. I loved the Palace tour, but sadly - no photos inside. There were several rooms dedicated to the Queen's coronation ceremony in1953. The detail that went into that ceremony was amazing. The embroidery on the Queen's coronation gown alone took 12 needle workers 3500 hours to complete. The history of the ceremony dates back hundreds of years. This palace is different is different to all the others we have visited in that it is still in use today - it makes a difference.

The tour of the state rooms finishes on the back terrace, overlooking the gardens. What better than to sit with a cuppa on the Queen's back terrace (it also helped to warm me up a little - it was cold).

Despite the weather (still overcast, and threatening to rain), there were sprinklers on the lawn. On closer inspection, there were also markings for soccer! I asked one of the staff, and apparently there is going to be a game there to celebrate 150 years of the league!

While I went through the Palace, Errol went to Hyde Park. We met back at the ticket office, and scooted around to the front of the Palace to watch the changing of the guard. There were people everywhere, packed into every vantage point. We arrived just after 11 (for an expected 11:30 'show'), and had about 3 rows of people in front of us. There was a lot of waiting over the following hour, and we couldn't see inside the Palace grounds to see what was happening, but we did see several lots of guards go past. The ceremony of it all ......... the fact that this can be done 3 times a week, like clockwork ..... it is all quite amazing, the history of it all is rather striking.

Just as we left, we had a few sprinkles of rain - as we had expected a reasonable day, we didn't have our rain jackets with us ..... cross your fingers. We walked to the Tube station, and caught the train to Oxford Circus. Up to ground, and checked out Selfridges department store - a very classy place, but not really in our budget!! At least the rain threat seemed to have passed.

Sticking to a theme, we went back to the tube and over to Knightsbridge to check out Harrods. Another very classy store, but a bit more modern looking than Selfridges. We made a few purchases ........... lunch from the food court!! Also received our Harrods bag ...... plastic with 'Harrods food hall' written on it! Time was getting on, and the tube had been pretty busy, so we went back to the Covent Garden area to sit and eat - the performance of 'The Bodyguard' was at 3.

We just had time to eat lunch and pop back to the Pandora shop for an important purchase before the show. Another smaller theatre - the Adelphi, on the Strand. The place was pretty full, and the show was great! We would recommend it to everyone. We were out and about again by 5:30, too early for tea, so ventured onto a bus. It took us a little while to work out the directions and stops, but we headed for Picadilly Circus.

Wandered around for a while, checking out the area, turned a corner and saw Leicester Square! Could probably have walked from where we were, but where would the fun have been in that!?

By then it was about tea time, so we started looking at menus. We were in Chinatown to start, but wandered back and ended up eating at Garfunkles near Trafalgar Square. The food was nothing special, but it was okay. Back down to Whitehall, and we caught another bus back to Westminster Bridge - walked across, and back to the hotel.