Palace Guards Et Cetera

On Saturday we took a trip around London, seeing all of the major tourist and cultura points. We saw Trafalgar Square, which is extraordinary and is almost like a giant common area for London



We then turned around and went into the National Gallery (which is FREE!) and saw some really amazing art, but only some (and we spent about an hour there!) because the place is epicly huge and would require years to see the entire thing. Fortunately, one of my classes is being held at the national gallery every monday so I'll be able to see a great deal of the museum with my class.



We then took the bus to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is (according to some) the greatest cathedral in the world. It's the second largest, behind the Vatican, but I would venture to say that it took my breath away more than the Vatican did (the Vatican was far too crowded). St. Paul's is absolutely beautiful, over 300 feet tall with light peering in from the windows around the dome at the top. You can actually take the stairs up to the very top. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside so I didn't get many...




We went to Buckingham Palace, which wasn't very interesting because I don't particularly enjoy enormous displays of wealth. The palace guards are way cool though. However, there was one kid guarding the palace, and the uniform was way too big for this poor kid. He was so skinny and so adorable, and the big black hat on his head was falling down. So I turned to Alycia (one of my friends from school) and said "Oh God look, his hat is about to fall off his head" and he was trying to shimmy it back onto his head. Then he took the bayonet on his machine gun and lifted it so as to prop his hat up with the bayonet (these guys aren't supposed to move at all, so he did it very delicately and super stealth). It was so hilarious that we burst out laughing.

This wasn't the kid, it was the guard opposite him. I was laughing too hard to get a picture of the other guy.


So far so good! This weekend I think we're going to Bath, which should be interesting, or Scotland or Wales, but we're not really sure yet. We're trying to coordinate a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest, but it's super last minute so we might end up going somewhere else. But it's all still in planning mode, except for Spain in 7ish weeks!

Cheerio!