We saw the QE2! No, not the ship!

Is it good luck when the Queen crosses your path?

Today officially started the tour as we joined the bus group for a drive around London. As I had predicted to Nora, there are only a few demographics involved. We have the newlyweds (10%), the mothers and daughters (10%), the seventysomethings (75%), and a few Lone Rangers like me (5%). You're right, there are less than 100 people on the tour; these numbers are estimates, don't you know.

We drove by the Royal Albert Hall, the concert hall that the Beatles mentioned in a song. We saw a church with one side pockmarked from the blitzkrieg of World War II, the scars left as a reminder of those dark days. We visited St. Paul's Cathedral and toured the inside. Lord Nelson is buried there. Sorry, no pictures are allowed inside any of the churches. St. Paul's is where Charles and Diana were married, and I recognized it from the Royal Wedding on TV.

After that we rode to Buckingham Palace, where we hoped to see the changing of the guard. Traffic was unusually heavy in the area, and there was a strong police presence. Our tour guide asked a policeman what was happening. Silvio Berlusconi, president of Italy, was coming for a state visit. We couldn't drive there, but we could walk. So everyone disembarked to go see what we might see. Outside Buckingham Palace, the road makes a circle and then a long street that leads away from the palace. The sides of the road were lined with British and Italian flags. Police and palace guards stood at various points along the road, and a barrier was set up to keep the growing crowds back. A pair of horsemen wearing parade helmets went by, then nothing for several minutes. Cannons fired, then silence. After a few minutes, a procession of motor cars emerged and drove slowly around the circle, then in front of us, and away. Inside the lead car we could clearly see Queen Elizabeth II sitting in the back seat, on her way to greet the President. (Yes, I got a picture! It reminded me of that camera commercial with Steven Tyler where, um, nevermind....) Thirty minutes later she returned in a procession of horse-drawn carriages, but we couldn't see her as well.



We walked down to Big Ben and Parliament, then followed the Thames to the Globe Theater, meant to be an accurate replica of Shakespeare's Globe. Inside there were children from Southwork schools practicing a scene from Macbeth ("Out, damed spot!") then we saw the Golden Hind (Sir Francis Drake's ship from the 1500s), and then a play by the Reduced Shakespeare Players on the Complete History of America.

So let's see. We toured London, saw St. Paul's, Big Ben, and oh yes, the Queen. We saw an historic ship and an historic play in an historic setting, followed up with an historically themed comedy. All in all, not bad for a Tuesday!

P.S. Yes, yes, we also saw the President of Italy, I suppose. What does he look like again? I think he was driving the chariot... :-P