DAY 11

We started the day dressed in our very best. We were on our way to Buckingham Palace and were just right with the lighting and the crowds were getting larger by the moment. As we were walking up they open the front gates and let us walk all the way up to the front of the Palace. We were able to watch the changing of the guards from inside the gate. It was wonderful. There are so many different guards that are involved which are: The Grenadier Guards, The Coldstream Guards, The Scots Guards, The Irish and Welsh Guards. There are many ways to tell the difference but you would really have to know what to look for. For instance, the buttons if they are single space or in certain rows. If there are certain kinds of particular badges on their collars, shoulder badges and most of all the Plumes that are in their Bearskin Cap. The other interesting thing I learned was that all of these guards are military. They have all done something and have been a part of some kind of war. It was a great honor to be and see this.

Now I know the last I left you with was with the Jack the Ripper tour…….. Well, all I can say right now was that I have some pictures and well the history of the story is great. Our tour guide was great as well, but there is so much to learn and of course we may never learn it all. There are too many theories out there and well it is pretty much up to you to find out what you believe. The cool thing is that there were still some of the old buildings that still exist today and that helped with the adventure.

Later that afternoon, we were able to see the New Scotland Yard, of course no photography or video, except on certain conditions. I was pretty excited to take a picture with the Olympic Vancouver torch from 2010. I loved that. I also learned a lot about what they do there or what you can say, what they have to do to plan certain events. The biggest event was their Nottinghill Carnival. This carnival is a four day event and just crazy. They talk about how many police officers they have to use and it is a crazy amount of around 5,000 officers and more. I think of Sturgis and that is nothing to what Sturgis deals with. The thing that floors me the most is that these officers while doing this are still unarmed and pretty much use their own force to try to keep control. CRAZY!!!!!