God Save The Queen

Buckingham palace was our first venture today, and not just from the outside we went inside, yes inside. Thanks to our third and final tour guide, Norma we had tickets to join the thousands of others who toured the state rooms.

This was a fantastic self guided tour with audio headphones. The areas of Buckingham Palace we saw were just spectacular and unfortunately we were not permitted any photography, but did purchase some postcards for our memories. The tour took us around two hours to complete and at the end we had a lovely lunch in the backyard and then some lovely fruit scones and clotted cream.  The coffee and hot chocolates both had a sprinkle of chocolate in the crown shape.

After lunch we walked through the gardens and then into the very large gift and souvenir shop.

After a short walk we went up to the top of Wellington Arch and also had a look at the memorial to the anzacs in the same location. These were both very interesting.

Then it was a quick stroll to Charing Cross station and two tube trains later we were at the bottom of The Shard and ready to join Tony for The View.

This being the largest building in Western Europe we were truly impressed how fast the two lifts took us up the 69 floors. Even though it was a little cloudy and there were a few showers of rain in the area we were able to get a good view over the city. It was truly amazing how high we were and how small the buildings were but how the planes were so close. Honestly though if you had to choose between The Shard and the London Eye our pick and recommendation would be the London Eye.

Finally, and totally unexpected we were on National television the BBC One Show. Through Ross we were given access to the BBC studio and were able to be part of the very small studio audience. We had a fantastic day and thanks to all.