A big day of sightseeing today as today is my last day before I meet up with the Trafalgar tour people tomorrow afternoon.

Hopping on the train I headed to Trafalgar Square.  Unfortunately it was a bit grey and drizzly so the photos are not great :(.  It was amazing to see the scale of the buildings and the well thought out design of the city.   

 Walking through the magnificent Admiralty Arch, I found a statue of Captain James Cook.  On a fine day, you can see straight down The Mall to the gates of Buckingham Palace, but today there was too much traffic and too much rain 🙁

I headed towards Piccadilly Circus and browsed the many shops on the way. The huge neon signs at Piccadilly are in sharp contrast to the old stone buildings.

Walking up Oxford Street I came across the Selfridges Department store.  A quick browse at  the “unaffordable luxury” was interesting.  I came across the Food Hall and Meat Mart. Wagyu Rib Eye for “just” £125 per kilo (approx $230) or a Rack of Lamb at £34.50 per kilo ($63 00)    In the vege mart I saw an odd French cauliflower.  It was bright yellow!!!! 

Leaving Selfridges, I made my way to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard.  I knew there would be heaps of people and the crowd coupled with a sea of umbrellas meant I really didn’t see much at all.  I could get glimpses of the guards and of course could hear the bands as they marched their way around.   It starting raining a bit heavier, so I decided to head towards the Royal Mews.

The Royal Mews are where the Royal coaches and horses “live” An informative audio guide was available and I enjoyed learning about the elaborate coach, the horses and riders.   The last coach in the tour was the stunning Diamond Jubilee Coach, which was a gift from Australia to the Queen.   I had previously seen an ABC documentary on the man who built this amazing coach.  When he pitched the idea to John Howard, it was met with resistance, but he persisted.  John Howard finally relented and asked the Queen if she would accept a coach as a gift.   She agreed on the proviso that it did not cost the Australia tax-payer any money.  So that ruled out any government funding.  The coach builder raised the funds and it took 8 hears to build the coach.  As it the newest coach, it is the most comfortable and has become the Queens favourite.

Finishing at the Mews, I headed back through St James’ Park to Westminster Abbey.WOW words just cannot express what an amazing place Westminster Abbey  is.  So much history, it is hard to comprehend that the building is nearly 1000 years old.  The floor is covered in tombstones and the walls lined with so many monuments.  Again a very informative audio guide was available, this one narrated by the actor Jeremy Irons.

After the Westminster Abbey, I hopped on the underground and headed for Harrods.   Harrods is, of course, over the top commercialism at its finest :). I did notice that the cash registers were ringing regularly.   

Back on the train and back to the hotel and ready for an early night.  I remembered to wear my pedometer today and clocked up 13896 steps!!! and 9.71 km .  
No wonder that my feet are tired :-).