Sept 12 & 13- London & London to Florence

5 of us met this morning at 10 to head down to Buckingham palace and then over to the musical. We made it to the palace by about 11am. We were going to try to go in and look around but the changing of the guards was taking place at 11:30 and we didn't want to miss it. We had a prime standing spot so we just hung out there and watched as the police lady that was standing in front of us directed people back and forth. She was doing a pretty good job, other than the odd texting she was doing, but just then the head police guy came by on a horse and started yelling at her in front of all of us. I felt bad for her but kind of seen things from both sides.

Just then the changing of the guards started and we turned out attention away and started snapping pics like crazy. I felt a little like I was back in Sienna as I was holding my camera up trying to gets pictures of the guards as they came by but I did have a slightly better standing position for this one. The whole process took about 1/2 hour and during one of the calm parts we all of sudden seen the head police man come back order and bark to the police lady that she was getting written up and that she was taken off duty. About 3o people surrounding me (and me as well) heard this whole thing take place and then all of sudden she walked right up to me. I wasn't sure what to do. She then asked me for my address and phone number so the Police headquarters could get a hold of me for a statement at a later time. I ended up giving it to her cause she was freaking me out and I wasn't sure what to do. She then went to the other 4 that were with me and they all said, "uh, we really didn't see what happened", so she walked away. Seriously! Thanks guys! So I think I should maybe tell Crystal (or just let her find out this way, lol) that someone from the Queens police guard staff might be phoning the house soon. :{

Afterwards we decided to start heading over towards the street where our musical was playing. We walked by Big Ben and I really wanted to get another picture so I ended up playing frogger (does anyone remember playing frogger on the Atari when they were a kid?!?) across 6 lanes of traffic. It would have been ok but as I was across 2 of them, the lights turned green and cars started coming. I started laughing as I was dodging the traffic but all I could hear was screaming from everyone else who was still back on the other side of the street. I thought it was hilarious but I guess they did not. Who knew? ;)

We made it to the musical with plenty of time to spare after stopping for lunch. It was really good. I am very glad we were able to make it to a musical before heading home. It ran until about 5:30 and then I decided to head back to the hostel as I had to reorganize my suitcase for the flight tomorrow and wanted to get to bed early.

The next morning I was up by 6am. With my suitcase packed the night before all I had to do was get myself ready and I was off. Said goodbye to Anne-Maree, the last of my new friends to say goodbye to, and I headed out. I had no problems getting to the airport. I was feeling much worse though as the day and flight went on and by the time we landed and I made the 1.5hour train ride back home here to Florence I was ready for bed.