And the Sara Continues

Saturday we went to the mall to see the Queen in her birthday parade/trouping the colours. This means that she inspects all the troops as they march past with their regimental flags…or something like that. Then they do a fly-by with a bunch of military planes. We didn’t stay for the planes, but we saw Prince William and the Queen trot out in the carriages. You have to look closely in the pics to see them, it was hard going to get any pictures.
This one is the Queen, she's wearing purple.


This one is Prince William. He's looking right at me and waiving with a white-gloved hand.

This is a posed picture of what I thought my face would look like when I saw the Queen.

I also unwittingly became a protester for PETA. I just wanted a balloon. But a funny old British man asked me if he could have it as a joke and I was like “sure”! Then he tried to give it back and I was like “Sorry, buddy. It’s yours now.” He gave it away to the next passing parade-goer. He was just that sassy.

We fought our way out of this crowd

then headed to the British Library to see the Magna Carta, the Guttenberg Bible, Handle’s original score for Messiah, Jane Austen’s writing desk, some original Bronte sisters manuscripts, an original manuscript from Alice in Wonderland, the “upside down Jenny” stamp with the plane upside down. Ya know, no biggie.

Then we took a little jaunt to Sir John Soane’s house/museum. I have blogged about this previously, but we had a good time. On our way there, some tourists asked me for directions and I knew just what they were talking about. I am so in the know, don’t even worry about it.

Then it was high time for high tea at Kensington Palace, which is located in Hyde Park. It was tres chic and very fun. The cucumber sandwich was the best, the butter for the scone was so fresh and, well, buttery, and the passion fruit tart was tangy and delicious. Plus our waiter was from Brazil.


Feeling refreshed from our tea, we walked towards Harrods. we passed through, and by through I mean through, an Iranian protest outside of the Iranian consulate. I think it was about getting a democratic system. There were hundreds of people, all wearing green, some were yelling, some were holding signs, and some treated it as a grand social even, talking and eating and laughing.

After Harrods, we went to a play at the National Theatre called The White Guard. It’s about a family in Russia when the Bolsheviks took control of Russia. It was pretty good and interesting. The sets were wonderful, but the lead actress was…meh. I felt bad for Sara because there was lots of swearing in the middle and she’s not as desensitized as me. But, as she reminded me, she’s a “big girl.”

We've been in Paris a few days now, and we're touring ourselves to death. But all the pastries are sustaining us. I'll finish with England posts then start talking about pastries. Stay tuned.