London

31st August
London
We woke to the unusual sight of bright blue skies. And without knowing what had happened we set off on a most enjoyable day. The swelling in my face had gone down quite a lot, and so I was feeling a lot better.
We still had another day's pass on the 'hop on off' bus, with our first stop St Pauls Cathedral. It really is quite beautiful. Back on the bus and off to Buckingham Palace to hopefully see the changing of the guards set down for 11.30am. We got there about 11.10 but hundreds of people had beaten us to it, of course, and taken up positions. We got a good place - being tall comes in handy some times - and waited. More and more people arrived. I can't imagine what it must have been like after the wedding when Will and Kate stood on the balcony with 1 million people in the area!!!! While we waited a couple of girls asked us what the crowd was about. We tried to explain about the guards - they were a bit disappointed as they thought maybe one of the royals was about to make an appearance not just some horses. They stayed and cheered anyway.
It is quite a big affair. Soldiers go from here to there in the area behind the gates and then more come from the barracks through the streets. The traffic stops, and the soldiers march in from the streets, a marching band follow them, mounted soldiers come along. It is all very regal and full of traditon. A chap from Manchester was telling us that they are real soldiers, often do 6 months at the palace and then onto the next assignment. The police, mounted and on foot, trying to keep the pedestrians in the correct places had their work cut out for them. Lots of yelling and finger pointing and waving. Then it was all over and the crowds of people dispersed and the traffic resumed whizzing around.
We walked along the parkland down the side of the Palace wall. Lots of trees and wide footpaths. It was rather nice and peaceful after the crush of the crowd. We caught another bus to Knightsbridge to go to Harrods. We went for a walk inside Harrods - very big - very posh - and very expensive. Next stop a cafe across the road for lunch. Then back to the bus and travelled to Notting Hill Gate as we had been told to see Portobello Road. Very interesting place. Very alternate, vibrant and a bit grubby all at the same time. Back on the bus and off at Oxford Street. One and a half mile long strip of shops. It was crowded, noisy and quite hectic. From there we joined into Regent Street as seeing Carnaby Street was on my wish list. It wasn't like the pictures of it in the 60s and 70s - now very expensive shops had taken over the area. From there we walked through Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and on to our old favorite place of Covent Garden. We found a relatively quiet area for a nice meal and then back to the motel. Our doorman greeted us and we chatted for a short while. There was an Indian wedding in the hotel later that night with 300 guests. The doorman told us they have a lot of wedding there and they are often arranged marriages which can have their problems. He told of us of one wedding that the police had to be called to break up a fight between the families and later in the night the police had to be called to break up a fight between the bride and the groom.
We then checked our e-mails and found the news Lindsay had sent. We have decided to continue on in London until Monday when we were due to fly to Singapore and stay for 5 days. We have changed our flights and now arrive into Singapore at 2.40pm and fly out 9pm and arrive into Melbourne at 6.20am. Singapore Airlines were very helpful with changing these flights. The two concierges at the hotel were very helpful and couldn't do enough to help with free phone calls and looking up phone numbers etc, for us. They were really wonderful and we were very grateful.