Off to London, England!!

 My friends all went back home to Arizona, and I caught the early Euro-Star to London!!!It was a fast 2 hour ride.....I nearly had this car of the train to myself!!!!I also thought it was kind of neat the same train station I had to go to, the Gare de Nord to  catch the Euro-Star to London is the same spot Pippa Middleton was at days before...remember her partying in Paris and her friend waved a toy gun????

 Caught this pic as we entered in the Chunnel......never knew you were under water except I could No longer look out at the green hills

 Welcome to London!!!The host city of the Summer Olympics!!!

 The Marriott London Maida Vale is my new home for the next four days!!After meeting up with my niece Brianna and her husband Jordan and dropping off all of our bags, we headed straight for Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards Ceremony!!

 When we got there we noticed lots of Dark clouds hovering over us.....the policy at the palace is if it is Raining, they do not do the Guard change.....

 The wind was sure blowing Union Jack around.....I noticed the Royal Standard was not flying, this meant the Queen was not here.....

It started POURING..... it looked like they might do the guard change ceremony, but No they did not.....

We watched this car drive through the gates and this woman was escorted out.....the crowd gasped......but I do not think it was Kate.....

The guards really look like Toy Soldiers.....

That famous Balcony......

This Summer London and the United Kingdom have two big events, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, 60 years as the Reigning Queen, in just four more years she will be the Longest reigning Monarch, Queen Victoria served 64 years. The Summer Olympics are also coming to London.....How exciting!!

My niece and her husband, Jordan is in the Air Force stationed in Germany and they flew in to hang out with me in London. They had not been to London yet, so they were eager to see it too!!!They are luckily seeing lots of Europe while they are stationed there.

Brianna and I and lots of other tourists!!!

See the band in this picture.....they march here everyday!!! And up close, below!!!

This is Clarence House...It is the official residence of the Prince of Wales, he is  also now the Duchy of Cornwall and his wife Camilla Duchess of Cornwell. Prince Harry lives here as well, he will be moving to Kensington Palace when Will and Kate move into their much larger place there and I believe he will take their current apartment, do not think small apartment, these rooms are huge!!!The Queen Mother lived at Clarence house for over 50 years and when the current Queen got married her and the Duke of Edinburgh lived here until the death of her Father and then she became Queen and moved into the Big Palace just a short walk away!!Remember the Wedding last year of Will and Kate???Will and Harry drove out this very drive!!!

It is guarded by the Queen's guards.....

2 of them........they march every 15 minutes or so....

Brianna and Jordan...

Brianna and I ...

The statues of the Queen Mother wearing the Order of the garter robe and of course her signature Smile, and King George VI, her husband and Queen Elizabeth's Dad.

This is where the  Volleyball matches will be held during the Summer games....

The Admiralty Arch is a large office building, which provides a road and pedestrian walkway between the Mall(the red road ) and Trafalgar Square...the Mall(pronounced Mal) leads to Buckingham Palace and it's kind of like a giant Red Carpet stretched out!!!

We decided to do a Hop on Hop off Red double decker bus tour....not on the bus below, the one behind it....but loved this Old bus!