Well, helloooooo!

Its unfortunate we didn't take a lot of photos today, because today was really quite lovely!

This is a Buckingham Palace garden where AJ decided to be artistic. There were thousands of these beautiful flowers at the main entrance. The changing of the guards turned out to be a long long event with music by a marching band that included songs from Star Wars!
This is us in the front of Buckingham palace in front of a statue and you can sort of see the main entrance of the palace in the background. Not as cool as one would think. But interesting nonetheless! Holly wasn't with us today, so we had no one to be our photographer. Everyone get ready for this one...we didn't get lost today on our own!!! We made it to Buckingham Palace, The National Gallery Museum, Camdon Town, Kew, and Richmond all on our own!

This is a park in front of the palace that had a dedication to Canada and it was kind of lame. Basically a small granite fountain that had fake maple leaves in it (Erika liked it!). The park was pretty and so green; there were these chairs that you could rent for £1 for an hour and soak up the sun.

This is the main statue out front of Buckingham palace, today must have been a special event because it was packed full of people! We really couldn't see anything but we enjoyed the hustle and bustle anyway.

After Buckingham Palace we made our way to the National Gallery of London, a collection of artwork that was simply amazing. They had peices by Titian and Vincent Van Gogh (who are two of Erika's favorites) as well as Raphael, a cartoon by Leonardo da Vinci (a cartoon is a detailed sketch used for preparatory work to a painting), several Monet, Degas, Caravaggio, and two Michelangelos. We enjoyed a picnic packed by Holly's mom on the steps outside of the museum before we headed to Camdon Town.

Camdon Town is a place we would tell anyone visiting London to go. It has so much character and is absolutely the best place to people watch. It is full of punk/goth/rastafarian people and vendors and you never know what you are going to see. It if full of boutiques and street vendors, musicians and cafes selling anything from jewelry and punky shoelaces to artwork and thongs with the British flag! We even got mooned...not on purpose...in one of the boutiques!

While walking through one of the markets, we found some paintings that were really interesting. So we decided to get one and continue to get a piece of original artwork in every country that we visit.

Next we walked around a few of the smaller, more quaint sections of London, Kew and Richmond. Both have their unique collection of shops and pubs.

After a long day of walking, we went back to Holly's house and enjoyed an incredibly delicious homecooked meal by Holly's mom. We had chicken, roast potatoes that were to die for, leeks and zucchini (which we both tried and really liked), carrots, and gravy! We have really enjoyed our time with Holly and her mom! They are wonderful to share a bottle of wine with, chat and laugh with, we are so lucky to be able to share this time with them!