We headed out for another day of sightseeing in London.  Let me mention that the weather has been unseasonably warm here…highs in the upper 70’s are summer like for this area.  It’s delightful to be outdoors, not so much on the tube or on the bus.

We started our day by heading for Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard.  The pageantry is quite impressive, taking about an hour.  We found a spot on the rail around the monument, facing the palace.  It was a real good spot to see it all.  The only better place would have been along the tall iron fence looking right at the courtyard.  There, you would miss some of the parade, but you’d see and the saluting and such as well as be able to better hear the music from the marching band.  All in all, though, ours was a satisfying experience.

From Buckingham we wanted to travel a good distance to the British Museum.  We opted to ride a double decker bus all the way from Victoria Station to the museum.  It was quite a ride.  Listen to me very carefully here: you don’t want to drive in London.  It’s beyond impossible!  Still, sitting in the upstairs front seat is worth the ride and I highly recommend it as a way to see the city from an entirely different perspective.

Our afternoon was spent at the British Museum.  It’s an amazing place.  We spent a great deal of time in the Egyptology area, checking out everything from the Rosetta Stone to seeing several mummies.  The Greek and Roman exhibitions are just as impressive.  We walked and looked and sat and rested and walked and looked some more.

Since we enjoyed our bus ride to the museum, and since we knew the tube would be packed and hot, we opted to ride the bus out of the downtown area and at least part of the way back out to Canary Warf.  It started out as a stroke of genius.  We got a front seat and watched the city go by.  Things went well till we were about 20 minutes from where we needed to switch to light rail.  Then, everything ground to a halt.  We never did see what happened, but we sat still watching motorcyclists ride between cars and buses, having to weave back and forth to keep from hitting mirrors and bicyclists who must have a death wish riding right with them – and nothing else moving.  Finally, people started getting off the bus and we followed suit.  It was only then that we realized that the tube we ride nearly everyday had a stop about 3 blocks from where we had sat for so long.  We crowded in and were back at our stop in about 10 minutes.