London, part 3

Our third day waking up in London was our last full day in the city. We started off with a walk/taxi ride over to Harrod's, the infamous London department store. Our goal was to check out the amazing food hall in the basement level of the store. 

We saw so many beautiful things! The baked goods and fancy truffles were my favorite! Amelia and John bought some breakfast pastries for a mid-morning snack, which they enjoyed a few hours later in St James Park after we enjoyed the next stop on our itinerary...

Changing of the guard! Scott and I didn't see this ceremony when we were in London on our honeymoon and we thought the whole family would enjoy this experience. 

We started at the Horse Guards, the official entrance to St. James Park and Buckingham Palace, where there was a ceremony for the changing of the guards and horses.

Then we trekked across St. James Park to try and catch some of the Changing of the Guard Ceremony at Buckingham Palace. We enjoyed beautiful views in the park as we walked across, with the London Eye in the background!

We stopped just outside of Buckingham palace to watch the band proceed onward with the ceremony. Very cool to watch, but quite crowded at the same time. 

Next stop for the day was Hamley's, London's legendary department store. I believe it's the equivalent of the old F.A.O. Schwarz in New York. But since Amelia and John had never been in a toy store of this magnitude they were quite blown away! Add in the British flair and countless employees demonstrating toys all around the seven-story toy store and they were in visual heaven! It was total sensory overload for the adults but fun for all at the same time.

One of my favorite parts was the Lego exhibit on the top floor. Can you believe these exhibits are made entirely out of Legos? Awesome!

After Hamley's we took a taxi over to Covent Garden, a district in the city that is a fun and entertaining tourist site. There is a large public square surrounded by dozens of restaurants and shops. We shopped for souvenirs and then enjoyed the fun of eclectic street performers, including the juggler we saw below...  

...and the gold guy below. Note John standing to the left of Gold Guy. When John gave Gold Guy a pound, Gold Guy moved to a crazy position forward for several minutes. Don't know how he held that position until the next coin came along! Where is the chair to support Gold Guy's weight in the photo below?

Next we took the Tube over to the building that houses Skygarden, a fabulous observation deck, located on the top floors of the building pictured towards the right in the photo below.

I read about Skygarden on TripAdvisor before we left on our trip. I learned that Skygarden is a free public space with amazing views of London that is accessible by reservation only. The tickets to go up are free, but you have to reserve in advance for a booking in a one-hour time slot to the observation deck. We had a reservation for 4:30 on this day, perfect for a last excursion before retiring to the hotel before dinner. The views of the Thames were fabulous!

Happy hour at Skygarden! We had a great time!

 John was really into Time Lapse videos while were abroad. The day before, on our boat ride to Greenwich, we learned that the Tower Bridge only rises one or two times per day. I think it's pretty cool that John captured this moment from the outdoor viewing plaza at Skygarden during the hour that we were there!

After our visit to Skygarden we took the Tube back to our hotel, freshened up and rested a bit, and then headed out for our last meal in London. Somewhat by chance we ended up at an upscale pub that evening for one the of the best dinners we had while in London. Scott and I enjoyed fancier British Pub-style meals, while the kids ate lovely fish and chips that was higher than average quality for pub fare.

Our waiter was a lot of fun to talk with. This being the evening before the infamous Brexit vote, we asked him his thoughts on the impending outcome of the election. He proclaimed that he thought Britain would stay in the EU and his opinion was that the vote was more for show than substance. We were all certainly surprised two days later to find the outcome quite differently than he had predicted!