Can we move our campus here?

After a week-long bout of food poisoning, my friend, Chelsea, and I were more than ready to get out and explore London.  Of course like most tourists we were eager to head straight towards Buckingham Palace.  Buckingham Palace is only open to the public May-September every year and each year there is a different exhibit. This year the theme was the 50th anniversary Queen Elizabeth II's crowning as queen. However, as this was the second to last weekend the palace is open the queue was very long and we ended up purchasing tickets for 4 hours later.

Luckily we had arrived just in time for the changing of the guards.  The massive crowd surrounding the gates and the fact that we both suffer from short people syndrome caused us to get a slightly obstructed view.  Regardless we were able to get some amazing pictures and catch glimpses here and there of the red-suited guards.

From there we headed off to Hyde Park.  If you've ever been to Central Park or like me to Millenium and Grant Park in Chicago. Hyde park puts them all to shame.  We were quite hungry when we entered the park, and so we stopped at The Serpentine Restaurant and Bar.  This restaurant overlooks the Serpentine, and sitting outside was amazing as the view was so pretty.  I ordered margherita pizza and was content to sit and watch the paddle boats float by.

 

Next, we walked along the entire length of the park.  Our goal was to visit the Princess Diana memorial, but there were so many statues and gorgeous scenery along the way that we kept stopping to take pictures.  And Chelsea made us stop so she could chase the birds around.  A little boy joined in with her as well, which was hilarious. 

When we finally arrived at the Princess Diana memorial I was very surprised by how simple it is.  However the plaque outside the memorial stated the it was designed with children in mind since Diana had been pushing the royal regulations to be as hands-on as possible with William and Harry.  They're were even signs posted all around that suggested you dip your feet and hands in the water.

At the end of Hyde Park you run into Kensington Gardens.  On our way there we stopped to take pictures at the Peter Pan statue.  It was built in 1919 in honor of the author, who supposedly happened upon the idea for the story while sitting in Hyde Park.

The highlight of Kensington Gardens is of course, Kensington Palace where Will, Kate, and George will be living starting next year.  There are a lot of renovations at the moment to make the palace suitable for the new family, but it was still stunning. 

After this we headed back to Buckingham for our tour.  You were not allowed to take any pictures while in the palace, but the exhibit was filled with coronation memorabilia.  My favorite part was seeing Queen Elizabeth's coronation robe, which took 536 hours to make.  The end of the tour took place in the gardens, where we were allowed to take pictures.  We asked a group of young people to take our picture.  They happened to be from Miami of Ohio and were studying in Florence.  Coincidentally they knew people I went to high school with. It really is such a small world!  

The day of frolicking around central London ended with the two of us buying postcards and heading back to Mile End on the tube.  All in all it was a wonderful day, I just wish our campus could be picked up and placed inside Hyde Park because it is that wonderful.