Agendas

The Duchess of Cambridge said that, "Babies have their own agendas." Unfortunately our agenda didn't coincide with that baby's and we missed the royal birth by a week. It is probably for the best as I imagine the normal crowds have swelled to impassable in the streets around London.

We did see Buckingham Palace, although it was not as exciting as I had thought it might be. Our trip started near the Westminster Underground when we asked these gentlemen the best way to get to the Hard Rock Cafe. They told us to avoid the rush hour crush on the Underground and to walk for 20-30 minutes across two parks instead. We figured it would take us closer to an hour.

We passed 10 Downing Street. I was disappointed that this was the best view we could get.

We walked along the first park. For a looooong way.

Almost there!

I saw so many statues and can't keep them all straight. This is probably Victoria. Most statues are Victoria.

Here's the palace. It seemed smaller than I thought it would be. And I didn't expect it to be right on the street.

The press was camped out across the roundabout from the palace, waiting for the royal birth announcement.

We continued on our way towards Hard Rock but considered joining the queue to eat at the palace. Judging by those going in, we weren't dressed quite formally enough.

After walking for two hours we reached the Hard Rock Cafe, only to find the queue there was about a mile long. We got on a bus (my inner Mom made an appearance during this decision) and found a restaurant across town. I'm glad we did, because I had a great meal and the chef even brought me the recipe for the mango salsa they put on my salmon. I made it at home and it didn't taste quite the same though. Anyway, that's the story of how we found Buckingham Palace and didn't eat at the Hard Rock Cafe.