April 20, 2017 - Gianna's 13th Birthday Trip to London - Day 8 & Tanya's Trip to London - Day 4 - Changing of the Guard Re-Cap, Elisa in Soho and Tanya's Re-Cap of yesterday

Elisa's Daily Scoop
CURRENTLY TRAVELING IN: LONDON, ENGLAND

Shop Till Ya Drop  

Today is our last day here in London!!
Well, we are actually leaving tomorrow, but it is our last FULL DAY here.

Our plan for today was to "Shop Till Ya Drop" and that's exactly what me and the girlies are doing.

Tanya and gang are having a "Harry Potter" Day, which I cannot wait to hear about.

We'll be meeting up with the gang tonight at dinner - our last dinner together till we connect again for our Chicago Road Trip in June.

INSIDE GREEN PARK - BUCKINGHAM PALACE IN THE BACKGROUND (c) travelincousins.com

As promised, we have a  great deal to tell you about regarding our morning yesterday at the Changing of the Guard ceremony/Parade at Buckingham Palace.

If you read The Daily Scoop yesterday, you are aware that my morning started off in a rather "upset" fashion.  CLICK THE LINK if you missed it.
April 19, 2017 -  Gianna's 13th Birthday Trip to London - Day 7  &  Tanya's Trip to London - Day 3 - Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Tower Bridge and more...

Apologies for posting rather irregularly the past few day, but we've been running!

So, back to yesterday's re-cap...
​

​Changing of the Guard at
Buckingham Palace

BUCKINGHAM PALACE AND THE GUARDS (c) travelincousins.com

Tanya and I decided to take different visual perspectives of the experience.

Me and my gang opted to hang by the gate at The Palace, and Tanya went across the street at the Queen Victoria Memorial to get more of a bird's eye view of the Palace and the street parade.

Everything started okay since we were quite early, so we had our pick of where to stand by the gate.  Lots of room and able to spread out.

However, as it got later, the crowd started to grow and people were all around us.  We had a cozy little spot against the gate and the girls were able to sit on the gate base.

BEAUTIFUL BUCKINGHAM PALACE - VIEW FROM WHERE WE STOOD NEAR GATE (c) travelincousins.com

QUEEN VICTORIA MONUMENT (c) travelincousins.om

(c) travelincousins.com

I will say, it got progressively more annoying as these folks had NO CONCEPT OF PERSONAL SPACE!!

They were literally on top of us.  I do not do well with being closed in and so I was moving about; swinging my back pack on and off; backing up and from side to side and even went as far as to say "excuse me" on several occasions.  

In general, it was really uncomfortable and annoying.

We managed to get a few good pictures of the guards and the Palace itself.  But, none of us could stay in this location for more than an hour after arriving at our location at 9:45AM.  

Our little space filled in before we even were fully out of it! As we moved closer to the street.

KELSEY & GIANNA SQUISHED BY THE CROWN - SITTING AT THE PALACE GATE (c) travelincousins.com

CROWDS LINED UP TO SEE THE PARADE (c) travelincousins.com

STILL SMILING BUT STUCK IN THE CROWD (c) travelincousins.com

SMASHED! (c) travelincousins.com

LOOK AT HOW CLOSE EVERYONE'S FEET ARE! (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

I'm not going to lie - it was not terribly enjoyable.  The parade that went down the street in front of the Palace and the Queen Victoria Monument was not easy to see as there were crowds in every direction.

CROWDS EVERYWHERE, IN EVERY DIRECTION!

ABLE TO BREATHE, BUT NOT SEE MUCH (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

HUGE CROWD AROUND QUEEN VICTORIA MONUMENT - TANYA IS IN THERE SOMEWHERE! (c) travelincousins.com

A GLIMPSE OF THE PARADE (c) travelincousins.com

I grabbed as many pictures as I could from different angles, but then me and the girls decided at around 11:30 to just make our way across the street to Green Park, which looked relatively empty since most people were in one of the many crowds watching the parade.

We saw an "oasis" in the park - a free standing cafe and took full advantage since we were very hungry.

Making ourselves comfortable on the ledge of the gate wall, we hung out until the end of the changing of the guard ceremony, to meet up with the Tanya and gang.  

GREEN PARK ACROSS FROM BUCKINGHAM PALACE (c) travelincousins.com

FOOD STAND (c) travelincousins.com

THE BEAUTIFUL PARK GATE (c) travelincousins.com

Moving on to today...
The girls and I had a leisurely day as we headed towards Soho at lunchtime to do some shopping before going to The Courthouse Hotel for our final afternoon tea on this trip.

However, before heading off to the Underground, we stopped off at the bar & grill at our apartment complex for some smoothies!!

I even Vlogged about these  yummy drinks! (warning - it's unedited)

We took the tube to the Oxford Circus station, where, upon exiting, we were greeted by a plethora of stores!!

​Making our way down Argyle Street towards Carnaby to The Courthouse Hotel, we stopped in a number of stores before heading into "Oasis." 

We had great success in this store, where not only did Kelsey find a lovely necklace for herself, but Gianna found a lovely dress for one of her upcoming school dances!!

STORES IN EVERY DIRECTION (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

THE STORE WHERE WE FOUND GIANNA'S DRESS! (c) travelincousins.om

INSIDE OASIS - adorable artwork on the walls (c) travelincousins.com

PRETTY FITTING ROOM AT OASIS (c) travelincousins.com

GIANNA WITH HER NEW DRESS! (c)travelincousins.com

KELSEY WITH HER NEW NECKLACE (c) travelincousins.com

We worked up an appetite!

The hotel where the Carnaby Brasserie was located was adorable, as it was transformed from a courthouse into a hotel.  In the bar area, the old "cells" remain with the toilets, where they used to hold prisoners and now function as private little rooms off the bar.  Very cute!!

THE COURTHOUSE HOTEL, SOHO - our destination for afternoon tea (c) travelincousins.com

LOTS OF GOODIES! (c) travelincousins.com

THE OLD HOLDING CELLS FOR PRISONERS ARE NOW PART OF THE HOTEL BAR! (c) travelincousins.com

THREE CUTE LITTLE PRIVATE ROOMS NOW (c) traveincousins.com

SEE THE TOILET FROM THE ORIGINAL HOLDING CELL IS STILL THERE! (c) travelincousins.com

It was a wonderful day and it's still not over!
Tonight we'll be joining the cousins once again for dinner - more about that tomorrow.

HEADED BACK TO THE TUBE (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

HEADED BACK TO OUR APARTMENT FOR AN AFTERNOON BREAK BEFORE DINNER (c) travelincousins.com

As for me, I'm pretty much packed except for a few last minute items.  We will depart from London tomorrow late morning, but I'll say a final farewell from this amazing city before leaving!

See ya back here tomorrow!!
-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop
CURRENTLY TRAVELING IN: LONDON, ENGLAND

Walking until our feet fall off!

Hey there FOLKS! 

GREETINGS from all of us Travelin' Cousins out here in London!

As usual my Daily Scoop is going to reflect more on yesterday rather than today...

Our day started out pretty close to being on schedule give or take a few minutes - and we were all off and on our way to Buckingham Palace for my first experience at watching the Changing of the Guards!

Being that I had never been (I guess most of us had never been - but I seemed to be the only one excited about it). You might be asking why I had never been - but as you might be able to tell by now is that I keep a very busy and full schedule and watching the guards change at 11am just never fit into my day.

So yes I was excited and I had researched where exactly to go??? I really had no idea and didn't want to feel as though I was missing out on anything.

In front of Buckinham Palace (c) travelincousins.com

In front of Buckinham Palace (c) travelincousins.com

The gates of Buckingham Palace (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

It seemed that the majority of folks out there had all recommended standing at the Queen Victoria Memorial and although I know that standing right at the gates is popular - when I looked at images online I just knew that I wanted to stand directly across from the main Buckingham Palace Gates and not miss a piece of the action. Because that is just the way I am! LOL

The crowds grew and we were snuggly holding our places on the front line and as the parade into the Palace grounds had begun we were there snap snap snapping away!

The parade marching in (c)travelincousins.com

The parade marching out (c)travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

The Queen Victoria Monument across from Buckingham Palace (c) travelincousins.com

And once the "show" was all over I received a text from Gianna and found out that they had already left their post and were at the park grabbing a bite.

THE COUSINS GANG IN GREEN PARK (c) travelincousins.com

We caught up to them and were all off via the TUBE to Tower Hill which lands you directly in front of The famed London Tower. Again before going much further there we were snap snap snapping away.

ELISA & TANYA IN FRONT OF THE TOWER OF LONDON (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

COUSINS IN LONDON TOGETHER! (c) travelincousins.com

Our group then headed on over to take pictures of the Tower Bridge before splitting up while Elisa took the girls into the Tower of London and I took my kiddos to experience and climb the Tower Bridge.
​  
You might be wondering WHY we chose to do different sights...
Well as we made up the original itinerary I understood that The Tower of London was to only be a photo op, and that we'd all tour the Tower Bridge. But then about a month ago (or so) Elisa had purchased tickets for The Tower of London. 

And being that I had already experienced 
The Tower of London a couple of years ago 
​I knew that for the amount of time we had that I would feel anxious - being that there is just so much to see, learn and to take in. Thus I chose to stick with what we had on the itinerary and go explore the Tower Bridge (something I had never done before).

(c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

Once we had climbed, crossed, learned about and explored the Tower Bridge, and did a wee bit of shopping, we had soon found out the Elisa and the girls were still in line to see the fabulous Crown Jewels (of which they do not allow you to photograph - boo).

So at this point I decided to again stick with what was on the schedule and go explore Katherine's Docks while we were waiting to meet up with the gals again.

(c) travelincousins.com

But once the gals were done with The Tower of London, they were ready for a break instead of heading to Camden Market, so we decided to meet up again later for dinner.

And being that the girls were not joining us, I gave the kids the option of going to eat at an all vegan place instead of Camden Market - which they opted for. So after a fairly long journey via tube and overground we had finally arrived at The Temple of Hackney - which was definitely worth the trip!

And since we still had some time, we still went to Camden Yards - such a funky little neighborhood and at every turn while searching for Cookies and Scream at Camden Market Cosette had thought it had reminded her of so many other places - Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Morocco (in EPCOT) and Hawaii! WOW!

(c)travelincousins.com

We were then finally ready to head over to Soho and meet back up with the gals for dinner.

We opted ahead of time to make dinner reservations at Jaime's Italian (from the acclaimed chef and cookbook author - Jaime Oliver). Well while it was great to be together with our cousins once again - the service was waaaaaaay under par and the food wasn't that much better. Thank God we can laugh at it and still managed to enjoy ourselves in spite of it all - but let's just say that I don't think any of us will be returning or recommending that you ever go! ​

DINNER LAST NIGHT AT JAMIE'S KITCHEN (c) travelincousins.com

That was pretty much our morning, afternoon and night. 

By the way Cosette's feet were killing her (God Forbid) and I was definitely feeling a few hot spots on my poor tootsies. 

See ya back here tomorrow for all the SCOOP from today!

I'm outta here,
-T