Thursday, May 19, 2011

Scotland Yard

Did something very few other Americans have done today!  As some of you may know the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace is one of the events just about every tourist visiting London has to see.  As it turns out, our group attended it as well, but not from the outside like the thousands of people who usually see it.  We got to view it from the inside of the gate!  According to the officer who had the connections to let us in, before us he was able to count the number of Americans who have done this on his hands, so you can imagine how big of an honor it was for us.  I have to say though, all the tourists taking our picture and staring at us as if we were very important people was pretty awesome.

This afternoon we visited New Scotland Yard for a lecture from several members of the Metropolitan Police about the upcoming 2012 Olympics in London and their plans regarding the torch relay.  We also got a lecture about the Notting Hill Carnival, which is kind of like our Mardi Gras but with a lot more potential rioting and gang violence.  Born out of racial tensions in the 60s, every year it serves as a challenge for the police in the area to keep the peace.  In 07 for example they saw 800 injuries, 170 of which resulted in hospitalizations.

Tomorrow we will visit Cambridge for our final full day of activities, then we start doing some last minute sightseeing before preparing to head back.  As we are now I'm pretty much done "working", so now I just sit back and relax until I get home.

Until next time

-Pat

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