London, Day 2

I had originally planned a Sunday itinerary around seeing the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, which only happens on certain days of the week. We decided we did not want to be locked into that schedule (or have to get up that early - the official site says to arrive by 9AM to get a spot to see the change). Since the rest of my plan had us setting off from Buckingham, though, we took an uber to a spot about 2 blocks away to start our day. Happily, the corner where we were dropped off, at the exact time we exited the uber, was a spot that the horse guard was marching by on their way to the military barracks. We followed them along St. James Park and eventually ended up right in front of Buckingham Palace ... right as the guard was changing. We figured it was a good omen for the day:

The guard heading towards the military barracks

In front of the barracks

Catching the beefeaters walking towards Buckingham Palace

We followed the beefeaters to the castle and we caught another look of the military band coming from the barracks

The crowd was intense and we could not actually see inside the gate, so this was our cue to leave

From Buckingham, we started a slow walk towards Piccadilly Circus:

iconic phone booth

Abby and I both fell in love with this old book shop, which has been in business since 1797

We arrived at Fortnum and Mason's right in time for our booking in the Jubilee Tea Salon:

Everything in the salon was beautiful

Look at these desserts! They were almost too pretty to eat (although we certainly did eat them)

After tea, we made our way to the store proper, which was all decked out for Christmas already (they have two entire floors devoted to it!):

This decoration moved up and down from the top to the bottom on the store

Giant advent calendar

We took some time to enjoy the windows on the way out

After tea, we headed back towards Trafalgar Square, took in Nelson's Column and then continued on to the Churchill War Rooms. These underground rooms were where Churchill ran the government during WWII and they have been preserved from that time forward:

Sun was already low over Nelson's Column

Just missed the changing of the guard at the horse barracks - they were breaking up as we passed by

Replica of 10 Downing Street

They have mannequins in the rooms so you can see what they would have looked like in 1945

This is the actual map that was used to track the movement of foreign armies. They left it for posterity at the end of the war

By the time we finished in the war rooms, it was time to head to Covent Gardens to catch a quick dinner before our show. Abby really wanted to take a double decker bus and was able to locate a close-by stop with a bus leaving soon:

From the top of the bus we could really appreciate the Christmas decorations on the streets

Covent Garden was all decorated for a Christmas market

We saw Six, which felt like a good show to see in London. It was really fun and just the right length (about an hour and a half with no intermission):

Outside the show

They encourage you to take pictures (and tag them) during the last act

We were definitely ready for bed by the time we made it back to the hotel, but it was a short trip so we did try to pack it all in!