London - Buckingham Palace

26 million people visit London every year, for me it is an unusual city. Everything here revolves around the royal family and Buckingham palace. Thousands of people are crowded around the palace daily (i know this because my hotel is right across the street). Believe it or not, it costs British tax payers 32.8 million dollars for for the royal families annual household expenses, security..etc. There is a lot of criticism regarding this, but when you think about it the royal family brings in so many tourists (like me) each year who spend millions of dollars stimulating the economy. Those who criticize the royal family for using this money need to do their research.



Changing of the guard was a really neat experience. Thousands of people line up to to view the music show, parade of horses, and the changing of the guards. I so badly wanted to stand next to a guard and get my picture taken, but once you're there you see there is zero opportunity. I always thought I would be able to stand there make a funny face, and try to get the men to move. Not the case. You can't get anywhere near the guys.

Everyone here drinks tea, all sorts of types. Today we had afternoon tea in the hotel, the tea was served with small sugar cubes. It's the weirdest thing, whenever I see sugar cubes it reminds me of the black stallion, remember how the little boy fed the horse sugar cubes? We were shocked to see that afternoon tea comes with sandwiches (all have butter on them of course), scones, white chocolate, chocolate, cupcakes, lemon meringue, and cookies galore! $100 for tea, who would have thought...