Royalty AND Trudy!

On Thursday night, Katie Beth and I spent at least four hours trying to figure out the logistics for a Wales trip this past weekend. And then realized that the only hotels remaining were those costing £200 a night. Um, definitely not happening. Sooo, we decided to stay in town! (I realized today that that phrase is completely inapplicable to London...) If we had gone to Wales, we'd miss the 'Trooping the Colours', which is the parade and airshow celebrating the Queen's official birthday.

Friday night, we got together to figure out the Wales trip for next weekend. Much better! And I'm super excited about where we're staying! It's got a 40 inch LCD TV!!! Glory!! Our living room has a little 13 inch TV with antenna with tin foil on it-- all for about four, scratchy channels. We've got train tickets too, and we'll need to secure some for the JOUST (!!) taking place at Cardiff Castle.

The Queen's actual birthday is in April (I think), but London has much nicer weather in June, so the Brits celebrate it then. Makes sense, methinks. I went over to the Knaresborough residence at 9 AM to meet a group of IE program participants heading over to the festivities, and we got on our way. It was so neat! A few military bands marched past along with some groupings of soldiers in their bearskin hats and red uniforms. But before all that, some soldiers had to be lined up along the parade way. One important looking soldier even used a giant compass placed the soldiers! We saw the princes and the Queen drive by. I've got some videos, but I need to post them on facebook and I'm not sure if I can make them public. Hm, maybe youtube.

After the parade, Katie Beth and I left to wander around for a bit. We stopped by a tech store and got her a camera, found some lunch (I got some fried bananas at Trafalgar Square from a Thai festival), and came back for the air show over Buckingham Palace. Apparently, Emily could see the planes fly by our flat. It was neat, but a little short. After watching the planes, Katie Beth and I took off for the Tower of London. What a place! There has been a palace building thingy there for over 800 years. It's full of lots 'o stories-- murders, plots, schemes, etc.

AND! WE SAW TRUDY!!! On our second day here, we had a Blue Badge tour with a lady named Trudy, only the cutest tour guide in the land. "Angels, angels, come here angels." She's a little lady with a made up face spouting British phrases (probably for the tourists' benefit) right and left. Love her! Katie Beth and I were in the middle of an exhibit, and she heard one of Trudy's key phrases float up from below a bridge we were standing on. It was her! We raced down to where she was and piggy-backed onto her tour. We didn't seem to fit in, race-wise, but we only stayed for maybe twenty minutes before jumping to a Yeoman Warder's tour. Yeoman Warders are Brits of distinguished military service who work at the Tower of London.

After a thoroughly wonderful day of British life, we took off to the Cotswolds on Sunday. I found a day trip through Golden Tours because Katie Beth mentioned something about the Cotswolds, so it all worked out very well. Beautiful place! I love leaving the city for the weekend to see expanses of greenery. Fresh air! We stopped at Blenheim Palace and found the "Secret Garden" that was marked by signs. Arg, and we did end up having to pay £10 for a pub lunch. Initially, you could buy a tour ticket without the lunch included, but our tour guide said there would be no other places around to eat. I think the restaurant and Golden Tours have cut a deal.

Anyways, so we drove throughout much of the afternoon, stopping at three villages along the way. The stops ranged from 20-45 minutes, but the idea was just to give you a taste of these places. It was a wonderful little day trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed being out and about with Katie Beth.

And then I got back to the flat and started putting my postcards on my wall.....and saw a mouse in our bedroom. It scampered under the door and out into the living room. AHH! I guess I'm a bit more afraid of critters than I thought. So Kelsey and Emily grabbed one of my digestive biscuits (which are kinda like graham crackers), put peanut butter on it, and tried to lure the mouse from behind the couch. I went out the door to await the result. No luck. It's still somewhere....eek. We called the IE people, and they're supposed to be sending someone to take care of it. I don't know much about the details though.

Arg, mice. I don't want anything on me that I don't know about! Get away mouse!