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To sum up Day 2, or my first full day in London, I saw the Queen. Seriously. More on that later.

Wednesday began with a trip down into the subbasemenet of the Hotel for our complimentary Continental breakfast. Pastries, croissants, yogurt, fruit, cerea, toast.. Pretty much the most boring breakfast you can have. And I LOVE IT! First weird surprise for me was that Toast is not toasted. It’s just fresh bread. It hasn’t been put in the oven to crisp, it’s just straight bread. Ooooookay!

After breakfast Arune and I hopped on a city bus (they’re almost all double decker here which gives you a wonderful vantage point on the city) and took it down to Hyde Park. On the way there we passed Harrods of London which is indeed massive. The weather early on in the day was nice. A bit chilly, but no rain.

The ride to Hyde Park revealed just how bad the congestion is in London. People in the states love to talk about the traffic in Los Angeles. Okay, I can tell you first hand that the traffic in Los Angeles is bullshit compared to London. It’s terribly congested with way too many cars, cabs and busses on extremely small roads. I find it surprising that I’ve yet to see a single accident take place considering how close these cars get to one another. Clearly they know how to drive here.

We arrived at Hyde Park and took a look around. While we were there this large procession of Royal Guards of some sort came riding buy on horse back. Included amongst them was a band playing, well, music. We had no idea what this was all for, but enjoyed the view as they passed by. Check out the Gallery for pictures.

We stuck around Hyde Park for a short while and then made our way to Buckingham Palace, on the way checking out some sights. I can’t recall the names of the monuments off the top of my head, but once I get back to Los Angeles I’ll look up the names and add them to the Gallery.

We arrived at Buckingham Palace which is a pretty damn expansive and amazing place. The crowds outside began to gather for the Changing of the Guard at 11:30, which was an hour away. Arune and I hung out, found a spot to camp in and just hung out, talking with the tourists and checking out the weirdos. Then, at about five till 11 something very unexpected happened. The main gates to the palace opened and out rode a number of police on motorcycle, followed by Royal Guard on Horseback, then a horse drawn carriage. Sitting in the back seat of the carriage was Queen Elizabeth and her Prince. I’m not fucking with you, the Queen actually came out! The crowd went a bit nuts, cheering, everyone trying to gain a good position by which to take a picture. I got a quick one off before she rode out of view. VERY random. We had no idea why she was taking a stroll at the time.

Hung out for a bit longer to watch the Changing of the Guards. Pretty much it’s a bunch of yelling, a bunch of marching, then a bunch of music followed by more marching. Marching. Yelling. Marching. Music. It was pretty cool, but didn’t blow me away. When the band first started playing I was certain they were playing the theme to the “Dating Game.” Clearly they won’t, but I was freaked for a while. They played a number of songs I recognized, but I can’t name most. I believe one is called “Fanfare for the Common Man,” but I’ll need to look it up when I have more time.

After a while, and basically when it go boring, we left. I said goodbye to the nice South African lady and her son that I chatted with for a while and we made our way down the road to St. James Palace for the tube station near there. We decided to go visit Rich Johnston for lunch, who writes the “Lying in the Gutters” column over at CBR. He’s out in Soho, so we had a couple of trains to catch.

While walking down the road towards St. James we saw another procession coming towards us. Sure enough, it was the queen again going back to Buckingham Palace! Son of a bitch! This lady’s everywhere! Got more pictures of her, followed by her guard, and then a procession of armored vehicles! What the hell is going on? Is this the sorta of craziness that happens daily in London? Found a police officer who told me that today was a pretty special day. It was the day for “Changing of the Colors,” an event that occurs once every ten years. We just randomly happened to be in the right place at the right time without even knowing it! Excellent.

Got on the Underground to catch Rich in Soho. Lemme tell you that public transportation in London is fucking fantastic. It took about half a day to fully understand, but I am now Master of the Tube! Wait, that doesn’t sound good. Fuck, whatever. No need to take cabs, unless it’s after midnight when the trains have stopped. The underground is incredibly extensive and goes very deep under London. There’s a true underground city here. There are musicians all throughout the Underground playing music. The Underground has numerous levels, which leads to numerous smells and temperatures. Nothing horrible, but when you go down five stories it can get a bit warm.

Took the train out to the Holborn station and emerged there. Called Rich and he met us at the station. Good thing I know what he looked like since he’s never met me. He knew it would be pointless to try and have us come to his work because it’s almost impossible for a foreigner to understand the streets here. Very few street signs. I’m starting to get the hang of it, though.

Rich treated Arune and I to an excellent restaurant in the middle of Soho. Excelelnt nouveau Italian fare. The restaurant was in the middle of the media district of London. Filled with radio, tv and film types, the conversations in the restaurant, that I could understand, were all focused on business. Having lunch with Rich was fantastic. Very dynamic guy that’s a real pleasure to talk with. He’s a fast talked, as are most British, so we had to ask him to repeat himself a bit. Hope he doesn’t think we’re complete deaf morons!

After we left Rich he directed us towards Oxford Street for some shopping. He pointed us in the direction of two comic shops to check out, and the Virgin Megastore since I had some DVD’s I wanted to purchase.

Okay, I’m cutting this short here since Arune is ready to take off. I’ve uploaded 55 pictures from my first day and have another 30 or so more to upload. Click on over to the Gallery to see what I have so far. I’ll upload more later today when hopefully the connection at this net caf� is faster then and will finish up my first days worth of activities which included a visit to the British Museum and our visit to Lecster Square.