After waking up early, Austin and myself went to go get breakfast at a well known bakery, in the Belgravia section of London, called Dominique Ansel. It wasn’t until we were on the tube however, with only a few more stops to go, that we realized Buckingham Palace was the next stop and that we had just enough time to make it to see the Changing of the Guards! After very little thought, we made the spontaneous decision to go and see the historical ceremony. On our way to the palace, we we’re walking parallel with the new guards that were coming to take over in the protection of the palace. After weaving through the crowds, we were able to make it to the gates and see the guards nearly 30 yards away from us. The ceremony was amazing and definitely an item on my bucket list I was thrilled to be able to check off! After they finished, we took more picture of the palace and the monument in front of it; admiring the history and importance of the event and location we were at. In the end though, we got our priorities straight and went back on our adventure of finding food!

After a long day of traveling and adjusting to our surroundings, Dr. Brennan took us out to dinner at Carluccio’s, where we had meals most of us had never had before. After we were all in the mood to go sight seeing and went to see Christmas lights at Trafalgar Square. There were cute stands from local vendors selling food, ornaments, and other amazing souvenirs. We then went down to go throw coins in the wishing fountain behind Nelson’s Column. I’m so happy we took the time to stop and take a group photo together, because it really tied the night together by capturing our first day in London.