What comes next - hey bus a move...

Today we transferred by taxi to our tour hotel, the Royal Horseguards. The taxi ride was probably the scariest driving I have experienced since getting in a cab with a drug high driver in LA twenty years ago. I think this guy was just a bad driver. It would be fair to say that the bedroom from our first hotel would fit into the bathroom of the second. We have two large, gorgeous, interconnected rooms with free minibar, heated floors in the bathrooms, and TVs in the showers. The hotel was the original headquarters or MI 5 and MI 6, and is on the north side of the Thames near Westminster Abbey.We are on an organised tour for the next seven days through a US based company called Tauck. Our group has 25 people, 12 of them teenagers, all from the US except team Starrett. The adults are predominately grandparents taking their grandchild away for a Bar/ Bat Mitzvah gift. Gina, our guide was originally from the US but has lived in Paris for eighteen years. Our first activity was a bus tour around central London, with great commentary by Mary, our second guide. After a few days under our own stream, it was such a treat to get 'the story' about what we were seeing. Mary mixed historic facts, current events and a bit of political and social commentary into her delivery. The traffic was dreadful, which gave her loads of time to talk about everything we were passing.

We had a quick photo stop at Buckingham Palace. After a quick refresh back at the hotel, we had a meet and greet cocktail party followed by a group dinner (kids in one room, adults in another). Our table was friendly and fun. we had a slight hiccup when we went back to the room after dinner, as the lights in the boys' room were not working at all. They suggested we change rooms, but it was 10pm by this time so we left it for tomorrow. A few photos - Team Starrett at the Hard Rock, at Buckingham palace and Westminster from the bus.