We walked to Buckingham Palace this morning for the Changing of the Guard, and this was pretty much the view most of the time. But we waited a while and here came the band.

When the crowd finally thinned a little bit, not much, had a better view of the palace. All in all, sort of disappointing, really. Just too many people.

A striking thing about much of the area around Buckingham Palace are the many souvenir shops with heaps of real junk, including gaudy pictures of Princess Diana on plates, miniature Big Bens, etc. Bleh.

This is a bittersweet day because we must say farewell to Lisa, who heads back to New Zealand this afternoon on the typically arduous flight: 13 hours to Singapore then another 9 hours home. Brutal.

This will be our last day in London before heading out to Bath in the morning, on a tour bus that will stop in Stonehenge. Later today Jo and I will go to the British Museum, and then in the evening to the Globe for a production of Romeo and Juliet. Now that will be something.

A surprise: I heard from my friend from graduate school days, Nandita Batra, who will be in London when we return here in a month. So there's that reunion to look forward to.

Goodbye for now, lovely friend Lisa.