Europe Blog #6

Cowgirl's at Buckingham Palace


By Chelsea Coddington, Emily Layton and Bostyn Burger

Today we went to Buckingham Palace, where we were told the Queen would come to greet us (that was a lie...). We arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard, which is apparently a very big deal judging by the size of the crowd. We had to hire our own guards (Jason, Brian, and Darren) to block the crowd for our team photo; they did a mediocre job at best. It was difficult to see anything over the crowds gathered at the fence as we are soccer players (i.e. vertically challenged), but if you jumped, stood on your tippy toes and held your camera above your head you could catch a glimpse and separate yourself out as a real tourist all at one time!

We then headed out toward the bus to tour the city (against our bus driver’s EU contract) before we were let loose to explore London for ourselves. As we were coming to the drop off site, Darren and Jason brought a competition to the table. The group/pair with the most pictures of important tourist sites (and anything of utter interest) would win the grand prize of....free Under Armour Wyoming shirts! So as the door opened to let us out, it was either the frenzy of the city or the enthusiasm of the competition, groups dispersed within seconds in search of the Prince and all of the other wonder’s London had to offer.

I (Chelsea) found myself with Carmen and Courtney after the groups broke off. We headed to the tube (London’s subway system) to see Big Ben and all the surrounding sites. I learned that Big Ben refers to the bell inside the tower instead of the actual clock. Carmen used her professional photography skills and fancy camera to capture some amazing shots. As we were going about in our tourist ways, I realized that the London locals are quite friendly in comparison to the smug Dutch. Tired of posing for pictures, we went in and out of numerous stores for some shopping for ourselves and of course family members and friends. We walked quite a distance (to say the least) in search of the Hard Rock Cafe for drinks and dinner. Carmen and Courtney were happy to find our waitress was Canadian as well (they are always SO proud of their Canadian heritage). After we had dinner we headed for the tube (instead of making the trek back to Piccadilly Circus, where most of our shopping was done). From here we met up with half of the team and wasted some time walking around and sharing our stories.
However the only thing we found in common with Wyoming was the horses, many of the police in London are ride horses.

I (Emily) found myself with Bostyn and Nicole. Everyone took off in their own directions but we headed for the toilets and sandwiches to get our trip going. I really wanted to go to the Chelsea Stadium and megastore so we proceeded to the Tube to get all day passes and ride our way to the stadium. We traveled the Piccadilly line to the exchange stop at South Kensington for the District line that took us to the Fulham Broadway exit where our destination was located. I think that more cities need to have a subway system like London’s tube, after all I am going to Graduate school for Transportation Engineering. It was relatively easy to use and all in English! We did some shopping at the megastore, took some pictures, and traveled back towards the London Eye. We went on the Westminster Bridge to get a good look of the city and took landscaping pictures with Big Ben, the Parliament, and the London Eye. We then proceeded to the craziest store I have ever been to, Primark. That place was a zoo! I almost couldn’t handle the chaos but fought through it to buy shirts for 1.50 pounds (I just can’t miss a deal that good). I am concerned that there may have been a sweatshop in the back room though, seriously, clothes shouldn’t be that cheap. When we escaped Primark with a dent in our wallets it was time for some R&R. A nice italian restaurant with patio was the perfect place for dinner. We ended the day with a stop at Lily Whites (the greatest sporting goods store in the world!) to buy some last minute items (i.e. the full Chelsea Kit much to the amusement of my teammates). Dragging our feet to the bus we managed to find some Gelato to top off the day.

Most of the team explored to main tourist sites like the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the Parliament Building. For the Harry Potter enthusiasts (SIDNEY JONES) there was platform 9 and 3/4 to visit. That is all for now.

Editor's note: The winning shots were won by Jerrica, Kerstyn and Jules...no free Under Armour...just some late night McDonald's...