Buckingham Palace, Hackney Council, and Abbey Road

Unlike yesterday we were able to sleep in a little longer today. We all met at the Faraday House around 9 am and discussed our plan for the day. Originally, our agenda consisted of a walking tour of the Olympic Park; however we mutually agreed that we didn’t need to do that because our bus tour of the Park pretty much covered everything. So our new schedule included seeing the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, visiting Big Ben (the clock tower), and seeing Charlie Forman speak at the Hackney Council. Around 9:45 we departed for the tube station and caught the train towards Buckingham Palace. Once we left the tube we had to walk a little way down closed roads and passed by plenty of security guards. The security at the palace was unbelievable. Eventually, we finally reached the front of the palace were it was mobbed with other tourists all congregating to see the changing of the guard. About a half hour after we arrived men started marching in the far entrance which was a distance away from us so we couldn’t get too good of a view. Later though men marched in the entrance that was right near us so we were able to get a great view of that. Once the ceremony concluded we made our way through Hyde Park and saw both Big Ben and the Parliament.

After a morning of sight-seeing we headed towards Hackney to listen to Charlie Forman speak. He spoke about the impact that the Olympics will have on the town of Hackney and also the impact the town of Hackney will have on the Olympics. It was fascinating to hear him talk in depth on how bringing the Olympics to London pretty much creates a whole new city. The entire presentation was extremely insightful and exciting.

Once the presentation concluded a few of us decided we wanted to go see Abbey Road. Naturally, we got off at the Abbey Road train station only to find out the real Abbey Road was a half hour in the opposite direction. We got back on the train and finally got to the real Abbey Road which was quite a sight. Tons of people were at the intersection taking pictures while cars were being held up and honking their horns. I couldn’t help but think to myself how annoying it must be to drive past this intersection every day. The 8 of us went out in the intersection in groups of 4 and took pictures as well with cars beeping their horns as we stopped traffic. This was an awesome experience and one of my favorite parts of the trip thus far.