Our trip to Europe ended with being part of unintended history. On the morning of September 9th the Eastern Mediterranean cruise, we were on returned to Venice, and then our group flew to London. Upon hearing the news of Queen Elizabeth's passing we were notified our pre-planned tour of Buckingham Palace had been canceled.
As we arrived at Heathrow Airport, hours after the announcement of the Queen's death, you could feel the magnitude of the loss of the United Kingdom's magnificent monarch. Everywhere we went there were messages of condolence and pictures of QE II.
Saturday morning walking through Hyde Park they were preparing for a gun salute to QE II. As we made our way to Buckingham Palace there were large crowds, thousands of flowers left in the park and at the gates. We saw the Royal Amy on horseback coming and going to Hyde Park.
When we reached Trafalgar Square there was a Black Lives Matter protest, probably George Soros funded and organized, in progress. Very poor timing trying to hijack attention during a period of the morning.
After walking everywhere the previous day we decided to get on the Hop On, Hop Off Bus Sunday morning. Our first stop was St. Paul's, while the cathedral was closed to the public we were able to attend a portion of the first service after the Queen's passing. This was a very moving experience.
The next stop was the Tower of London, where we came upon the ceremony of the proclamation reading of naming Charles III as King of England.
There were so many people filing by the Palace that many of the streets were closed which made it hard for the buses and taxis to get around. As we walked through Hyde Park on our last day they were preparing for the media onslaught by delivering hundreds of porto johns and construction trailers creating a media city.
I mentioned to the friends we were with I felt like Forest Gump walking through history. It was truly a surreal weekend and the end of a memorable trip to Europe.
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