Mission impossible was possible

London Eye along the Thames
Woke up this morning early, ready to go to London. A brief stop before the next leg of our trip - Budapest. Our stuff was packed and after a quick shower and breakfast, We drove to Kingston to run a few quick errands. We got back to Granny's house at about half ten. We said a quick farewell to her, walked to the end of the street and boarded the 285 bus. Arriving at Hatton Cross we caught the Picadiliy line to London. We arrived at Russell square a little after noon. Made our way to William and Ralph's flat. Ralph was home to greet us, let us drop off our bags, and give us a key to his and Elizabeth's flat.

The missing "eye"

After arriving we briefly took a break and had some tea before wandering through the city. We figured we would head south towards the river and see where we ended up from there. Once there we took a couple of pictures of the London eye. A few weeks back When driving to Nottingham, we had noticed a lorrie carrying what looked like a big bubble. At the time, Luis said it looked a wee bit like the London eye thingamajigs you ride in. As we passed it we realized it was. Anyways, standing across the river Thames, we confirmed that the large ferris wheel was missing one pod. Instead, a steel cage temporarily replaced the bubble. On our previous trip, we had done the London Eye, so we did not need to do it again. We snapped a shot of it and proceeded to walk towards Westminster Abbey.

The not so friendly security - snipers!
A few days before arriving in London we had been issued a challenge "mission impossible" style by Jane's brother Ben via email. The message had been as follows. "If you choose to accept this mission you must snap a picture of Obama with either Jane or Luis in it. He will be in Ireland and Poland." What Ben hadn't known at the time, was that Obama would also be in England....London to be exact!


Friendly security
Turns out the arrival of Barack and Michele Obama was to be today. We had no idea of their time frame, however, we knew from reading the AP they would visit Westminster Abbey and Downing street. As we heard lots of police sirens heading towards that area we thought why not give it a try. This would give us the opportunity to experience a little of obamamania in another country and to fulfill our "mission impossible".

The motorcade arrives
The streets surrounding the Abbey were crowded with people waiting to see the President and First Lady, as well as the typical sightseers. We stood by a barricade across from the abbey and took some pictures. Luis happened to take a photo of a police woman with the Abbey behind her, she looked at him awkwardly, and walked towards us. Oh oh we thought. Was she really secret service coming to question us? She turned out to be very nice and chatted with us and a few other gawkers for a few minutes. She seemed just as exited to see Obama as we did. About then we began to overhear a rumor circulating through crowd .... Obama and Michelle were fifteen minutes away.

The Obamas!
This was one of those moments that we wished we had a better camera. The motorcade arrived, Barack and Michelle stepped out, and walked into Westminster Abbey. We were able to get a few pictures of the couple waving towards the crowd. Although we like to think they were waving at us. It was pretty cool. We spoke with a family in the crowd from Oaxaca, Mexico, overheard an Indian man next to us giving a play by play into his video camera and many others all speaking different languages. It's quite amazing that such a diverse group of people from all over the world all seemed to appreciate what Barack and Michelle represent. We were full of pride to be American.


Proof of our "Mission" accomplished!
The Blues and Royals
Walking passed St Jame's Park we cut across the tiltyard of Whitehall Palace where Henry the 8th hosted tournaments during his reign. The former palace was once the primary residence of the monarchy. Ringing the yard, we saw the massive stands from which thousands of spectators watched the royal wedding cars and carriages pass through the Horse Guards gateway. Although we could walk through the arched opening, only a monarch is actually allowed to drive through it. The stands will remain in place for the 2012 Olympics and will be the site of the volleyball matches. Passing through the gateway towards the front entrance of Downing Street, we stumbled upon the Households Cavalry. These are the most elite and historic members of the British Army. There are two regiments known as the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals. They that can be identified by the color of their ornate uniforms. We arrived just in time to see a display of the Blues and Royals.


The Jihadists
Upon arriving we saw a large crowd gathered here as well. As we approached, we saw that the Obama motorcade was just leaving. Cheering crowds once more! And then, after the initial noise from the cheering crowds subsided, we heard the jihadis. At first Luis thought it was the tea party forgetting what country we were in. But then we saw it was a group of people protesting everything western. They had handkerchiefs over their faces, and many anti-Obama signs. Some of the signs read "we will destroy the white house" and death to the crusaders". They were shouting and chanting, most of which we could not understand, except for the occasional jihad, Obama, or Islam reference.


The atmosphere felt safe as they were surrounded by a large contingent of police officers. We decided to walk over in front of where they were protesting for a closer look. We were surprised by a couple of things. First, there were no anti-jihadi protesters. We thought that to be strange. No one yelling back? In the states you would have some hecklers. Maybe the British are too polite. Second, we saw a lot of passer-bys stopping to pick up their pamphlets and take pictures with them. This was a little disturbing. Especially, when you know what they mean by jihad. We too took some photos along with some of the journalists. No doubt there were secret police and CIA doing the same.  Luis protested their protest by walking past, arms held high flashing the peace sign. Although trying to seem intimidating, most of the jihadists brought to mind the movie 4 lions. They seemed sort of ignorant and misdirected. If you haven't seen the film you must watch it as it is very funny and comes across as a pretty accurate portrayal.

Having had a weeks worth of excitement in the last few hours, we decided to leave the area and head back to the flat. Before turning into for the night we had a drink with Ralph at The Duke a local pub down the road from their flat.


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