is the lord mayor santa?

This Saturday was the Lord Mayor's Show in London. I don't understand all of the politics of having a Lord Mayor of London, and a Mayor of London, and the positions not being the same, but it meant there was a parade, which I understood completely. The parade was much longer than we expected, but it was really neat. There were bunches of marching bands and floats, all representing aspects of London. We kept joking about the parade, and comparing it to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We would laughingly look for Garfield balloons, and we discussed the thought of the parade ending with Santa. There was no Santa, but the parade ended with the Lord Mayor himself, riding up the street in the really elaborate carriage seen below.

There were fireworks on the Thames river in the evening, then I walked around down near Westminster. It's such a nice area lit up at night. It was quite crowded, though. I think many people had the same idea. But it was pretty to see it all, and it wasn't too cold, which was nice.

Today, some of us decided to have a tourist afternoon and explore some of the more touristy areas of the city. We went to Kings Cross station to attempt to get pictures at Platform 9 3/4. When I was in London a few years ago the display was not actually in between platforms 9 and 10, but it was inside of the station. The sign is now outside of the station in what appears to be a construction corner. Not the real thing. I'm sure I would have successfully gotten to Hogwarts if I had been able to get to the real platform...

We the wet to Abbey Road to see the recording studios. We had debated getting a picture at the cross walk, but we quickly realized how obnoxious it was for all of the drivers to be interrupted by the crowds of tourists. We may return in an evening to get a picture when traffic is down, but we did not want to cause any more annoyances on the road today. Instead we just took pictures in front of the studio.

It was a gorgeous day in London. It felt like mid-October. The leaves are changing colors and falling, and I wore a light sweater and was fine. I was glad to be able to explore some. It was a wonderful London weekend.