Buckingham Visit

Saturday proved to be an excellent Autumn day and we made plans to nip down to London. This was the last weekend that Buckingham Palace State Rooms were to be open for tours so we thought we better jump at the chance. We had never taken trains from Newmarket (closest stop for us) so we decided to start our journey there. With our rail card, we get cheaper tickets when we travel. It is amazing how many tourists are there at the end of September (oops, we are included in that tourist hoard). It was a most excellent day. In addition to the State Rooms, we saw the Queen's Gallery which had some amazing art. Maggie's favourite part was the Royal Mews. This is where they keep the cars, carriages, horses, and other parts of the wheeled fleet for the royal family. We also were able to see the changing of the guards which was quite a spectacle.

As is typical with our adventures, we tend to stumble onto the unexpected. We were in search of a quick bite as we had 45 minutes before our admission to the Queen's Gallery.

We ducked into one of the back streets of London and stumbled into a sandwich shop. Two sisters ran the place and we had a nice chat with them as we ordered. The kids saddled up onto a window

seat for their jacket potatoes and ham and cheese toasties. Mom and Dad had a little lunch date at one of the corner tables. We had noticed pictures of Pete Sampras on the wall (signed and all) and when one of the sisters stopped to chat, we asked her about it. She shared that when Pete was on his stretch of Wimbledon dominance, he stayed at a hotel just down from the shop.

He came in every morning for breakfast and the sister's father made Pete's lunch every day. After a couple of years, others joined the mix and it reached a stage where they were feeding a number of the Wimbledon players. It was really a nice little side treat.