Google and Buckingham Palace

This past Saturday, Riya and I finally got a peak at the elusive Google offices here!

It was another beautiful day and so we headed out to 123 Buckingham Palace to check out Ram's office. After running into a few public transportation glitches (not 1 but 2 buses terminated early and then we just had to walk), we finally arrived at the front steps.

At the moment there are 4 Google offices in London. Plans are underway to combine all of the offices into one building. Apparently, the recent plans were not good enough and they are back to the drawing board! Only the best for the best! The London office is one of the top offices next to Mountainview and New York. The facilities all vary slightly but it's all there- nap pods, ping pong tables, fuse ball, lounge and snack areas, and who can forget about all the yummy gourmet food. Of course the London office would not be complete without a red telephone booth! Sadly, I did not get to eat there but in the next month or so, Riya and I will have a lunch date with Ram. 

Riya caught sight of a balloon early on during Ram's tour, so she got side tracked and was really upset when the balloon just disappeared...hee hee. We weren't sure if pictures were allowed, so I just snapped a few, but these are pretty representative.

One of the many cafeterias on site

Gaming area 

Lounge area

It was cool to see where all the cool stuff happens!  Afterwards we walked over to Buckingham Palace. Because, well, it's right there. How lucky is Ram?! Now that I think about it, lunch dates will be mandatory so we can increase our chances of seeing the Royal family!

Anyway, as we got closer to the Palace, we saw mobs and mobs of people. Apparently I got my dates mixed up because they were all there to witness the Changing of the Guards. We didn't have a good view since we arrived late to the party so we decided to just snap a few pics and skip out. I don't mind saving this bit for when we have guests in town:) I have to say, Riya's future home is really pretty!!!

It was so hard to get a good shot of the guards. They look so tiny next to the Palace!