Sunday and Monday

Sorry for the delay....Sunday was Haley's birthday so we did only what she wanted.  This involved shopping and eating.  Al brought us to to primark - a mix of Walmart and forever 21.  We liked the clothes okay, but not the atmosphere.  On to Westfield shopping center in london.  I have seen my share of shopping malls, but nothing compares to this one.  I've never seen so many stores and so many different kinds of people in one place.  London is extremely diversified.  Haley had a great time, and found a couple good pieces to take back.  Then we fought a little traffic and made our way to Al's parents for roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.  Delicious and lots of laughs.  Somehow I have an 18 year old daughter.  I'm not sure how time went by so quickly.

A little bit of a rough start his morning.  Some difficulty figuring out the nav system in our fancy rental car.  Heehee......it's a Mercedes e class and way more complicated than anything we've ever driven. Some difficulty figuring out how to get to Westminster Abbey via the train system.  Team Quinlan got out the door and arrived at the train station, parked, got in line and watched the train pull away.  

No worries, there's another in 30 minutes.  I don't know why I didn't think it was this train, sitting right here that would be the next to go but when another train pulled up 28 minutes later we went to get on, and this train pulled away.  We weren't on it.  

30 minutes later, we left with the third train.  

An hour later we arrived with all of london.  How many people does this place hold?  Had lunch and made our way through the throngs to Westminster.  

Have to walk past this guy.  He's pretty cool, too.

Just about there......

I love these post boxes.

Westminster is an extraordinary place.  No pictures are allowed in the inside, which is terribly unfortunate.  Most monarchs are buried here, as well as some of the most influential people in history.  Funny, the narrator on the audio guide was Jeremy Irons.

Made our way down the street to Buckingham Palace. 

Ventured our way to the tube, since Haley's hip hurt by now and found our way to Kensington where we would be seeing the Proms.  Stopped for dinner at a Lebanese restaurant, and made the mistake of sitting outside where we froze.  Poor Sean's lips turned blue until we moved next to the building where there were heaters.  He put the scarf on his head to try and get warmer.  Silly boy will remember a sweatshirt next time.

Next, it's to royal Albert Hall for the Proms concert.  

Behind my family is the royal conservatory of music.

Inside, it's amazing.  The sound is incredible and the orchestra is fantastic.  On the program was a piece by Boulez, which was strange but interesting.  An awful violin concerto premiere.  18 minutes of too-intellectual nonsense to the ears.   We were rewarded with The Planets.  It was inspiring and bucket-list worthy.  Thank you to my dear friend, Ali Bowen-Davies for making it happen and treating us to the experience.

Tower of London tomorrow!