London getaway

We are enjoying a couple of days in London, starting with an outing last night to the Royal Albert Hall to see one of the Proms. 

We chose number 66 and the highlight was watching the conductor, Karina Cannelakis.

We sat in the choir seats so the orchestra had their backs to us, but we saw every move that she made. She leapt about for the whole show and must have been exhausted by the end. Of the three pieces one was truly awful, but she managed to make even that one 'interesting'.

Today we were up early for a run along the Thames and then my choice of a visit to the Garden Museum at Lambeth Palace. 

Fortunately we had half price tickets as it did not live up to it's billing online. You had to laugh though, and we did climb the tower to see the view from the top.

The door to the spiral staircase was worrying tiny

and I was quite dizzy by the top. 

Most of the museum was set inside a deconsecrated church next door to the Archbishop of Canterbury's place, and after the view, my next best thing was a lovely greenhouse.

Onwards then, to Darren's choice of Westminster Abbey, where we also had two for the price of one tickets courtesy of our train company.

This was totally amazing and the main body of the building was exactly as seen on the TV.

However, the surprise was the huge number of statues, plaques and gravestones depicting royalty and famous people throughout the last 700 years.

After a couple of hours break we set off again for the Royal Albert Hall and this time saw the famous violinist, Nicola Benedetti.

Another rather weird choice of music, and it almost seems as if the Proms are going out of their way to put on 'challenging' events.