London, England

I can't believe that a week ago we were in Michigan! It seriously seems like a lifetime ago! We've landed in the U.K. and are settling in nicely. We've voyaged outside our apartment building quite a bit and are getting comfortable. Well, until it's luggage time again!  Last night was Dress Rehearsal at the Royal Albert Hall. This theatre is one of the most beautiful, breathtaking, and magnificent halls I've ever been in. Before the show, Sophie was chosen to be the ballerina on stage, so two-thirds of the people living in this apartment have performed on stage at the Royal Albert Hall. This is amazing to me! I even managed to snap a (not so good) picture as proof! The show was wonderful and the music was so rich and so full. Jim's bass trombone parts especially made my eyes water. The bottom end (trombone and bass parts in particular) were like honey. The acoustics in this place are amazing. If you ever have the chance to see ANYTHING here, please do so! Before heading to the theater, we HAD to have some fish n chips (YUM!), and we rode the tube with Jim to work and then walked around. We snapped a few pictures of the signage announcing KOOZA's arrival and we even saw a KOOZA cab! (I've been trying like mad to get a shot, but thanks to the band's drummer Ben for letting me post his picture instead!) Over in the museum district there was another outside ice skating rink (with penguins for the learners) and a carousel that Sophie insisted we ride. 

 














Today, we wanted to go ice skating (or Eyeskating as they called it) since tomorrow was the last day it would be set up at the London Eye. We ended up not having enough time to ride it, since Jim had a show to do tonight. It's definitely on our to-do list. Jim and Sophie had a nice time skating. They even had little seals to help the younger kids learn to skate. Afterwards we had a hot dog and looked at Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Sophie liked the clock tower especially when it BONGed three times.  She has a thing for clocks lately (cuckoo clocks at Grandma and Grandpa Lutz's house, and the clock in Cinderella, mostly). Then Jim had to leave for work and we took the tube ("Mind the Gap.") all by ourselves, like grown ups. I am pretty proud of myself for not getting lost!*

*Even though it was only two stops and no transfers. But who is counting anyway? ;)