The lesson for today was "What is a constitutional monarchy?" Gord and I took a tour of the Palace of Westminster/Houses of Parliament, led by a very entertaining docent. We learned about Gothic revival architecture and the young 23-year-old designer Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin who was selected by the architect Sir Charles Barry to do the interior design of the new buildings after the original Palace was destroyed by fire in 1834. (My designing daughter who just happens to be 23 might find this particularly interesting, right Katie?) The interior is just amazing, possibly even more so than the exterior, from the floors to the ceilings. We started from Victoria Tower to the Queen's Robing Room, through the Royal Gallery, the Prince's Chamber, the Chamber of the House of Lords, the Central Lobby, House of Commons, Members' Lobby, St. Stephen's Chapel, and Westminster Hall (which survived the fire), all the while learning about how a bill is passed; the Hansard Reporters who document everything that is said each day and have it printed up by early the next morning; the role of the monarch and her once-a-year speech from the elaborate throne in the House of Lords on the first day of the new parliamentary session (November); the ritual of the Black Rod who goes down the long hallway through the Central Lobby to the House of Commons to summon the members of the House of Commons to this speech, only to have the door slammed in his face and not opened until he knocks on it with his staff of office, all this to symbolize their independence. (Now that was a long sentence!) There was a lot more but I'll spare you.

I keep thinking that the days on our roof are coming to an end, but today turned out to be beautiful and I spent an hour up there reading and taking these pictures.

We had planned to go to a free concert to see Amjad Ali Khan at Queen Elizabeth Hall, but we have a big day tomorrow and we decided to pass on it. In case you're wondering, he is a master of Indian classical music who plays the sarod, a type of lute. Correction: In doing this blog I was checking my Time Out magazine and just noticed that this concert was LAST night. It's a good thing we decided not to go tonight after all.