I’m not going to turn this into a full travel write-up (she says in the first sentence of what will probably turn into a travelogue), but I’ll hit the highlights:
Second day in London – totally awesome. We had breakfast near the hotel and then walked all of 50 steps over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. So very impressive. (Sadly, there was no bird lady and there were only a few birds. I didn’t do any singing there.) We decided not to go in and do the whole cathedral, though. £15 apiece seemed a little steep, and we knew we’d be seeing plenty of churches and cathedrals during the week. From there, we walked across the Millenium Bridge (where I did do some singing – we saw a guy selling the world’s smallest kites, so I sang “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”) and over to the Globe Theatre. Signed up for a tour, watched a Brazilian troupe rehearsing for a matinee of Romeo and Juliet (in Portuguese, and the play had been interpreted for Brazilian culture – lots of singing, some dancing, and a station wagon as part of the set. It was crazy.).
From there, we crossed back over the Thames on the Tower Bridge, walked around the Tower of London (we visited during our honeymoon eleven and a half years ago – no time on Saturday), got some ice cream, and headed back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and head back to Heathrow to meet Mom and Dad. We got there right on time and drove to Chipping Campden to settle in to our cottage for the rest of the week.
The cottage is adorable. Two rooms on the main floor (sitting room with a fireplace, kitchen in the back), one bedroom and bathroom on the first floor, and another bedroom and bathroom on the second floor (where John and I are staying). Very cozy. So cozy, in fact, that we can hear every word spoken in the house from anywhere in the house. We didn’t realize that until around midnight Saturday night, when John and I found we were listening to Mom talk to Corey on the phone. We found out the next morning that she’d been on the ground floor, not the first floor, the whole time. So we’ve instituted a whisper rule for bedtime (barring phone calls home, of course, because whispering on the phone is kind of stupid). Actually, we have yet to try out this whisper rule, since this is only our second night and we haven’t gone to bed yet. I’ve instituted it – it remains to be seen if anyone else has. Best part about the cottage? The internet. It’s reliable. Unbelievable.
This morning (Sunday for those keeping track) – no, it wasn’t morning. We had a hard time getting moving today. In the early afternoon, we went to Hidcote, which has a wonderfully long rambling garden. It was chilly, so we came back to the cottage for lunch/afternoon tea, and then we went out to check out the church. St. James’ Church is a real medieval church, and, since we have perfect timing, we stayed for the Evensong service this evening. That was a) my first Church of England service, and b) a real church service in a medieval church. The priest was charming and old (and spoke with a pronounced lisp), and the 10 other members of the congregation (we all sat in the choir – the church itself was empty) were all friendly. The priest was thrilled to see new faces. There was more singing than I expected during the service – I didn’t think the Anglicans did that much singing.
Tomorrow, John and I are planning a trip to Oxford. It’s late (last night it was midnight (close to 1? I don’t remember) before we went to bed, and it’s already after eleven now), and we’re getting up early.
One of the many different views at Hidcote