LONDON June 18, 2007 11:18 p.m.

A rainy morning in London turned out to be a quite lovely day after all. Despite the constant complaining of the locals about the weather, we think it's great. I think we were nearly the last ones to make it to breakfast this morning before things were put away! It felt so good to sleep in. Breakfast was hearty with lots of choices. We came back to the room and relaxed for a few hours before we were off to Westminister Abbey. We had heard that the Verger Tour was the best if we could make one, and when we got there, I asked a guard about it. He said the last one of the day starts in ten minutes but tickets were selling out fast. We were so lucky to be numbers 21-23 on the 25 persons limited tour. What a great tour it was, too. I loved all the English history, the intricate patterns in the stained glass, and, of course, the finale was Poet's Corner where Geoffrey Chaucer, the Bronte sisters, Keats, Shelley, Longfellow, and so many other English poet greats whose poetry I teach were buried. And there was amazing synchronicity because all of sudden I recognized two of my former students right there on the tour! Ann-Marie Clifford (EPHS class of 2003) and her sister Megan (class of 2005) and their sister Carrie and parents were there and spending two weeks in London.



We laughed and laughed and reminisced when we figured out who each other was. They said they knew it had to be Wally when that woman was wearing a "Carpe Diem" shirt! We even sneaked taking a picture in front of Chaucer's grave! Carina really did not like stepping on the graves, but it was pretty hard to avoid it with over 3,000 royalty and other famous people (Newton and Darwin, too) buried there. Robby made sure to remind her every time she did step on one! We were treated at the end of the tour to the warm-up sounds of the choir getting ready for a 5:00 evensong service.

We walked over to see Big Ben next and then spent the rest of the afternoon at Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden (fun street performers and terrific ice cream), and Harrad's (ouch! with the prices). We wanted to go to the church of St. Martin's in the Field and the London Brass Rubbing Place, but they were closed until the fall for renovation. When we got back to the hotel we turned in early so we could get an early start tomorrow for our tour of Windsor Castle and The Merchant of Venice at the Globe. Fun day! The picture below is of Carina and Robby with a commemorative statue of Abe Lincoln.