London - Back to the Mad House, and on to Bath

Thursday, June 8th was a transitional day. We checked out of Cecil Court and back into the Madison House. In the morning, I worked on the laundry, while Vee had some time to herself in the room to get ready and pack her things. After stuffing the washer, I speed walked to McDonalds for a quick egg mcmuffin, hash brown and oj, then hustled back to put the clean laundry in the dryer. Then, a bit before checkout time, and before the clothes were dry, I went to the hotel room, and helped check out, then Vee and I both went to gather, fold, and pack our newly clean clothes. With our bags full, we walked to the cafe and relaxed there for a bit, before taking the tube over to check in at the Mad House and drop off the bags, then on over to visit Westminster Abbey. The entry fees, when converted to dollars, to get into these places is ridiculous. The signs they post outside, telling you that they are self-funding and not supported by "the crown" don't help, at least in my opinion, and it sure doesn't generate any sympathy. Anyway, once inside the Abbey, I believe the same strange thoughts and feelings came over me before, when I first visited as an undergrad: respectful revulsion. Although I recognize that many amazing people had contributed greatly to the many causes of Britain, and deserve to be honored and remembered for their efforts, I was equally disgusted with the lengths Britain has taken to deify these people, especially those who contributed militariliy to the empire. Given the state of affairs in the world right now, and the unified unilateral position the U.S. and England has backed itself into in Iraq, I was obviously particularly sensitive to the overwhelming royalist monumentalism on display here in the famous abbey "of coronations". Vee and I had a very engaging conversation about this in the apse, which we continued afterwards. After rounding many tombs of kings, queens, nobles, knights, saints, and monuments to every other notable historical politico imaginable, we made our way outside for a soft ice cream before heading to Picadilly for Waterstones, our favorite book store. We happily poked around for a while, and although I found a whole slew of books that I wanted, I bought none, since I was nearing completion of "Memorial Day" by Vince Flynn, and needed to work more on my epic "London", but Vee found one that she was excited about. We took a break in the cafe for some coffees and sandwiches, and read and talked. After a while, we began our walk back to the Mad House, and shared a delicious Dionysus fish and chips along the way, and stopped for a few refreshments at a grocery that we brought back to the room with us.

Friday, the 9th, we day-tripped to Bath. Our BritRail FlexPass was not valid for the entire journey out, but since no one took notice, it worked there and back. First though, we had our traditional morning machiatos at Costa Cafe where we talked and read before taking the tube to Paddington Station where our train would depart. With some help from the information desk, we found our platform, and boarded for the 90 minute ride. We shared a bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese. Once there, we bought a little map, and made our way towards the Roman Baths and Pump House, stopping in to see the Sally Lunns museum for the oldest house in Bath, and bakery, famous for its roman-style buns. Then, over to the baths for a visit that was very enlightening and interesting. The baths themselves must have been fantastic back in the days of the Romans. We did the audio tour, and took our time reading most of the wall-mounted explanations as well. Then, we just strolled through the charming town full of high end clothing and shoe stores, boutiques, hair stylists, restaurants, cafes, etc. We stopped into a very well done "media" store full of CDs, DVDs and books. I thinked it was called "FOPP". We also popped into a little cafe tucked away upstairs inside of a large department store where we had an "afternoon tea" for the first time, sharing finger sandwiches, tea, and biscuits with clotted cream and strawberry preserves. They were running a two for one special, so the price was right too. From there, we gawked some more around town, then thanks to the visitor information center, we were directed to the Pig and Fiddle Pub to watch Germany open up the world cup with a 4-2 victory over Costa Rica. Then, at the train station, we shared some tomato and cheese baguettes while waiting for our train that was about 45 minutes late. We had to squeeze into our seats, apparently unsettling some jerk and his girlfriend across from us, who didn't feel like moving their feet to let us in. Nice. Anyway, the train ride was otherwise uneventful, and we made it back to the mad house for the night.