7-3-09

Today Brian gave me the day off—or rather, gave me the option of riding to a neighboring town with he and Sigrid and exploring the town while they collected money for Amnesty International or going on my own to Exeter (another neighboring city with a very old history). I chose the later. But before that I went with Annie to have lunch with her son's family at their home. There are four children, the second to youngest quickly informed me that in England trousers are what Americans call pants, and if I say pants, to them it means underpants. Then he whispered in his granny's ear, “Do you like Martha better than the other Americans that stayed with you?” To which she answered, “Yes, quite!” (I had already been informed that the last Americans Annie had had staying with her were teenage girls—no wonder she liked me better). The children were quite delightful and we had a nice lunch. Then I caught a ride to Exeter with Annie as she was taking her youngest grandchild to the movies there. Exeter was full of people and streets lined with modern city shops—including a McDonald's and a Burger King—and I was beginning to regret coming until I found the old Roman wall running through the city and followed it to a huge cathedral with the longest unbroken stretch of medieval gothic vaulting in the world. There was some kind of service going on at the time but it was still open to the public so my look around was accompanied by some beautiful organ and choir music that reverberated throughout the whole place!

Stay tuned... My next entry will cover some of the study/learning from yesterday which was in preparation for another long trip this Tuesday covering biographical material from Hardy's life which greatly influenced his prolific work as a poet. I know you can't wait!