oops, my keyboard got unplugged so this is actually just a continuation of the last entry.....


It was a beautiful service but the room was very echoey and I couldnt understand the words because nearly the entire mass was sung. Although, Unlike Notre Dame, there were not tourists milling about the entire time. In fact, they only let you in if you were there to attend service (I thought this was a good thing).

After mass, we started to walk. Our plan was to walk across town (far across town) to Harrods for cheddar cheese. Coming from Madison, Wisconsin I feel that I have a pretty good appreciation for such things and so when I was told by Tony ( a man I met at dinner the the thursday before) that cheddar came from England and Harrods was the place to go, it was a must on the list. So we walked. But as we were going down the street, I saw coming on a bicicyle a man. Yet this was no ordinarily dressed man. In fact, he was not dressed at all. And then another, and another and...there must have been ove a thousand of them, coming down the street escorted by police on either side. Some wore various skimpy articles of clothing but for the most part, they were bare naked from head to toe. Liz and I were stunned and as we watched we talked to a London couple who even themselves were amazed.

Nothing could top this on the trip to Harrods for crazy t hings seen. However, we did see the changing of the guards (I think) at the national treasury, but it was unlike anything I have seen of the wort before and was very loud and ruccousy. After this we walked back past Buckingham Palace and through St. James Park before happenning on, yet again, the brigade of naked biker. This time they had stopped and were gathered about some monuments. Being adventurous, we decided to walk straight through. It really was bizzarre and is difficult to describe as being anything than a swarm of naked people. Although I would have many apprehensions about doing something like that, escpecially in a city, I do think there is an upside in the fact that pickpockets would have a very hard time with me :)

Walking past some more parks and some very very "posh" shops we made it to Harrods and "oh my God" it was amazing inside. Liz and I agreed we could both lose all our money here if we had to because it had so many great things from shopping (very expensive) to chocolate (very expensive) to coffee (very expensive) to tea (very ...). So after some browsing we went to the cheese place and bought two nice cuts of cheese to be eaten later. Although the samples she gave us were absolutely splendid and almost succeeded in making me weak at the knees.

Leaving, we walked a bit down the road and found a small English pub. So, until the pictures are here, picture for yourself the most stereotypical little English pub where everyone seems to know everyone and its smaller than a dorm room and you could swear that it had not changed anything since the turn of the century and you have yourself our pub. I loved it and having a hot plate of Shepherds pie and a tall English beer I really felt like I was in London. And best of all, outside, gathered, was a small group of the naked bike brigade. Who would have thought. We had found an afterparty.

Walking some more, we crossed theThames and were going to go to an outdoor movie but a slight miscalculation landed us very far away. So we walked nearly the entire length of the Thames seeing everything there was to see, including the Globe theatre where we agreed to go to a show the next day. We then took a rest when we saw the London Bridge, making it to where the movie was supposed to show a bit later, but as our good luck for the day had run out, there was no movie. so, sitting by the Thames, Liz and I ate our cheese and crackers and relaxed, we were exhausted. We ended up getting back to her place at nearly 12 and went straight to sleep. An amazing day I must say.