Monday: Cambridge yesterday. A nice train ride and decent weather most of the way. We did have to run to make our connection to Peterborough. Michelle was not happy. The train certainly took it's time getting there, so I don't know why it should have been late, but the British Rail system is not what it once was apparently.
We were able to stay with someone - a friend of a friend from Eugene. Her name was Beatrice, and though she's lived in Cambridge for over 30 years, she's still very much Italian. She took us around the city though almost everything was closed up because we arrived in the afternoon and it was Remembrance Sunday (like our Veteran's Day).
Beatrice is a great host. She fed us and doted on us - lots of laughs. We went to St. John's for vespers. Good choir and a decent sermon but nothing overwhelming. I confess I am not a great fan of the English boys choir - but they do make a beautiful sound that is magical in a stone chapel.
How to sum up Cambridge. That's tricky. I imagine if you went to school there or taught at the University it would be a great place to live. I don't know that I would want to live there if I didn't. I got a sense that it is definitely a place of insiders and outsiders.
Off to Caridff today. Made our trains and actually ate lunch by 1 PM. I haven't noted this, but eating lunch is an achievement we have been unable to fulfill until today. Things keep getting in the way. We've found ourselves typically not eating until two or even three and Friday we skipped out on lunch all together to get up to Hadrian's Wall. We don't go anywhere until Thursday this week, so hopefully we'll get a chance to have a more normal routine, maybe even get to sleep in once. You are supposed to sleep in on vacation, right? We'll see.
Brennen
Tuesday: Train to Birmingham was crowded. We were lucky to get a seat because there were people standing in the aisles for Peterborough and one other stop. We were able to use our Railway passes all the way to Cardiff, which was nice since we would have paid over 40 pounds each for a ticket because we didn't book them in advance.
Birmingham to Cardiff was a breeze and we took a taxi to Ken and Suzanne's. Suzanne made a great dinner and I met Emma who is my singing colleague for this performance, even though we never actually sing together for this piece.
Ken arrived at 7 AM yesterday morning and we decided to put off the planned rehearsal until this evening. We are staying with Jaime and Anna since Ken's guest room didn't get finished yet. Jaime is from the US originally and has been living in the UK for about 7 years. He introduced us to the most sacred of British television programming: the panel show. Apparently this is as popular as the police procedural is in the US. They can be hit and miss, but a fair bit of the comedy goes by us because we don't know the references.
Today we'll stroll around Cardiff, visit the castle, the cathedral, the arcade markets and the Dr. Who museum, then back to Jaime's for rehearsal around 5. Then I'm off to SW London tomorrow for another rehearsal.
Brennen
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