ELY

Germany didn't work out for today, but I have firm tickets for Friday morning. Will head to London tomorrow for the day and then fly from London to Dusseldorf Friday morning then a 4 hour train ride to Berlin Friday Afternoon.

Today we decided to brave the buses once again and lit off for ELY-- the second smallest town in England with a rather large and rather impressive Cathedral. Even having it navigated the buses once, it was still less than efficient. I'd say Ely is a bit further than Cambridge, but it still took us 2.5 hours to get there.

Aside from the Cathedral, Ely's claim to fame is that Oliver Cromwell grew up there.
The ride to Ely was very pretty, took us right through Newmarket, England's horse country, past race tracks and training grounds like the ones I'd imagine you'd see in Kentucky.

The ride was also interesting because early on the driver stopped and got out of the bus to move a garbage can out of the road, later when we in Newmarket he stopped and waited until the horses looped to the far side of the track, presumably not to spook them with the bus's acceleration. CAn't imagine bus drivers anywhere in the states would do anything of the kind. By and large everyone is very polite and yes, "cheerio" really is a part of the daily vocabulary.

Forcast for London tomorrow is 71 and only a 20% chance of rain. Will be very windy, but I'll take a dry 71 with wind over a wet 61 with wind (like today) anytime. I'm rather tired of being damp and cold, even if I'm not cold, I'm still not quite warm. The thing that baffles me, however, is that I've browsed through a few stores and the stock is all summer wardrobe-- tank tops, skirts, shorts, t-shirts-- the people on the streets aren't wearing jackets and the babies-- they're everywhere but very few babies have hata on their heads. How do you not put a hat on your baby when it's cold, damp, and blustery outside?