The end of daylight savings time meant we were given an extra hour for our surfing and general puttering. It was a beautiful clear day, if not a little windy. We were out the door and headed to Hyde Park to explore a park a bit. The park was fairly manicured, lots of cut grass and golden-leafed trees. We grabbed a couple of hot dogs and took a stroll through the park. Lots of folks out, cycling and roller-blading, child playing and dog frolicking.

It looked to be an overcast, drizzly day when we awoke, but nevertheless, we had a plan. After a little surfing, we soon ventured off the beaten path to an area of town we hadn’t yet seen. In the Monmouth Coffee Company’s newsletter, they’d mentioned that on Saturdays, the location where they do their roasting is open to the public, in conjunction with Neil’s Yard (the fabulous cheesemonger). So we trekked out to Maltby Street, so D could buy some beans to take back with him.

The morning began quietly, although we didn’t end up going to the British Library as usual. We puttered around the hotel, using the WiFi in the lounge and getting ourselves ready for the day. We headed out around noon via the tube to St. Paul’s station to visit the cathedral. We stopped in at a little café for a snack and an Americano before wandering through the churchyard to the entrance. It’s a large, imposing structure, and D commented that it looked much less ornate than the Gothic cathedrals. We headed in and soon discovered, much to my dismay, that no photographs were allowed inside.

We had a good start, getting up and out the door to be at the British Library when it opened (9:30am). It was amusing to see a line up going in when we arrived, but we managed to grab comfy seats with outlets. We toiled away for a few hours before heading out to enjoy the sunshine. D wanted to head back to the Monmouth Coffee shop for a wee dram of delicious espresso, so we tubed over to the Seven Dials area. We stopped in at a fancy French restaurant in Covent Garden that had gotten good reviews to make a reservation for Friday night before walking up to the coffee shop.

With a few butterflies about my meetings with the UCL folk, I decided to quell my anxieties by doing a little bit of shopping. D stayed behind and went to the British Library to get in his requisite morning of work. I’d done a rather geeky thing before I left Vancouver and purchased a “Street Sensation Guide”, which had a very thorough mapping of all the shopping districts in London. So with my handy guide in hand, I figured I’d start off by heading to the Bond St. tube station and checking out the Marylebone High Street area.

Being the industrious folks we are, we started our day with a few hours at the British Library and got some work in. D was feeling a little disappointed in his overall progress on his conclusion, but I assured him we’d have plenty of opportunities for more work. After making a quick stop at the hotel to drop off our things, we were soon on the tube, headed towards Charing Cross for a visit to the National Gallery, one of the museums we didn’t get a chance to see on our last visit to London.

It was a nice ride through the country roads for another half hour, stopping only once in the village of Bulmor (at which point the bus actually had to do a 3-point turn in order to turn around and continue on its way). After a long narrow road and passing under two rather impressive gates, we arrived at a handsome looking building, which we discovered was actually the stables and carriage house for Castle Howard.

After settling in, we braved the mist and set out to explore the town. York definitely was a change a pace from Edinburgh, feeling distinctly smaller and less hectic. It was not long before we were faced with the utterly massive York Minster…I had not realized the scale of it, it’s huge! There was a large memorial service taking place, so we decided to save the inside tour for another day. We wandered through the largely pedestrian streets that were just packed with shops, mostly commercial with some mom-and-pop ones thrown in as well.

It’s a profoundly daunting feeling, setting off for a trip to Europe, not only because I know I’ve spent the last month or two organizing it, but also because it’s Europe, so I’ve been planning it, in essence, for most of my life. I’m normally a person who will freely profess to taking a ‘low expectation approach’ to life–traveling may be the one thing I set my bar fairly high for.