Day 2--Saints and Sinners

I had a big day today, which means tired feed, sore legs, and a stiff neck. Mainly I saw the Tower of London and Westminster Abby.

I take the train from Penge to Victoria Station, and I decided to hang out in the station a while and have a cup of coffee and read the paper. How often do you suppose there is Oregon news in a London newspaper? Pretty, cool, no?

When I was finished with my coffee and my Crispy Crème donut (my first, by the way), I gathered up my trash to throw it away. I walked around and around but saw no sign of a trash can. I finally asked an official-looking person who told me there weren’t any trash cans, just guys driving around bins. He told me to leave my trash (or rubbish, as they say) on the floor. I thought that was strange, but the station did look nice without any trash cans or trash. It was amazingly clean.

I was also surprised at the size of the Tower of London. I thought it was just a, well, a tower, but it’s like a campus, with lawns and everything. There were some pretty creepy things there, and a lot of history. I’m glad I read all those books about English history before I came. I feel like a more informed tourist.

Westminster Abbey was amazing, but I especially liked the Poets’ Corner. That was the part I went to see. It was amazing to see the graves of all those great authors there, like Dickens, all the Brontes, T. S. Eliot, Lewis Carroll, and on and on. There were even memorials to a few American authors, like Henry James.

And now to prove to you that I am really here—

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to try to go see the Chelsea Flower Show. Since I'm lucky enough to be here while It's going on, I figure I should check it out. The Queen of England went on Sunday (and I'm not talking about Elton John, as the tour guide described him).