Pottering about

This morning the cafe employee at the hotel failed to show, so I ventured out to the only breakfast venue open, McDonald’s, and tried a “cheesy bacon flatbread”. It was OK but not something I’ll be racing back to. Interestingly, there is only a limited menu available due to transport related food shortages. I’m not sure if they are related to Brexit or Covid or both, but there are quite a number of signs in shops and restaurants about unavailable menu items. 

After breakfast I packed up my things and headed to St Albans where I am staying for one night - it’s a convenient pick up point for my lift up to Leeds tomorrow. St Albans is about 40 minutes north of London. It’s a small quintessentially English little town with winding streets, rock walls, lots of green hedges and cute rows of shops and houses. On my walk to look at the Roman hypocaust (really interesting), I saw expensive cars, pure-bred dogs and a lot of poorly maintained houses, which seemed odd given the first two observations. 

I spent the middle of the day at the Harry Potter Studios. It’s only ten minutes from my hotel so it seemed like a good opportunity to see it. For the first time on this trip, face masks were essential to enter, but there were a lot of people without them because they have “exemptions”. The exhibition was pretty impressive and the audio guide had some really interesting “behind the scenes” stories. The great hall, the forbidden Forrest and the Gringotts sets were particularly amazing. 

After checking into my hotel (an “Inn” but actually very nice) I indulged in  a little afternoon pick me up (Rhubarb gin and tonic) before exploring the St Albans Cathedral. It was gorgeous and the organ player was learning some new pieces, creating mood music to add to the experience. There were a number of helpful guides and a charming elderly fellow explained the history to me. The church dates back to 1700 and is the oldest Christian site in England. Walking back through the cobbled streets, I wished I had more time to explore. The weather is glorious and people are sitting outside drinking and dining- after our months of lockdown I was envious.