By God and Saint Alban!

After raining for the entire month of July and some of August, the weather here has finally turned sunny in a way that only England can. My friend B. and I took a short train ride to the medieval city of St. Alban's in Hertfordshire. We walked around the city, which has some amazing Tudor buildings like the one on the right. There was a city-wide farmer's market in the city centre, so B. and I picked up some freshly pickled herrings from the fishmonger to go with our lunch of bread and cheese.

Then we made our way to the Cathedral, which boasts some of the biggest remaining English wall paintings (from the 13th century!), which are still visible. We spent a few hours wandering around the Cathedral, which has served as a hub for so much medieval history. The Magna Carta was first read at St. Albans; Matthew Paris, a famous medieval illuminator lived in the Abbey; the Peasant's Revolt in 1381 was led in part by men from St. Albans. To say nothing of Saint Alban himself!

After our tour of the city, we started our 10 mile walk, which was the main reason we visited St. Albans in the first place! Our walk took us through the forest outside of St. Albans and through the property of a manor house and to the ruins of Old Gorhambury House where Sir Francis Bacon lived and Queen Elizabeth I visited. We sampled some of the best blackberries I've had since I've been here (yum!) and saw many wild pheasants and a whole herd of black sheep!

It was a long, but satisfying day that ended with a big group of friends meeting at a local Ethiopian place for a veritable feast!