Day 7 August 13 2001

Today was our first real sightseeing day, a welcome relief from the stresses and strains of the past week. We went first to the castle of Acton Burnell, the site of the first unified parliament of Britain. The site itself was mostly unimpressive. A great shell of a building on the grounds of an international school. What impressed upon my mind most was the great cedar trees that grew on the compound. One was almost too high to be measured, soaring far above the castles battlements, with a single branch that was large enough to cover the whole castle in its shade.

It was humbling; a castle raised by the sweating toil of hundreds, crumbling to nothing, while next to it grew, effortlessly, a single tree, to even greater heights, as if to mock the efforts of man.



From Acton we traveled to the ancient Roman center of Virconium. I discovered that my studies had led me to approach such things in a new fashion. While all about me people meandered about the picturesque ruins of the great bath, immediately I was drawn to the stacked tiles of the caldarium. It was as if by a perfect understanding of the minute details of a site the whole would be reconstituted.


A small problem arose while we were here. Dad has aquired an unfortunate habit of starting to drive away before everyone is entirely in the car. There are so many things to see that he is understandably in a bit of a hurry, but I would like to begin cycling with all limbs still attached.

Once the sightseeing was done Heather and I decided to test out our bikes in preparation for the trip ahead.

 
Everyone had some helpful advice, or wise words to add to our planning, until everything was a cacaphony of confusion. We decided to put things away for a calmer day, and went to the neighbourhood pub, the Bottle and Glass, to wash away the dust of the day.

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