Sir Daniel of Hatfield

I now have a new title, but you all can just call me "Sir Daniel". We had a Medieval Feast at Hatfield House last night. It is about an hour and a half north of London so Tony drove us on our Westbus coach. The feast took place in the Great Hall of the Old Palace where Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary and King Edward VI all played as children and where Elizabeth held her first Council meeting when she was informed that she would be the new Queen. It was very dramatic and a wonderful place for a banquet. The food was also very good. It certainly beat what we have been having as "pub grub". It was certainly not traditional Medieval food and we appreciated our knives and forks. As a part of the program "Henry VIII" and then "Elizabeth I" called people from the audience to show some of the things that had occurred in that hall. I was call and knighted into the "Order of the Garter" and I have the certificate (and garter) to prove it. I won't go into what I had to do to earn that position but there are photos floating around (unfortunately). The students were is shock that their quiet "attract no attention" professor played along on the stage throughout the entire "knighting" procedure.

Today was the Lord Mayor's Show, and we took in all of it. We were some of the first on the street and we found our old favorite place on Cheapside (from A Knight's Tale fame) in front of Starbucks. The parade takes several hours to pass and included everything from accordion bands to tanks and dogs. At the end comes the new Lord Mayor of London in the fabulous coach that is usually in the Museum of London. Last time we saw the parade, Ian and I went up to the guildhall and got to go all around the coach and take his picture beside it. This year they had it stored away behind glass before the parade. I guess the bombing here really made an impact on security. It was a fun parade. We explored around until the fireworks over the River Thames. Those were also great but I have never seen so many people. Keri and I decided to walk home instead of getting on the Underground or a bus with all the multitude. Ian had gone to a play and to the park with Amy and the crowd was to great to meet them like we had planned.