There’s not a whole lot to say about my activities today. I wandered around Olney for a while this morning and looked inside the church. I was able to eat at the Olney Pancake Parlour as well, which was really tasty. Once my train to London arrived, I started trying to find my way to the hotel I booked this morning. Along the way, I happened upon the British Library, which is approximately the same size as the Library of Congress. I spent a little time in there, got my own library card, and carried on to the hotel. I’ve been relaxing in my nice, air-conditioned (thank goodness) fancy hotel room all evening. I didn’t realize how much I needed that.
The Olney Church
The Olney Church is pretty special. Not only is it where the International Pancake Race originated in 1445, it’s the old church of John Newton, the writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace”. The church has a small exhibit on John Newton, but it didn’t go into much detail about his life or the hymn. He had a very interesting testimony. If you’re interested in reading more, the Amazing Grace Wikipedia page is pretty extensive. I also really enjoy The Bible Project’s brief summary of his story in one of their podcast episodes.
One thing that surprised me about the church was how massive it was. I expected to find a much smaller, small-town church like some of the ones that poke up over the skyline in Ellinwood. Nope. It’s massive! I’m not sure why they don’t just call it a cathedral. Although for such a massive church building, it’s not nearly as ornate as some of the churches I visited in Germany a couple years ago. That said, it’s still a beautiful place to worship in and after my experience at church yesterday, I’m sure the ornamentation that is there is very meaningful.
The Olney Pancake Parlour
Nothing like getting some pancakes in the place where Pancake Day started! They came with sides of bacon, scrambled eggs, and Olney sausage. Man, I wish they’d quit calling it bacon; it gets my hopes up. I wondered if Olney sausage would be anything like Hillsboro sausage. It wasn’t. Even though the flavor was very different, it was still incredibly flavorful and delicious, by far the best thing on my plate. The pancakes cracked me up a little bit though. They were “American style” pancakes, which meant they were extra thick. I’m talking the thickest pancakes I’ve ever eaten. They were honestly about as thick as an average bagel. (I know the picture angle doesn’t look like that but trust me, they’re as tall as the sausage.) I guess if we have London Fog lattes that the Brits have never heard of, it’s fair that they have American Pancakes that we’ve never eaten. Next, I’m probably going to find out that french fries aren’t actually French!
In somewhat similar topic, I did probe a bit today with the locals to see if any of them knew about Liberal. I think I mentioned it to 3 people that I was from there. Two of them didn’t know what I was talking about and the third only understood after I mentioned the Pancake Race competition. I guess it’s just not as big of a deal over here. Crazy. Maybe we should do some reverse colonizing to get a bigger Pancake Day celebration going every year.
London Impressions
I haven’t been around London much yet, but I’m not impressed. It’s loud, busy, and dirty. Basically English New York. Or is York just English New York? Lol. You get what I mean. The one thing it has going for is that people are generally kind when you do talk to them. Everyone is in a huge hurry all the time and they don’t like to be bothered, but I have yet to talk to anyone that wasn’t polite and helpful.
That’s kind of how I feel about all the people over here. They’re very kind if you need to talk to them, just not very social. I’ve heard for years that Americans stand out quite a bit with how willing to small talk they are. Even as an introvert in the US, I feel far under-socialized here. I really appreciate that about our country and Kansas communities; they’re always very warm and conversational, even if it’s exhausting sometimes.
Anyways, back to London. I don’t think I’ll do much poking around. I’ve got a few museums to hit before Grandpa and Grandma get here, but I’m not going to go roaming like I did in the other cities. This one is much to big and busy for that. I’m looking forward the museums and even more so to leaving. On the plus side, I accidentally booked a much nicer (and more expensive) hotel than I realized. So I’ll be living nice and cushy tonight and tomorrow, enjoying the view from my massive corner windows.
Tomorrow
Not really sure what the plan is tomorrow. For sure hitting up one of the other 3 branches of the Imperial War Museum, but I’m not sure which one yet. Maybe I can hit two. I’ll probably spend more time in the hotel since it’s really spacious and private, two things I don’t get much of in the UK. I’m really loving the in-room tea makers. I’m not even a tea drinker but I probably will be before I come home.