First Day in the Office

View along Fishpool Street

I woke up at 7am to start my first working day in the UK.  According to Google Maps if I followed the streets it was 1.2 miles to the office.  I had heard that there was a shortcut "through" the park.  So after eating a "Full English" I started the walk to the office.

I headed up Fishpool Street looking for the park.  Fishpool is clearly one of the older streets in St. Albans.  The houses line the street all connected together.  While the street is paved with asphalt, you can still see the former cobblestones near the edges and many of the driveways off the street are paved with old stones. 

Periodically you find small tunnels going into courtyards behind the houses, and in one place I found a small hidden stairway that headed up the hill between some houses giving access to homes off the street.  The street was very narrow especially with cars parked along it.



Gate House

 After a short walk I came to a crossroads at the St. Albans Cathedral.  There was a gate house through which one of the roadways continued.  I saw young men walking through the park towards me to get to their school which is right across the street from the Cathedral.  Since they were crossing the park towards me I figured there was another entrance on the other side and headed across.  It turned out to be correct, and I made it to the office in about 15 minutes instead of 24 minutes if I had followed Google's directions.



St. Albans Cathedral

 The St. Albans office is very nice, maybe even nicer then our new Hillsboro office.  I definitely liked the open layout.  Peter's office is a big fish bowl right as you come through the security doors.  Lee gave me a tour of the building and I got to finally put some faces with the various names I have worked with over the past few years.

Don passed on my welcome gift put together by Peter.  It included three books on various walks (50 Walks in Hertfordshire, 24 Footpath Walks Around St. Albans, and Countryfile Great British Walks). 

In addition to my normal workday, Katherine kept me updated on the hunt for a "flat".  It looks like I won't get into one until near the end of July.  Since my current Inn books a lot of weddings on the weekends I'll be moving to the Comfort Inn on Friday.  She did setup an appointment on Thursday for me to go look at one of the flats that will be available in July.

St. Albans Clock Tower

Don gave me a lift up the hill, and I ate dinner at a noodle bar  near the Clock Tower.  The Clock Tower is 600 years old.  Just reading about it and looking at the construction I could feel the history of the place.  After dinner I made the relaxing walk back down Fishpool to my Inn.  It was about 8:00 at night and the bells began to ring for 15 minutes or so.  I'll have to remember to ask about that when I get to the cathedral. 

As I sit hear writing this post with my window open I can hear the bells ringing for 9:00.  Definitely a good first day.