In many ways, Peterborough reminds me of Puerto Rico. If you ask the people of Puerto Rico what the island is like, they will drone on endlessly about how horrible the place is. However, when you go to visit for yourself, you'll discover that none of it is true and that Puerto Rico is a veritable paradise.

I wouldn't call Peterborough a paradise. I also wouldn't condemn it the way the locals do. Since my arrival, I have heard nothing but negative comments about this city. It made me not want to do any sightseeing, which is rare for me. Tonight I bit the bullet and wandered downtown to see what there was to see. I discovered that Peterborough is actually a very pleasant place.

For one thing, they have an absolutely lovely cathedral. It was closed by the time I had a chance to go see it after I got off of work.

It is quite beautiful at night since they light the facade up. There has been a church on this site for over 1300 years. It was destroyed several times; once by the Vikings and again by a fire. The current building was built after the Battle of Hastings, so this is a proper Norman cathedral. It is an unusual church in that there are three arches on the facade bearing the clustered-piers common to Gothic architecture. It really is impressive.

Afterwards, I walked to the city center to do some shopping. I found several bookstores which always makes me excited. Everything in this country is more expensive than in the US except for books. I wish I understood that.

I also needed to buy some detergent since it is getting close to the time for me to go do some laundry. There's a Tesco at the local shopping mall so I stopped at the food court for dinner.

If you wonder why Europeans think Americans are nuts, look at what I found at the local Burger King. Can you think of anything more obnoxious than an adult-sized poster of the statue of liberty bearing a Burger King logo in her torch? This is disrespectful and insolent, to say the least. Why do we export this trash?