Thursday, July 25

After a good sleep in Jill and Jim's guest bed, we have a small breakfast of apple and peanut butter and pile into the car to drive to Manchester. Within about 35 minutes, we're entering Manchester and Louise (our Tom-Tom voice) is guiding us through the streets. There was no train station to select from on the GPS, but we put in what turned out to be the bus station. And, she took us right to it. At that point, Jill announces that she knows this area and guides us several blocks to the train station. We drop off the car at Avis behind the station and leave our bags in their office.

Jill takes charge and guides us down the main drag from the station into a shopping district that eventually becomes a walking mall with shops on either side. Its warm and humid, so I sweat, but the walk is good after sitting most of yesterday. We had talked earlier about eating lunch at Annie's, just a few blocks away. But they are not serving for another 30 minutes and that timing would rush us for our train at 2:00. We walk across the street and end up at an Italian restaurant with a New York City theme. We have a nice lunch with Jim and Linda having a genuine "New England Breakfast", Jill eating lasagna, and I had a hot dog with some of their chili relish sauce. Jim and I had a Stella Artois (Belgian beer).

After, we casually walk back toward the station, the girls go into Marks and Spencer to buy some special soap - Royal Jelly with pure honey. It doesn't take long. We walk back to Avis to retrieve our bags and then into the station. We still have some time, so we stop for a coffee at Pret a Manager. I am wearing a pink shirt and the girl behind the counter is too. She says because I'm wearing it I get my order free. Linda thinks its because they are running a breast cancer awareness campaign. At this point I look in my blazer breast pocket and notice my glasses are missing. We look all around and finally a piece of trash is blown off the table and into the top of one of our bags where the handle sticks out. And when Linda bent down to pick it out, there were my glasses. Is that the Universe? Who knows?

We say goodbye to Jim and Jill, board the train and off we go. These English trains run on time. Our reserved seats are at a table and across from us is a very attractive young mother and her rambunctious 2 year old son. Across the aisle is a Jewish Orthodox family of 3 boys and 2 girls. We're in kiddy land. For 2 hours they are all fairly quiet and behave themselves.

We come into Euston Station in London and have to haul our suitcases up some stairs. About 1/2 way up 2 young men show up separately and help us both with the bags. Really nice for the young studs to help the old folks. Then we board the Victoria underground for the Victoria station. We still have our Oyster cards, so we just touch the panel and whisk through the turnstile. At Victoria, we buy tickets for the Gatwick Express train and leave about 5 minutes after we board.

At Gatwick, we take a taxi to the Premier Inn. We we arrive, I give the guy a 10 pound Scottish note. He takes it and goes back to his seat. I follow expecting change. He says that its only worth 7 English pounds which is a lie. But, he drives off quickly, so I don't have a chance to confront him. There are bad apples no matter where you go. The thing is, I was going to give a tip of 2 pounds for the 7 pound fare, so he cheated me out of a whole pound. He had to be a deceitful liar for 1 pound.

We check in, clean up and rest a little and eat dinner at the hotel. Its loud with families in the dining room, but I get my vodka and Linda has a Scotch whisky. She tries a steak which is not very good and I have pork ribs and chicken which are very good. A little reading back in the room and we turn out the light.

We have had a really good time in the UK. The two weeks in London with the Adamsons, visiting twice with Jim and Jill, touring Scotland and Shetland and staying with Karen and Keith at Alder House in Lerwick. The countryside is wonderful, the people are uniformly friendly and gracious and the whisky is good and varied.