London!!!

Almost a month since my last entry, but I'd been sick and tired with the cold that wouldn't quit. Then I had to get ready for my big trip to England and Wales. I got a great house/cat sitter at the last minute, threw my dog in the car and took off on Hwy 40 to California. We spent a night at the Hilltop Motel on Rte 66 in Kingman, a fun old motel from the 1950's (at least from the outside-the inside was pretty bare bones.) It's nice to have Cadbury along because then I really do have to stop every now and then to give him a break.

So I, my sis Linda and bro-in-law Bill flew out to London today. The 10-hour trip didn't seem too bad. (Well, it was first class, more about that later!) I had a great new book to read, thanks to my librarian friend Deb Webb. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society", a novel about the folks of Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, who were occupied for 5 years during WWII.

London was sunny and warm when we arrived but soon morphed into its usual grey clouds, cold and rain. We don't mind, it's so very British. Makes you want tea and scones all the more. We were determined not to take naps, since none of us slept well on the plane. So we headed out to a traditional dinner of roast beef, Yorkshire Pudding, and sticky pudding for dessert (Linda's favorite). The funniest thing was the Yorkshire Pudding-it was huge like a giant puffy tortilla, not at all like the more flat and juicy ones we had had before. This was at Rules, a very old and traditional restaurant. But all three of us kept yawning through the meal and decided we'd better go to bed early. We walked through the busy, windy streets looking for a tube station. I had forgot how purposeful people look in big cities, all in a hurry to get somewhere, amazing. It's always fun to ride the tube though, and easy to follow the line maps. Now I'm listening to some Beethoven and will soon hit the sack.