Went to England over the weekend

And it was great. Didn't feel like using the computer, hence the delay in posts.

Thursday June 16. I cleaned up the apartment, grabbed my suitcase and got the S-Bahn to the airport. I had a 3:30 flight. I got to the airport early, didn’t know what to expect in travel time. So I had lunch, browsed the bookshop and checked in. I kept my suitcase as carryon, which was a mistake – we climbed down 2 flights of stairs, took a bus out to the plane on the tarmac, climbed up the narrow flight to the plane, which was small and every seat was full. But I made it to Manchester with no trouble, and only half hour after scheduled landing time. The arrival area is dismal, and under reconstruction. Think Newark in worse condition.

Logan was there to pick me up. Good thing too, I found the airport horribly disorienting. I do not know why, it wasn’t a ‘Macy’s effect’ with mirrors everywhere, but nothing was where I expected it to be. I used the ladies and found Logan again, as he was waving his arms and in the opposite corner of the room from where I thought I had left him.

We headed out; he had a Ford Montero rental car. Automatic, thank god. It was very weird sitting as a passenger in the driver’s seat. And even weirder, both the side- and rear-view mirrors reflected our car from my perspective, and I could see the reflection of the traffic on the roads in the reflection of the window in the side-view. I had to work to not see it, it was nauseating me.

We drove north to Preston, then off the M6 to the smaller roads towards Lytham-St. Anne’s, where Logan had been staying. The roads got alarmingly narrow, from my perspective, as hedgerows and rock walls zoomed by mere inches from my side of the car. I was to have a shift in perspective when we got to the Lake District.

St. Anne’s is on the west coast, on the estuary of the River Ribble. It is tidal, the water came slowly up and then retreated hundreds of yards every day. The wind was fiercely blowing and it was quite cool, and gray. We got to the Glendower Hotel, tossed my suitcase in the room. This room was a hoot – one double and 2 single beds took up most of the floor space; one of the singles perpendicular to the other beds, across their foot. The bathroom tiny, done in 1950’s linoleum, and had the old-fashioned separate faucets for hot & cold water. The room did have a window overlooking the coast road and out to the beach/river/ocean. Oh well, work is paying for it, and it is a B&B with hot breakfast provided. Logan said that he was the youngest by far of the people staying there. It looked to be quite the hit with the senior set. Which is also weird – our room was on a floor up 2 and 2 half-flights of stairs, not serviced by a lift. The doors were hard for me to yank open. I think it’s a ‘stay fit or die’ as you age thing, and was to be repeated at the next place we stayed.

We walked into town for dinner, had a great meal at an Italian restaurant. I had prawns Marie Rose for an appetizer. We’d call them bay shrimp, and Marie Rose is a cross between a very mild cocktail sauce and mayo. Like a really really good Thousand Island dressing. I must see if they have that in Munich.

Didn’t check email that night, although Logan had told me that he had contacted the shippers and they said that our stuff would be on a plane to Munich on Friday, and in country Monday. That turned out to be a lie. More later.

It was heavenly to be able to easily read the signs, menus and to be able to talk with people! I may need to go to England once a month.