Yer' Fallin Behind!

This one is for my most loyal readers. You know who you are. All 10 of you. You may be wondering why, although you know we are deep into our exploration of Britain, I haven’t posted anything in forever. What has happened to our intrepid travelers? Did they run afoul of a modern-day version of Jack the Ripper in London? Did they accidently touch one of those ancient stone formations in Scotland and be suddenly transported back to the time of Bonny Prince Charles at Culloden, which neither of them would survive? (Well, maybe Bob) Did they get on the wrong tour bus and end up in Azerbaijan? Where in the world are they and where is the blog? Well, rest assured, we are alive and well and I am keeping excellent notes in my new Harry Potter Ravenclaw notebook that I got at Warner Brothers Studios in London. Bob and I spend lots of time on our tour bus (or coach, as our guide insists on calling it) which does not have device charging and only occasional internet service. Since we are taking loads of pictures, we are saving our batteries for those functions. Additionally, by the time we arrive at the hotels every evening, we are generally exhausted and drop off to sleep in minutes, so putting our adventures online is not a primary goal.

We are having a great time, though. The tour we are on is through Costsaver, which we booked through Costco. It is a 19-day comprehensive exploration of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and we have tacked on even more Wales at the end of this tour. Bob and I do like to rely on experts to guide us as we travel to places unknown as we find that is an efficient use of our time and travel dollars, but we have never done anything like this tour before, which is very inclusive. Our tour guide is Maria, who lives in Cornwall, and also Germany for about half of each year. Consequently, she has a delightful British/German accent. While she tries to consider the sensitivities of all of the 48 people on our tour bus, she occasionally lapses into swearing in English and German which has endeared me to her. She has a great knowledge of British history and entertains us as we ride, with stories of the centuries of fascinating tales of the culture of the places we visit. She sounds like Emma Thompson, but scripted by Mel Brooks and Monty Python. She’s a hoot. Our driver is Kevin, who reminds me of the good-natured chimney sweep played by Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins: capable, self-assured, calm under pressure and while a man of few words, always seems to know the best way to accomplish the task ahead. And good thing! The roads in most of our travels are narrow, our coach is huge, and his driving skills are second to none.

We are getting to know our fellow travelers, most of whom continue to reassure my faith that people are basically good, and a few that are wildly eccentric and periodically entertaining in small doses. We cover huge kilometers of geography (note my attempted conversion to metric), and oddly it is not Bob, but I, who has developed a Scottish accent that I can’t seem to shake. (Ancestors? Is this something in my DNA?)

In any event, we are fine, having a blast, searching for Hairy Coos, eating haggis (which is surprisingly good) counting sheep, and learning all about a nation soooo much older than ours.