Tuesday June 7
Well, this was early! My alarm rang at 2:55 am and we were on the road at 3:30 am. Of course we wanted to leave the house in good order and we had to give it a thought how to do it with the automated gate. The number lock was only on the outside and otherwise we had just the remote and had left it in the car. Of course we needed to leave it in the house. I clicked the gate open, put the remote inside on the steps, locked up, key in lockbox, ran down to the (already outside) car. James had the number just in case it would close before I could be there. All went well.
Kate (the only driver allowed by the car rental) was worried about driving in the dark but it was already getting lighter. By the time we were at the airport it was daylight. There had not been much traffic and Kate had done brilliantly. She was relieved when she could drop the keys into the drop box.
We only had to go across the street to check in. We had never seen anything like it. You were supposed to check your suitcase in yourself. We managed somehow one but could not do the second. We went to a desk and the girl relactently did it. Then we had to go through security. It went zigzag zigzag zigzag which seemed like miles. When it was our turn it was efficient and fast. Ha-ha, James found his swiss knife in his pants pocket later. The boarding pass scanner was another story. It didn't take ours. The 4 of us blocked 2 lines. An attendee at the other side called "screen shots?" Yes, how else can you get it when your phone is not online? Oh, no. He told us we should go back to a counter and let them print it. We could come back skipping the lines and they would let us in. Not a good idea to us. But close to me was an officer who called us over. He said that today he had a magic touch and one at a time he scanned them with his handheld scanner and we were good to go. He asked us to just pray for him today. James asked him for his name. I promised Ali to pray for him and I did. What a great guy. Nothing but smiles on his face.
Through all the hoopla we now had time. We went as far as we could to our gate and went into a cafe. We even found seats. 2 lattes and a shared sandwich for James and me.
Note: We had sat in the car, walked zigzag and sat in the cafe ... James had 5000 steps and I 6000. Just from that.
Time to board.
As soon as we were up in the air after Dublin the blue sky was gone. Bournemouth sky was not so nice. And it was cold. And there was a long line to get a taxi. Everybody complained. But then we started talking with the couple in front of us and had a really nice conversation. They were from Dublin and she was being honored with the trip for 45 years of fundraising for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution). Remember the blog when we visited Clogherhead on day 9? It was a very nice couple.
The taxi took us to Kate and David's house and we had time for a cup of tea. Kate insisted of making sandwiches for us which was very nice. And she found some juice boxes too. Then they brought us to the train station. Thank you, thank you, Kate and David. What a lovely week we had together.
The train pulled out at 11:45 am.
Half way we dug into our picnic. The cucumber had been harvested from the greenhouse. Lovely.
I think the public transportation in England is great. In off-times very reasonable and on-time. The first train even had WiFi.
The sky got bluer we got closer to Windsor.
Nice view of the castle just before the station, which of course was Riverside again.
Jane's water Lily was blooming. And some other things.
Wednesday June 8
We don't have many days in Winsor so one day we always need to see the changing of the guard. Well, it is the marching from the baracks to the castle which is the nice part. Jane was not sure what it is at the moment because of covid etc it changed sometimes. Oh was I disappointed when I saw that Wednesday was NOT one of the days.
Oh yes, just before 10:45 am we were at the baracks. While waiting we had a nice chat with the police man.
Opposite was a group of school girls. Looked like they had an assignment. They were all writing notes on paper using the wall as table. Would have liked to know what that was about.
Gosh, I forgot how difficult it is to march and take a video. Halfway in the first you could see (if you really clicked on the video) that James found his marching step, ha-ha.
It was quite a co-incidence that it happen to be a Gurkha Regiment. James' father had been in India in WWII with the Gurkha regiment and it was always special to the family.
After the band had disappeared into the castle we started on our shopping. I would have liked to find something special for the grandchildren. I also tried to find a special Jubilee cup Helen would like. She had texted a photo to me. My daughter has expensive taste. I probably should be happy that it could nowhere be found. Seriously.
Everybody who knows me also knows that I don't like shopping. But we wandered around and just had fun being in James' hometown nooks and crannies. This sign was on the restaurant across from the castle.
After a while we decided we should have a cuppa at Daniels, a department store. It is a very useful store.
We needed Weetabix from Waitrose and as I was looking for something else we thought we might find it there. Finally the only one we could find to ask was a butcher. He was so nice too. He has little round chorizo sausages (like big marbles) for parties and he gave us each one to taste. Nice. Ah, look at all the other interesting things.
On the way to Jane's house: typical English flowers. A wall just full of them, at the end even trailing down.
It was after one. Jane had waited with lunch for us. We rested a little after that. Then Jane needed to get back to the church to take care of something and James decided to go with her. I decided I wanted to wander a little by myself through town.
On the way out I decided to take a look at what the family used to call "7a". Two aunts and an uncle used to live there and we would always visit. It is actually on the way to town center. Everything is so close together. The new owners have changed a lot. Very interesting.
I could not believe how deserted the town looked. I was used to droves of tourists. Quite nice to see it a bit more peaceful. I popped into a lot of little stores and was somewhat successful. But I totally just liked wandering around. On the way home I went the 100 steps into Dorset Road to have a look at where Daddy and family used to live. Lot has changed.
We had suggested to Jane not to cook. We wanted to take her out. I googled a lot for menus but we finally decided to just walk around the corner to the Vansittart Arms. It is just a little further then the Bexley Arms where we were the Sunday before Ireland.
Vansittart is the pub where James and I waited for Jane when we had arrived from London. We went for dinner at 6:30 pm. It was quiz night but 1 hour later. No problem. Actually, we had "pudding" when it started and we had fun guessing some things. Actually, we were not totally useless and the people at the next table might have listened in. One person of them did use the iphone which is not really allowed. Not our problem.
On the menu under "nibbles" I had seen "Venison Bon Bon with redcurrant & port jam". That sounded interesting. I asked the server and she told us that they were two meatballs. We asked whether we could have a serving and a half = 3. Yes, we could. She even brought 3 side plates. They were very interesting. Always nice to try new things.
And in England (and Ireland too) what should be hot comes hot to the table. Nice.
James and Jane had "Steak & Ale Pie butter puff pastry, creamy mash potatoes, seasonal vegetables & gravy". Yummy!
I had "Wild Boar Sausages & Mash". Everything was so tasty including the gravy.
Such delicious food. Should we really top it off with dessert? The answer: yessssss!
Above: I had the "Eton Mess" (strawberries, meringue, chantilly cream & mint). The name sounded good but I am not sure about the taste. Interesting though.
Below: Jane and James had "Sticky Toffee Pudding". A better choice.
This was my view. I knew what we had to do before leaving.
Doesn't quite look like James met the Queen.
Another nice day. We are planning tomorrow and are a bit nervous about it. But that is tomorrow's blog. Really tired tonight.
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