London to Manchester

I'll start with yesterday's adventures and then go to today's trip. Today is Sunday, May 26.

We went into the city to see a little more, try to find Linda's hat, and tour Stonehenge. In fact, we were successful in doing all three, and a little more.

With the previous day's rain, we discovered late in the day that Linda had lost her hat. They thought it was left in the restaurant where we had dinner, so we rode the tube to the Black and Blue Steakhouse near the London Eye.

Linda's Hat Repository

Luckily, the door was unlocked even though they were not open yet. The lady who came to tell us that they were not open, when we told her why we were there, looked in their Lost and Found place and pulled Linda's hat right out. What luck! So, we were successful in our first quest.

We decided to go to the BMW dealership to see what it was like

No Caption Needed!

. So, back to the tube for a short ride to the appropriate station. A 10 minute walk or so later, we found it. I was hoping to find a tee shirt with the local dealership, but no luck. I did find a hat that I liked, so I now have a new BMW hat.

From there, we made our way to the Stonehenge tour departure place. We were early, so we went into a grocery store to pick up some snacks and kill time. I found some great candy bars called Yorkies. Mostly chocolate. Some raisins, and some small malt balls. Very yummy! If I can find more, I'll bring some home to share.

At the appointed time, we went back to the tour office. The young lady at the tour office walked us to the pickup place. We waited. And waited. And waited, and no bus. She started calling the bus driver, who told her that he was in an argument with a passenger and was trying to get him off the bus. The driver told her he'd be at our pickup in 10 minutes. So, every 5 minutes she called the driver, who finally got the passenger off the bus. We were picked up about 30 minutes late.

Stonehenge on a Beautiful Day

The ride to Stonehenge was ok, except it was hot in the bus. It was 100 percent full, so it was crowded, too. I actually slept about half the way there.

More Stonehenge

Stonehenge was great, except we were hurried. The stones are pretty big, and it's difficult to see how they were put into place. The arrangement of stones seems to be done in such a way to keep up with time, both in hours and seasons. The rocks are bluestone rocks, su

Even More Stonehenge

pposedly very hard and strong. It was well worth the time and effort to go.

Getting back to the hotel was uneventful.

Today was mostly about getting from London to Manchester. This trip was a real train ride, covering almost 200 miles. Everything worked out well, but we had to keep moving and had no wasted time between various trains or tunes.

As we got off the final train, we spotted a guy who had a helmet with his gear. After a few seconds, we discovered that he was a part of our tour, and was Rod, my roommate for the rest of the tour! How weird...
And he was a true gentleman, helping us old guys lug the heavy duffel bags up the flights of stairs to the top.

We walked up the (steep) hill to our hotel and checked in. The hotel is very nice--pretty plush and very nice.

We had a group meeting and dinner, with each person introducing themselves. We have a varied group of people, with 4 of us from North Carolina. Pretty neat..

Part of Tour Group

More Tour Group

Tomorrow, we go riding!

Ok, here's some news of interest. I
think I have figured out what's going on with pics. I think I am out of space in my blogger account. So, I've decided to create a new account and post in it. When I do, I'll post the new address here for any followers to go to. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I think I've just used all my allocated space. (Note:  This was not the problem.  I still don't know what the problem is, but a real computer does work!)