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Nothing says fun like getting your head stuck in a canon barrel!

Throughout the day we had had a few sprinkles, but now it was gradually getting more frequent. We went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and then went on to board the train to Calais. As we rode the train, I remembered last year when I went to Calais in a raging storm. After departing the train, I had waited awhile for the one of the buses that was supposed to take me down to the hovercraft to Dover, England. I gave up and took a taxi to the hovercraft, but found out that the last one had left a little while ago. I asked them about the printed schedule that I had and they told me that they don't necessarily go by that schedule. I took another taxi over to the ferry. The trip was normally supposed to take less than an hour. Because of the storm, I think it took about 3. As I was trying to eat, I would have to hold on to my plate and glass to keep them from sliding off.

As we rode the train I had visions of last year horror. However, when we got off the train, there was only a light rain. We immediately went for the taxi. We got to the hovercraft port just in time for the last one. They already had the propellers going when we boarded from the rear. Lyns glasses were almost blown off. The ride was noisy, kind of like when a pilot is testing the engines on a jet, but even worse. On the other hand, it was unbelieveably smooth. We could not even tell when we went from land to the English Channel and then back to land again. Remember, a hovercraft takes off from land.

When we reached Dover, there were two lines for customs: one for Europeans and one for "others". We were the only "others", but we were about the last ones to be cleared. We grabbed a taxi. Lyn was very surprised to see the driver getting out of the passenger side.

Lyn at the Tower Bridge.

After the train ride from Dover to London and then the "tubes" ride, we arrived at our bed-and-breakfast. It was a disappointment. The bathroom had this rug just outside of the shower which I don't think had been dried out for the past year. I had to hold my nose whenever I entered that bathroom and walked on that soggy piece of fabric. Our breakfast consisted of some cheap cold cereal and toast. Last year I had stayed in a dingy bed-and-breakfast in Dover, but at least they had a good English breakfast and at less than half the price. Our wonderful London accommodations cost us 35 pounds, almost $60. A recent artical mentioned that B&B's are no longer the bargains they used to be and that some motels have lowered their rates. Next time we will try a motel instead.

November 22 & November 23, Tuesday & Wednesday:
Our first day in London, we went to the Tower of London. We saw a play named "The Starlight Express" and ate our usual type of food: chinese. While walking along the crowded streets, Lyn noticed the Indonesian couple that we had met at the Eifell Tower back in France. We walked by Buckingham Palace (one of Lyn's "must" destinations), but both of us agreed, there wasn't much to see. The second day, we went to Westminster Abbey and saw "Miss Saigon".

A window display for our favorite musical: Starlight Express.

November 24 - November 29, Thursday - Tuesday:
On the next morning, we arranged for a hire car, as the English call it. I made the mistake that I absolutely did not want to do. I turned on to a highway going into London instead of away from it. I was just starting out driving on the left side of the road and I had recently driven a car with a manual transmission either. Half an hour later, and several cuss words, we were on our way to Yorkshire. It wasn't too hard to drive on the left side of the road and the 70 m.p.h. speed limit didn't really phase me (although most drivers went 80 or better). The most difficult things were the round-abouts, or what we call traffic circles. Lyn called them "turn-arounds".

Instead of traffic signals and stop signs the English utilize these round-abouts. Brad says they work very well. The main rule is that you yield to whoever is on your right. If you are about to enter and there is nobody on your right that you would hinder by entering, you can enter without stopping. Therefore, if you hit it right, you can go through several of these intersections without having to stop.

A friend of mine was told me that the same round-abouts which seem to work so well in England, don't work very well on the continent. Like in England, you still yield to the right, but by driving on the right side of the road means that cars in the round-about yield to cars entering it. Therefore, the round-about itself can become jammed.

We spent the next few days up at Brad's house. We went to the medieval walled city of York. We spent quite a while touring the York Minster. In one of the towers you can look straight up for about 20 stories. The weight of the stonework was so much that settling threatened a collapse. As they dug under the minster to prop it up they discovered remnants of past building including the Romans,close to 2000 years ago. The minster is less than 800 years old. One of the stained glass windows is the size of a tennis court. The artisans were very creative. We were told that in the background of a sculpture of one of the kings of England are Tom and Jerry, yes, the cartoon cat and mouse (although Lyn kept saying Ben & Jerry). Each of the stained glass windows has a different theme, although I can't remember any of them right now. The York minster only took 250 years to build versus 300 for Notre Dame, in Paris. Just outside the minster is a Roman column. There is the Yorvik museum which depicts the time period when Vikings from Denmark invaded this area and brought their culture. Also, we viewed Clifford's Tower, another old castle.

The ruins of Fountain's Abbey, near York.

A short trip from Brad's house is Fountain's Abbey, which was started around the same time as York Minster, but was abanded when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. Most of these abandoned structures were used as building materials by the nearby residents, but Fountain's Abbey has survived because it was so far away from any town. We also had an enjoyable time at a recreation of a turn-of-the-century town, with attendants to tell you about all the different types of professions there. We spoke with the town dentist who uses a foot powered drill.

When we drove to Skipton Castle, we felt at times like we were driving in a tunnel, because the roads are very narrow, with no shoulders and high stone walls to de-paint any non-alert driver's vehicle. There is a very good tour through the castle which gives you a very good idea of what castle life was like. We learned the origin of "upper crust". It seems that the lower part of the large loaves of bread would turn dark because of the cinders present in the oven and that the upper class would be the ones to eat the top, clean part of the bread, or the "upper crust". The castle, with walls as thick as 12 feet, was never forcefully taken by outside forces, but we were told that the bathroom was the weakest spot of many castles. The toilet consisted of a hole over the outside wall of the castle. Someone outside the castle could climb a ladder, pull himself through the hole, let the drawbridge down for the attacking forces to take the castle.

The British cousine is noted as not being very impressive. We had their most famous export, fish and chips, two or three times. I don't think any of it equaled Captain D's. Their meat pies were better, but nothing to write home about. I would recommend travellers sticking with Chinese restaurants.

Norrie & Lisa

November 30, Wednesday:
We drove from Pately Bridge on down to Surrey to visit with Norry and Lisa, a couple we had met the year before in the Philippines. We had a nice conversation and a wonderful dinner.

December 1, Thursday:
Norry took us on a wild ride through the streets of England. I can remember a couple of times I looked over and he was doing 60 in a 30 m.p.h. zone. Our first destination was Stonehenge. I was very impressed with this 3000 year old human built structure. Then we went down to Portsmouth, England's historic port town. We saw Henry VIII's flag ship, the Mary Rose, which had recently been raised after sitting for hundreds of years on the ocean floor. After many years of good service the overloaded ship (it was carrying about 400 more people than it's 300 max) was attempting to go out to engage an attacking French force, but capsized within site of the dock. I don't know the resolution of the battle, but what an embarrassing start.

Stonehenge - a fascinating place.

We also toured the H.M.S. Victory, which was Lord Byron's ship. We received quite a lecture on a sea man's life, from the time they were rounded up and kidnapped and found themselves at sea with no way to get home. When they were flogged (whipped), they had to make their own whip. The only positive thing was that they were given enough rum to keep them drunk enough to endure the rotten food and other hardships.

In the evening Norry took us up to see the Concord take off. It is quite an awesome sight and even better, there is no admission charge. Norry parked the car and we stood out there along with several other people to watch. It's not surprising that although the Concord has been in service for years and takes off every day, take offs still draw a crowd. It roared by, setting off many car alarms.

December 2, Friday:
We said our goodbyes to Norry and Lisa and drove off to return our hire care. We took a wrong road and lost about 25 minutes and also got lost, twice asking for directions. We did manage to return the car on time, boarded the subway to Victoria Station, and then rode the train to Gatwick airport.

Our flight was fine except that it was so hard to get on the flight from Houston to Los Angeles after the long flight from Europe. Other than flirting with disaster in Poland, our trip was smoother than I could have hoped for beforehand. We went to 10 different countries and I think we experienced much more than if we had gone with a preplanned tour. The memories will be with us forever. We visited old friends and gained new ones. With luck, we'll visit them in the future, or maybe they'll come visit us.

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