Amsterdam was wet and green and flatter than I expected - even flatter than Michigan! At this point I wandered around the wonderful airport (Schipol is fantastic), found an place where I could access the internet and just let a few people know I was ok. I couldn't get in touch with Kate and Michelle - they were probably still in the air (their flight was from Chicago to Heathrow directly), and they didn't have a cell phone anyway.
Why do I mention this? Because my plane was delayed leaving Amsterdam. Why?
1. The original plane was apparently hit by lightning (it was quite stormy) necessitating a plane change which
2. Necessitated a crew change, which
3. Delayed us until we got caught in another thunderstorm and downpour, which
4. mean we were delayed getting into Heathrow because our gate was blocked for 15 minutes upon arrival.
I just wondered how I would tell Kate and Michelle I was late. I hoped they would find KLM and find out for themselves.
I walked off the plane and through customs easily enough. It seems my bag wasn't opened by TSA, which was good considering how packed it was. I tried to get money from the cash machine, but it wouldn't dispense any (something Dean warned me about)... As I turned to find out where the Enterprise counter was near the United flight I bumped into Kate who was looking for me!
We took the Heathrow Express (free from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1, 2, 3). That's when I had my first glimmer into the "hurry and wait" that is the joy of flying through Heathrow. First they had to clear the train. Then they had to inspect the train. Then the train took 4 minutes to get to the other terminals. FINALLY we met up with Michelle who was dealing with renting the car.
>After Michelle and Kate got the car stuff squared away, they called us a shuttle, which gave us more time to "hurry up and wait." We were finally on the road around 2pm with Michelle driving! Of course we got lost once near Heathrow after hitting our first roundabout. No great surprise there. Our drive up to Wolverhampton was pretty uneventful - except that we got lost again near Wolverhampton and wound up in Coventry. But Michelle was quite the "driving on the left" trouper.
Along the way we remarked how similar the countryside looked to that of Washington State. Particularly coming down into this valley, which really reminded us of going Northbound on I-5 into the Skagit Valley.
Over the week, our mantra while driving (and particularly making turns) was "left left left left left..." - like the Seagulls who say "Mine mine mine" in "Finding Nemo
 | The B&B in Wolverhampton was fantastic - the Featherstone Farm Hotel. There are some more pictures of the Hotel's grounds here. |
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Kate's was just small.
Mine was upstairs and was a little odder than the other two. It's obvious that my bathroom was once a closet and it only had a tub, but I managed to clean myself up just fine anyway.
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After we showered, I drove the car to drop Kate off at the V Festival so she could meet with her fellow Keane Junkies (tm). It was about 10 miles away, and she found she could take a cab back. Michelle and I stopped at a pub on the way back, but we found out they stopped serving food at 5pm. We wound up eating at a place called the "Spread Eagle" (I kid you not). Michelle had the Fish and Chips and I had a pretty good Chicken Tikka Masala and a very good Strongbow Cider. Thus began my "cider tasting spree" across England and Ireland.
What whe *should* have done was gone back to the Indian restaurant attached to the B&B called the King's Repose. Had we known that this restaurant was open before leaving to drop Kate off, we would have eaten there... It's supposed to be some of the best Indian food in the country. Instead we just had an after dinner drink there.
That night I was out like a light and slept very well.
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