Well, we are now in Rye, England. The travel adventure that became a travel saga has regained its adventure status.
The saga part? Getting here. Plan: leave St. Louis Monday afternoon, fly to Chicago, and then on to London overnight to get into Heathrow at about 8 a.m. Tuesday. Reality: first flight cancelled too late for us to catch any other England-bound flight off the East Coast; spent the night in St. Louis on American Airlines' dime; flew to Chicago at 6 a.m. Tuesday; had our 9 a.m. flight to London canceled; got rerouted to Miami, and then from there to London Tuesday night. Got into Heathrow yesterday morning, after too much stress and not enough sleep. Amazingly, despite all the reroutes and delays, all our luggage arrived with us. Collected our car, managed to get all our luggage and selves into it, and then we got on the road.
Learning to drive the car was an adventure in itself, given the sleep deprivation and all. Luckily, on the way to Rye, we found Blue Boys Cafe, where we had an excellent lunch of beef vegetable soup (heavily flavored with leeks, we think, and absolutely delicious) and hot crusty bread with butter. And good, hot, STRONG tea. A bit more driving through beautiful English countryside and we found ourselves in The Ancient Town of Rye.
After a number of twists and turns (the streets are VERY twisty, turny) we found Cyprus Cottage, which is our home away from home until September 28th. The cottage is a semi-detached two-story home in a building dating from the mid-1800s. It's snug, very well-maintained, bright and nice. Downstairs are a living room, dining room, and very nicely appointed kitchen. There's also a convenient half-bath. Upstairs are two nice bedrooms, each with two twin beds, and a big bathroom with a wonderful deep bathtub and a separate large free-standing shower unit. There is also a most efficient hot water heater (I've had three hot baths since we've been here).
The cottage is accessed via a smallish decked and fenced courtyard, which in turn is accessed from the street through a tall gated fence or the garage. Now, that garage is billed as being large enough to accommodate a 4-door VW Golf, which is just the kind of car we are renting. What the landlady did not mention is that the garage is exactly big enough to accommodate a VW Golf, if said Golf is pulled so far forward that its front bumper is touching the conveniently placed carpeted piece of wood attached to the wall (that should have been a clue), and if the garage door is squeezed down past the rear bumper with maybe 1/8" to spare. Maybe. Regardless, I got that car in there, though its proximity sensors were screaming the whole time.
Yesterday, after we managed to get the car unloaded and parked, and after all the luggage got hauled upstairs, naps were taken and quiet time had. Then we went out and had dinner at Bailey's Pub, a couple blocks from the cottage. After that, we came back here, made some Skype calls home, and then pretty much collapsed. None of us had slept too well since Monday morning.
Today we got off to a late start, some of us (read: me) later than others. By noon or so, we headed out for a bite of lunch at the Mermaid Tea Room, then some browsing in antique shops on The Strand. After that, we stopped at Budgens for some basic provisions, including peanut butter. Then with groceries and a few treasures in tow, we made our way back here for a bit. Later we went in search of cream tea but were too late for that so came back to the cottage and had our own version of ploughman's lunch for dinner -- cheeses, crackers, apples, berries, grapes. And now... Skip Bo seems to be in order.
Oh, and a really cool thing? Old Batman reruns are on afternoon TV here, the same ones with Burt Ward as Batman and Eartha Kitt as Catwoman that I used to watch as a little kid. In fact, earlier when I was online, Mom, Dorie, and Catch were in the living room watching Batman, Robin, and Batgirl take on Catwoman and the Joker. Funny.
Okay, enough for tonight. More soon!
