tonywilsonslo

We arrived in Birmingham at about 4:30, and found a mooring in the very center of town, across from a LegoLand exhibit and next to the Aquarium Center. We grabbed the last mooring on Oozle Street Loop, and our beautiful boat was visible by everyone in the square. After a quick shower, we went into town to find food. 5pm is a bit early for dinner, and most places were not quite open. However we found a fabulous Indian restaurant where the food was spicy and the water was plentiful, as was the Naan. Birmingham didn't have as many "big old buildings" as London and other towns we have visited. It seem that the majority of Birmingham grew up during the industrial expansion and either there were not many buildings prior, or the expansion just consumed ... read more

Day 5 We woke early, excited for our Market trip and Canal boat adventure. The breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express was less than stellar, so we decided we would get some food at the Market. The Longborough market is said to have won recent awards, and has been around for 800 years. It sounded amazing and exciting. The weather had different opinions. The drive through the driving rain took a lot longer than we expected. When we arrived and grabbed the last parking spot, we saw dozens of people leaving the open air market, hiding under umbrellas (it had just started raining in Longborough). All of the prepared food vendors were shut, and we didn't spend long at other shops outside of Boots and a few fruit and bread vendors. Even if the weather had ... read more

Jet Lag? We Don't Got No Stinkin' Jet Lag Up early and, if not bright, then at least with a little glow, we ate breakfast (full English of course!) at the hotel restaurant before taking everything out of our luggage and packing it back in so that we can leave most of the suitcases in the car for the next few days. Driving on the left was, again, second nature to Tony, and we fell back into our habits of Anne as Navigator, and Tony just trying to get into the correct lane to exit the roundabouts. Our first goal today was to head to Hadrian's Wall. Tony has wanted to see it since he was little and living in England. Michelle is interested in the Roman history surrounding it. Anne wants to go because walls ... read more

Day 42 - To Home. London, We will Miss You We finished packing up in the morning and tried to eat all of the remaining food. We arranged a car through a car service, which ended up being less expensive than Uber or Taxi to LHR has been. We had 7 rollers and 3 backpacks and were not interested in navigating the underground, even on a weekend. Because of our checkout time, we ended up at LHR 5 hours before our flight. That was good because it took nearly 30 minutes to re-balance our bags so they were all under limit (which they strictly enforce on occasion). I am glad we bought Michelle 2 bags! During the flight, Tony opened the window shade as we passed over the east coast of Greenland. It was beautiful with ... read more

Day 36 - Italian Countryside Our Italian countryside driving day started out like any of our other driving days this trip, with a frantic and slightly frustrating trip to the rental office. Luckily, our flat in Rome was only a few blocks from a major street. After hauling our luggage down 5 flights of marble stairs, we only had to carry them for a few minutes over the rough, cobblestone streets to the nearby bus stop. Cobblestones are not kind to rolling luggage. When our bus finally came, and we made it to the rental car offices at the central Rome train station, we were first in line… at the rental desk… where the power was out. After waiting a while in the hot building, we got signed in, and had to walk another quarter mile ... read more