Great Britain 2024 - Magnet Edition

As I mentioned on Sunday, I finally photographed and uploaded the Great Britain travel magnets.  We bought forty-nine magnets on the Great Britain trip so to pick a few favorites for this post isn't easy.  I usually prefer the handmade magnets but none of the ones we saw were handmade.  Still, there are quite a few nice ones now on our new magnet display wall.

A wee beefeater.

Stonehenge.
(We must like this style as we bought four at different places.)

Wooden ones are nice too like this one for Lindisfarne Priory.

A nice city one from Stratford Upon Avon.

A Scottish Hielan Coo.

The Wrexham AFC mascot.

If you want to see all our travel magnets, click on the Travel Magnets tab under the blog header picture above.

A Homer's Travel's Look Back At 2024

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." - Mark Twain

2024 was going to be the year of the nap but instead it became a crappy echo of 2016.  2016 started with the loss of family members and friends and ended with a disastrous election.  This year we lost family members and friends and, once again, gained an incompetent government with a large side of corruption and stupidity.

I feel I was coasting most of this year.  Few things excited me.  Many things left me dumbfounded.  Eight months of this year were all about my Mom.  My schedule revolved around hers.  I think I lost a little of myself during those months.  The passing of my Mother was sad but a bit liberating.  Too bad the rest of the year fell apart thanks to ... stupidity ... selfishness ... apathy ... I guess a combination of all of those.  Overall, 2024 was not a really good year for me.

Let's look back at 2024, shall we:

• January:  The year would be dominated by the health of my Mom. This month she was diagnosed with parkinson's disease. I bought a new GPS. We left on a short vacation to Tampa.
• February:  We had a great time in Tampa. Very relaxing. We tandem skydived which was interesting but a bit of a let down (kinda like scuba was in 2016). Glad I did it though. I filed my taxes and went to see the Oscar nominated shorts.
• March:  The Wife went to New York for the Big East Men's Basketball tournament. We started planning our Great Britain trip. The start of multiple sprinkler system repairs started this month.
• April:  We went to see Omaha Supernova volleyball (one of the Wife's students will be joining them in 2025). We went to the GodSon's school gala in Minneapolis. We remodeled our bathroom.
• May:  The new bathroom was finished. My Mom had her last birthday.
• June: The Wife's student, the one ordained as a Deacon in Rome, was ordained a Priest in Omaha. We cancelled the Wife's Camino trip when we moved Mom's spinal surgery up. Mom's surgery was a success and her back pain diminished soon after her procedure. She would be at a rehab center for a few weeks. We were hit by a big hail storm this month. We would still be fighting the insurance company in November.
• July: Mom fell at the rehab center and fractured her hip. More surgery and more rehab to come. We celebrated our twenty-seventh wedding anniversary by taking care of Mom's finances and having burgers. On the way to celebrate the MoH and BM's birthdays our car got totaled by a semi. We had no injuries but OOF. We took the Wife's car and went to Minneapolis with a side trip to the Dignity of Earth and Sky statue. We tried to distract ourselves by watching the Olympics. July was a crazy a$$ month.
• August:   Mom went home from rehab. She was happy to be home. A week later I found her in her kitchen after she'd passed away. While we prepared Mom's memorial and burial we tried to live a normal life. I got a new car totally paid for my insurance. We went to a political rally, our first. Mom was buried near my Dad's grave. The Wife and I came down with COVID for the first (confirmed) time. Both cases were very mild. 2024 was not being gentle.
• September: Things started becoming more normal this month though this would be a brief respite until the real world caught up to us. We got vaccinated before our next international trip. We went on our trip to Great Britain (documented in October and November) and met with friends.
• October: We returned home from our Great Britain trip, a fun adventure. We voted by mail. The October weather rollercoaster resulted in our first brief freeze of the season. Eleven years have passed since the end of my second Camino. Not being done with us yet 2024 took one of my Aunts and one of the Wife's cousins. I had a follow up CT scan.
• November: One of the Wife's aunts and cousins visited this month and had a nice visit. 2024 had the coup de grȃce when the election crashed and burned.  After one phone call from the Wife we got a check from the insurance company to complete the roof repairs from the June hail damage.  I left Xitter and moved over to Bluesky.  We celebrated Thanksgiving with family,
• December: The house was decorated for Christmas including putting the balls in the oak tree out front.  Our TV died and was replaced.  We celebrated Christmas with family ... and Moose.
• Hiking: Like in 2023 my walking started off strong as I prepared to do the Camino with the Wife. Mom's schedule and our travel disrupted my walking until I somewhat got back on track in October.  I successfully pushed the length of my walks out beyond the ten mile mark.  In the end I managed to hike 605.4 miles (974.3 km) over 69 hikes. This distance ranks in seventh place and the number of hikes ranks ninth place since I started keeping track - an average showing I would say.   Definitely not a bad showing considering I really didn't hike much in the summer months.
  
  In early November I crossed the one thousand hikes recorded over seventeen years of keeping records.  Onward to two thousand!
• Books: I set a goal to read twenty books this year and, unlike last year, did not meet my goal reading only twelve books.  I read nearly everyday including while we were traveling (which is odd for me).  Despite this I think I read less per sitting and took a long time to finish books.  Here are my Goodreads Stats for 2024.
• Concerts, Shows & Music :  We went to a few concerts this year. With the Wife, I went to the Eagles, Peter Frampton, and Melissa Etheridge. I also went to Joe Satriani and The Offspring by myself.
  
  I listened to a lot of music this year - mostly during naps and on long airplane trips. According to Spotify I listened to 2,839 songs from 1,264 artists for 39,710 minutes.  Here is my Spotify 2024 Wrapped if you want to explore what the shuffle button did music-wise this year.
• I posted 96 times this year. Not as many as 2023 but good enough I guess.  I think I need to write more but I'm afraid of either going too dark, too political, or too preachy. 

What will 2025 bring? We are going to Guatemala early in the year to see where I spent my formative years and to visit parts of the country I've never been before.  We will be going back to Spain to continue, and possibly finish, the Wife's Camino in the summer. A trip in the fall is not out of the question but we are still mulling over possible destinations.  Other than that we will be trying to keep our sanity intact and brace ourselves for what 2025 has in store for us.

Here's to a Happy, Prosperous, and Healthy New Year for all.  May you all find happiness in 2025.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Nine - Ending Our Trip In London

Day Twenty - 01 October

Winston Churchill.

We left Glasgow and took our next to last two train trips.  Over the last twenty days we spent one day and two hours riding twenty trains 1,389 miles (2,236 km) across Britain.  These last trains, the longest segment ridden, would take us to the start of our trip, London.

It was raining when we arrived and we took a taxi to our hotel located on the edge of Hyde Park.  If the weather had cooperated a walk in the park would have been nice but the weather and our busy schedule would prevent us from exploring this large park. To be honest, as it was near the end of our travels in Britain, I was too tired to do much wandering.

Day Twenty-One - 02 October

Westminster Abbey.

We took the tube to Westminster station and met our walking tour guide near the statue of Winston Churchill.  From the start you could see the Elizabeth Tower with its famous Big Ben bells.

First stop in the walking tour was Westminster Abbey.  A lot of history has taken place here and many famous British subjects are buried here.  Unfortunately the crowd of tourists were often standing on graves that you wished to photograph.  Still we saw the resting places of Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, and Michael Faraday.  While I gawked at the scientists the Wife gawked at the authors and poets.

From there we walked to Buckingham Palace to witness the changing of the guard.  Along with the regular soldiers there was a large contingent of Gurkha soldiers in their distinctive uniforms as well.

Buckingham Palace from the mall.

We walked to Trafalgar square where we stopped for lunch at the Admiralty pub.

After lunch we walked toward the river Thames passing number 10 Downing Street along the way.  At the Thames we got on a boat and cruised up the river.  Unfortunately the weather, which had been fairly dry most of the morning so far decided to get a bit wetter so we went inside the boat and admired the buildings through windows.  From the ship we saw the Shard, the Globe Theater, and other landmarks you could see on the way to tower bridge.

Tower Bridge over the Thames.

At Tower Bridge we got off the boat and toured the Tower of London.  We met the legendary ravens and saw the crown jewels and learned of the history of the tower and the beefeaters who guard it.

One of the Tower of London Ravens striking a pose.

The walking tour ended here and we walked to the nearest tube station and headed back to our hotel.  It had been a busy day full of walking and history.

Day Twenty-Two - 03 October

Today we were on our own and the weather cooperated with us.  We started with a tube ride and a short walk to the Globe Theater.  We toured the reconstruction of the famous theater where Shakespeare's plays were - and still are - performed.  

Inside the Globe Theater.

From there we walked to a place to eat suggested by one of the wife's students.  The place was a food court with several vendors offering everything you would want to eat.  We ate at the Black Pig.  Finding a place to sit was challenging (an understatement) but we finally found a seat at a picnic table.  We didn't have any drinks and the lines to places selling drinks were long.  The Wife enjoyed her sandwich.  I did not enjoy it as much.  Too messy and spicy for my taste.  This was probably the only meal in Britain that I did not enjoy (or didn't finish).

The London Eye.

We walked along the Thames to the London Eye.  We were early so we had some drinks at a chips shop near the eye.  We had skip-the-lines tickets but we didn't realize you needed an app to use them so we found a place to sit at the Wife sloooowly downloaded the app.  We were a bit early so we had time and we managed to get on the eye on time.  The view of london from the eye was pretty awesome.

The Parliament building and the Elizabeth Tower (home of the Big Ben bells) seen from the Eye.

We were tired from all the walking and touring so we made our way back to the tube and headed back to the hotel.

Day Twenty-Three - 04 October

We  checked out and took an Uber to the train station where we took our last train, the twenty-first - this one an express train to Heathrow Airport.  The rest of the way went fairly smoothly.  It was a long day but it was nice to be home.

The Wife and I really enjoyed this trip.  Meeting with friends was a delight.  Not worrying about a language barrier was comforting.  transportation, while there were a few hiccups, was easy to figure out.  It felt different from our 'normal' trips which are in more exotic locations.  This trip was about history and everywhere felt familiar and definitely not exotic.  This is probably how our future trips to Europe will be like.  We still have a few exotic locals to visit but that is for another day, another trip, and another post.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Eight - Glasgow, Scotland

Day Eighteen - 29 September

We went to the Edinburgh train station the 'correct' way which was a heck of a lot easier.  Naturally going down the steps was easier than up.  We caught a train to Glasgow which was crowded (standing room only) but fortunately it was only thirty to forty minutes long.

The train station in Glasgow was literally next door to our hotel so we simply walked next door and checked into our room.  The hotel was on George Square the central square of the city.  The square is full of statues and a cenotaph at one end commemorating World War I veterans.

The Cenotaph.

We had some lunch in a crowded pub and visited the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA).  Now, if you know the Wife and I, museums aren't much our thing but we had time to kill and the museum was free so we said what the heck. 

The Duke and his crown.

In the front of the museum is a statue of the Duke of Wellington on a horse.  On his head is an orange traffic cone.  The cone has been removed many times and it is returned soon after.  As a matter of fact we saw quite a few statues in Glasgow and Edinburgh with cones on their heads.

We took the elevator to the top floor and worked our way down.  The Wife and I noted that most of the exhibits were more about the GoMA building and its history more than it was about modern art.  

This evening we went to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Andrew for Mass.  Afterwards we had difficulty finding a place to eat.  Our first choice was closed due to kitchen issues.  Their suggested alternative was too crowded and rowdy.  We ended up in the same pub where we'd had lunch even though it was crowded too.

Day Nineteen - 30 September

We ate breakfast in our hotel.  They had a nice enough spread but their pancake machine was out of order - a tragedy.

Saint Mungo mural.

We booked a short walking tour this morning.  It was drizzling as we waited for our guide in George Park.  At one end of the park they were filming some show - looked like a period piece.

Our guide showed up and explained the slave trader connection with the buildings surrounding the square.  She pointed out the unicorn on one building - the official animal of Scotland.  The Unicorn is said to be the only animal who could beat a lin in a fight (The British animal is the lion so lots of snark there) we walked through the city seeing religious inspired modern murals, the Glasgow Cathedral (with a view of the Glasgow Necropolis), and various old buildings demonstrating the history of the city.  We even saw the Doctor's TARDIS.  If we'd had time touring the Necropolis might have been interesting - next time.

The Glasgow Cathedral.

We ate at the 'rowdy' pub we'd passed over the night before.   We stopped at a grocery store on the way back so we could just eat/snack that night in our hotel room.

When we arrived in Glasgow we really didn't have a long list, or any list at all really, so we wondered what we would do with our two days here.  After our walking tour I think we could have spent another day (or at least had spent the time we had a little better).  Glasgow wasn't as interesting as Edinburg but there is still a lot of stuff to see if you know where to look.

Tomorrow we would be heading to our last destination, London.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Seven - Edinburgh, Scotland

Day Fifteen - 26 September

It was raining when our friends dropped us off at the Berwick-upon-Tweed train station.  We walked in about five minutes to eight and were on a train to Edinburgh by 8:00am.  Just over thirty minutes later we were in Edinburgh.  The hotel was not far from the train station but, for those not familiar, Edinburgh is a multilevel city.  The train station was on the lower level and the hotel on the Royal Mile was on the upper.  Google maps was ... confused.  We walked around in the rain looking for the stairs up to the upper level.  I eventually found a long staircase that took us up - it was not the right one.  It got us up but it was not the nearest to our hotel.  I eventually got my bearings and we reached our hotel.  My roundabout way of getting to our hotel added a couple blocks to our wet walk.

The Holyroodhouse.

We decided to walk to the Holyroodhouse, the royal residences when the royal family visit Edinburgh.  The walk wasn't long and mostly downhill but it was raining and windy and the short distance felt much longer.  We got an audio guide and walked through the opulent home and the attached Abbey while we learned about Mary Queen of Scots.  On the way back we took an Uber to avoid the rain and the uphill.

The Uber dropped us off at the Malt Shovel Inn where we were going to have lunch.  It wasn't open yet so we explored Cockburn street with it's restaurants and shops.  We bought some souvenirs and sweatshirts (as the weather was a bit colder in Edinburgh than my clothes selection could handle).  We returned to the Malt Shovel and had lunch.  This is where the Wife started her haggis tour.  She would have haggis nearly every meal, in one form or another, for the rest of our stay in Scotland.

We spent the rest of the day staying out of the rain venturing out only for food.

Day Sixteen - 27 September

Dean Village.

After breakfast we headed out to meet up with our walking tour guide.  The rain had stopped and today would be perfect for a six to seven hour walking tour.  The tour took us past the Sir Walter Scott monument, Dean Village (an old style neighborhood), a restored Georgian-style home, the home of the Scottish First Minister, a park with memorials and views of Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Scottish Academy gallery, and broke for lunch on Cockburn Street.  We ate at a pub before we rejoined our walking tour group.

Edinburgh Castle.

After lunch we walked through a close (a narrow ally/stairway) to the Royal Mile.  We visited Saint Giles Cathedral (we learned about the history of Edinburgh and the Scottish/English conflicts), Greyfriars Cemetery (we learned about Bobby and grave robbing), our guide touched on the Harry Potter connections to Edinburgh, we visited the Grassmarket and Victoria street, and entered Edinburgh Castle.  Our guide took us around the castle before saying goodbye and letting us spend our own time exploring the castle grounds, enjoying the views, and visiting the Scottish crown jewels.

It was a very busy day full of history.

Day Seventeen - 28 September

Our last day in Edinburgh was light activity-wise.  We had an Underground Vaults tour in the morning.  It was a late addition as most of these tours had a ghost tour angle that we really didn't care for but we had the time so ...  The tour wasn't that bad.  The vaults were originally used for restaurant/pub storage.  They eventually were occupied by the poor, workers, or students.  There were ghost stories naturally but, in general, the tour was interesting.

View of the city from Edinburgh Castle.

In the afternoon we went to Saint Mary's Cathedral. The Wife purchased a large icon that she thought would fit in her bag (it didn't) and would have to carry the rest of the way.

We stopped for lunch at the Conan Doyle Pub close to Sir Conan Doyle's birthplace.

I liked Edinburgh.  There was a lot of history and the multilevel nature of the city gave it interest.  It was odd crossing a bridge and looking down to see another house lined street running underneath.  We spent three days there but you could spend a week or more exploring this interesting city.

Next ... on to Glasgow.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Six - The Holy Island

Day Thirteen - 24 September

We taxied to the Oxford train station.  When we couldn't find our train on the schedule we asked a station employee who told us "that train hasn't run all week."  He provided an alternate train route that would get us to Berwick-upon-Tweed an hour after our original scheduled arrival.  Our arrival time was important as we were going to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is only accessible by a causeway that submerges during high tide.  You have to make sure you arrive at low tide so you can get across (apparently people get stuck on the causeway during high tide often).  I used an online booking site to reserve a taxi from Berwick-upon-Tweed to the Holy Island.  A couple trains later and we arrived in Berwick-upon-Tweed.  We waited past the time for the taxi until I gave up and called the taxi company directly.  They had no record of our reservation and had never heard of the online taxi booking site - crap.  They sent over a taxi and we headed for the Holy Island.  I figured the online site was a scam so, as we drove, I tried to see if I could cancel the charge to our credit card.  The charge was still pending so I couldn't contest it yet but, twenty minutes later, a credit appeared in our account.  I was relieved to see the site was not a scam and they had refunded my charge without being prompted.  Whew.

Our hotel on the Holy Island.

We arrived at our hotel (the taxi cost one half the charge from the taxi booking site - whew again).  I left our bags with the Wife at the hotel and I walked a couple blocks to another hotel to claim our key.  When I got back to the Wife our friends, N_k and J_n, who drove up to join us for a couple days, were there.

The only industry/businesses on the island are pubs, a few small hotels, fishing, and tourism - no grocery stores or other businesses you find in most towns.  Everyone had to leave the island to get things (or have things delivered).  This made the town feel cozy and old.  It had a magical atmosphere at times, especially when all the day tourists had gone.

The remains of the Lindisfarne Abbey (right) and the church of Saint Mary the Virgin (left)
from a nearby ridge. 

There are basically three things you can see/do on the Holy Island.  The first of these is visiting the abbey and Saint Mary the Virgin church.  The Lindisfarne Abbey was established in AD 634 and was the location of the first significant Viking raid on Britain.  It is sometimes considered the beginning of the Viking Age.  This Abbey, once led by Saint Cuthbert, has become the end point of a pilgrimage.  St. Cuthbert's Way is a 62.5 miles (100 km) pilgrim route from Melrose to the Holy Island.  We saw several people with backpacks walking the streets of the town often with big smiles on their tired faces.  It reminded me of the Camino including getting a certificate when you finish.

We visited the abbey and church before climbing up a short ridge where you had a great view of the abbey complex, the north sea, and the Lindisfarne castle.

This evening we ate as a small pub with good food.

Day Fourteen - 25 September

The second thing to see/do on the Holy Island is bird watching.  The entire island is part of the National Trust and there are trails and bird sanctuaries throughout the island.

The bay at low tide.

We got up and had breakfast at our hotel before going out to walk the island's trails.  The weather that had been rainy, drizzly, and overcast the past few days was absolutely gorgeous this day.  The sun shone through fluffy clouds and not a drop of rain in sight.  We walked along the north sea coast to a blind where we watched waterfowl swimming on a marshy pond.

The grassy hike along the island coast.

After completing a loop we headed out to the third thing you can see/do on the Holy Island.  We visited the rather impressive Lindisfarne Castle.  The 16th century castle rests on the highest point of the Holy Island.  You walk along the harbor to get to the castle.  Along the way I touched the North Sea for the first time.  We toured the castle that was renovated in 1901 by a magazine publisher who bought it.  It changed hands a few times before the National Trust took it over.  It was pretty cool and offered views of the harbor the castle once protected.

We visited the castle gardens - once vegetable gardens - and admired the late summer flowers and the buzzing bees.

We had lunch in a cafe before we split with our friends.  The Wife and I went back to the Abbey to visit the museum and go into the abbey ruins.

The Lindisfarne Castle as seen from the Abbey grounds.

We met back up with our friends for dinner.  The food was excellent again.  When we left the pub the streets were deserted.  It was high tide and all the visitors, except for the few with rooms on the island, had gone home for the day.  The past couple days had been a delight.  It was a short but relaxing respite from the go-go touring we'd had over the past couple of weeks.  Good company, good weather, and a place with a lot of history and nature - just what I needed.

We decided to get up early enough the next morning to beat the end of the next low tide.  This would give our friends a five or six hour head start on their drive home and we would take an earlier train to our next destination: nearby Scotland.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Five - A Rainy Interlude

Day Eleven - 22 September

We'd hoped to get out of Wrexham early but there were no good train connections to our next destination, Stratford-upon-Avon, until noon.  This would get us in too late for the afternoon walking tours.

Holy Trinity church where Shakespeare is buried.

We arrived and took a taxi to our hotel.  Our travel agent which made most of the hotel reservations on this trip put us in a beautiful hotel on an old estate but it was way out in the boonies.  It cost us over $30 to taxi to it from Stratford-upon-Avon.  It was so remote we really couldn't do anything outside our hotel this evening.  It was still raining so walking around the estate was out as well.

Day Twelve - 23 September

Shakespeare.

We checked out of our country hotel and found a place in central Stratford where we could drop our luggage (thank you Stasher.com).  The place was just a four minute walk from where the morning walking tours started.  It was raining/drizzling but it really didn't slow us down.  Our tour (just us and a guide) walked us around historic Stratford-upon-Avon near where Shakespeare was born and educated.  We visited the church where he is buried and walked by the city theaters.  At the church, the old man collecting entrance fees to see Shakespeare's tomb asked where we were from and started talking about Carter Lake which is not far from where we live - small world.  At the end of the tour we ate at a cafe in one of the theaters and exited through the gift shop naturally.

We picked up our bags and took an Uber to the train station.  From there we took a couple trains to Oxford.  Like in Stratford-upon-Avon our hotel was out of the way in an old estate.  It was too late to do anything and it was pouring rain - we had to haul our bags through the rain to a second building (with many stairs).  We ate dinner in the hotel and decided that any tour of Oxford was out of the question.  We just didn't have the time.  Next time.

The next day we would be heading to a place many have not heard of and it turned out to be a magical place.  We would also be meeting with our friends from Stubbington again which made it all the better.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Four - Are You Ready For Some Futball!?!

Day Nine - 20 September

Today was going to be our most complex travel schedule  involving Uber, taxis, three trains, and our first tube ride.  The Uber picked us up outside Saint James Church in Cooling and dropped us at the Chatham train station.  Here the Wife did her good deed of the day by giving some money to a lady you was trying to get her son to school.  The guard at the turnstile was being a raging dickhead.  The lady got her young son on the train and was kind enough to give us the change she got back after buying the ticket.  (I admit I thought she was scamming but the return of the change proved me wrong.)

The first train took us to London.  From there we had to take the tube to another station.  It took me awhile to figure out the tube map (they really needed an information person there).  We got on the tube with our massive luggage and made the one stop trip to the next station without issue.  Our second and third trains went without a hitch and we took a taxi from the Wrexham train station to our hotel.

Wrexham Mural from TV.

While checking in we discovered that the Wrexham AFC (Association Football Club) store closed in about twenty minutes and it was a fifteen minute walk.  We dumped our bags in our room and headed out.  Google maps, ofc, steered us the wrong way - operator error most likely.  We ran into a young man - a college student I presume - and he pointed us in the right direction and walked with us most of the way.  A nice fellow.  We arrived at the store with a few minutes to spare and bought some Wrexham AFC merch.

For those who are not acquainted with Wrexham Futball, you should try to watch "Welcome to Wrexham" to catch up.  We stopped at the Turf Pub next to the Racecourse stadium for a pint and diet coke.  The Wife got a picture with the pub owner who has appeared in the show.  They seemed to be filming something for the upcoming season here.  Unfortunately the Wife or I are probably not in the background.  From the pub we walked to a mural seen in the show before returning to our hotel.

Day Ten - 21 September

Miner's lamp.

We put on our Wrexham kit and went to breakfast.  Turns out the opposing team was staying at our hotel. The Wife humorously confronted a couple in opposing colors.  We all smiled without starting a fight.

We walked to the stadium and went to the new Fan Zone that was recently added and was included with our tickets.  We got some drinks, listened to some music, and chatted with the locals.  One guy, a retired miner from Wrexham, was carrying a miners lamp.  Turns out today was the day before the ninetieth anniversary of the Gresford mining disaster.  The wife was checking out the line to the special appearances (players would show up to get pictures taken).  While she was gone I was chatting with the miner.  He asked where I was from and what was my Wife's name and stuff like that.  When the wife came back he said hello to her by name and asked about Nebraska.  The Wife was all WTF?!?  He was a funny guy and everyone we met in Wrexham were friendly.

The Futball match was fun.  The wrexham fans are a rowdy bunch and songs were sung throughout the entire match.  Wrexham won 2-1.  In the last fifteen minutes of the game it started to rain.  During the last minute or two the skies opened up.  The Wife and I had our raincoats on as we walked back to our hotel through what we would call 'a gully washer' back home.  Up until now we'd had near perfect weather.  This rain would mark a change in our weather luck.

The first goal of the day - Wrexham of course.

The next day we would leave for a more Shakespearean destination.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Three - Champing

Day Seven (cont.) - 18 September

We arrived in Rochester and taxied to our hotel the Ship and Trades in nearby Chatham.  The fifteen room hotel sits on the waterfront with views of the marina.  The rooms are above a pub with outdoor seating.  It was a very nice setting.  We spent time outside eating, drinking, and, after talking to the front desk staff about transportation options, arranging our transportation for the next couple of days - Rochester/Chatham have Uber.

The view out our window at the Ship and Trades.

Day Eight - 19 September

Rochester Cathedral.

We ordered an Uber and went to the Rochester Cathedral.  In the cathedral we were met by a docent who was half history scholar and half comedian.  He was hilarious.  (To get the idea about the caliber of his humour: He pointed at something across the room and asked "Do you know what this is?"  When we said we didn't know he said "It's my finger." - non-stop dad jokes)  We walked around the church and went down to have lunch in the crypt ... yes there was a snack bar in the cathedral crypt.

We walked from the cathedral to Rochester castle located on a hill overlooking the cathedral and city.  The castle is hollow, the wooden floors between levels long gone.  We climbed the stairs to each level until we reached the top.  We admired the view before returning down the stairs and exited through the gift shop.

We took a taxi back to the Ship and Trades where we checked out and had some drinks at the pub.  An Uber picked us up and took us to the nearby town of Cooling.  We'd expected it to be a long drive out in the country but, while it felt like it was out in the middle of nowhere, it turned out to be a fifteen minute Uber drive.  We were dropped off at the Saint James church where we would be spending the night.  In the graveyard surrounding the church there is a cluster of children's graves.  This church and these graves were one of the inspirations for Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations".

Inside the Rochester castle.

This night we would be champing - CHurch cAMPING.  There are around twenty-four retired churches no longer being used.  The churches are maintained/renovated by the Churches Conservation Trust.  They pay for the maintenance by renting them out for the night.  It is a popular cycling tour from church to church.

I expected someone to meet us but we were alone when we arrived.  There was an outhouse next to the church entrance.  We used the code from an email to open the outhouse and another code to retrieve the church key from a lockbox inside.  We put our bags in the church next to the camp cots we would sleep on, locked the door with the key (the key was big enough to be a deadly weapon), and walked the block or so to the village pub - the Horseshoe and Castle.

Saint James Church, Cooling, Kent, UK.

We made a reservation for dinner and went outside with drinks while we waited for our time.  We chatted with a local couple about traveling and champing until it was time to go inside for dinner.  The food was pretty good and the place had a nice lived in feeling.

We returned to the church and explored it.  The walls of the vestry were covered in shells, the symbol of Saint James (and on the Camino).  There was an organ but it could not be played.  We locked ourselves in and we went to bed expecting it to be cold overnight and it was chilly but we brought what we needed to keep warm (our sleeping bag liners and warm clothes).  I slept surprisingly well.

The next morning our Uber came and picked us up and dropped us at the train station.  Are you ready for some Futball?!?

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Two - Another Friend, Cliffs, and A Bit Of English Literature

Day Five - 16 September

Our friends N_k and J_n dropped us off at the train station not far from their home and we headed east to Brighton.  We took a cab from the train station to our harbor front hotel where the Social Democratic party was holding some sort of get together.

We walked to a restaurant where we met with another friend who we'd met on the Camino in 2023.  E_a was one of the first people we met  at the start of our Camino but, since she had a deadline, ended up walking a bit faster than us and, unlike the Wife and I, had finished the whole thing.  That's a good thing for her since she didn't miss her boyfriend's proposal in front of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.  Still, in the few days from our first albergue we'd stayed at to just before Puente La Reina, we still managed to overlap our stages with hers and a friendship was formed.  That's what it's like on the Camino - friendships form quickly.

We had a great lunch and reminisced about the Camino.  E_a told us she felt like her Camino wasn't finished.  This is interesting since mine felt incomplete after my first one too.  I told her about how I'd felt and how my second Camino had finally brought some closure to me.  We invited her (and her now fiance) to join us next year when the Wife and I went back to continue out Camino.  She said she would consider it.

The Brighton Royal Pavilion.

After lunch E_a walked us to the Royal Pavilion.  As we approached we were joined by E_a's fiance who had managed to get out of a meeting in time to say hello.  He seemed keen on the Camino idea.

We visited the opulent Pavilion which was built for George IV when he was only a prince.  It was opulent like many of the royal residences we would visit around Britain.

Day Six - 17 September

We left Brighton on the train and headed for Dover.  Our original plan was to stop along the way in Canterbury to visit the cathedral but we couldn't figure out what to do with our luggage (it was heavy with three weeks worth of clothes).  911 has put a damper on lockers in train stations and the like.  Instead we went straight to Dover.

The white cliffs of Dover.

After checking into our hotel we took a taxi to the Cliffs of Dover national trust (the national trust is the UK equivalent of the national park service in the US).  We walked along the cliffs and got some nice views from a few viewpoints.  You could take boats out to get better views of the cliffs but their season ended in August and were no longer available.

Back at the gift shop I tried to call a taxi but my phone thought I was in France and I couldn't understand the error message I was getting.  Fortunately the person at the gift shop counter helped us by making the call for us.

Day Seven - 18 September

There was only one place else in Dover to see - the Dover Castle.  After considering our options we decided to take another crack at Canterbury first.  We left our bags at the hotel and took the train to Canterbury.

Inside the Canterbury Cathedral.

It was a short train ride and a short walk to the cathedral from the train station.  We took a tour of the cathedral and its gardens.  Unfortunately there was a graduation ceremony in the nave of the cathedral so we couldn't go in that part.  As compensation the tour opened up a couple places normally closed to visitors.

The Dover castle ... maybe next time.

We trained back to Dover and, after very little thought, decided to skip the castle and take an earlier train to our next destination.  We ate lunch at the hotel, called a taxi (Dover is a major cruise ship port so the wait for taxis was significant), and headed back to the train station.

Our next destination was Rochester.  Not far from there we would be doing something relatively strange.  We would be Champing.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.