On Holiday

 When the Brits take a break and go on a vacation, they say, “We’re going on holiday!” If they go to the hospital, they say, “We’re going to hospital.” And if they are attending a university, they say, “I am going to university.”  All that aside, SK and I are on holiday.

Erin and Ethan arrived at 4 p.m. today at Heathrow. Well that is when they were supposed to arrive, but their plane was a half hour early. We should have been there by then, if we had left Oxford when we had planned to, but circumstances changed, and as it happened, we got to Heathrow about 5 p.m. - which wasn’t too bad because it took Erin and Ethan nearly an hour to get through customs and pick up their luggage.

They had to submit an itinerary - a detailed list of where they would be during their stay and when they would be there. Normally, SK and I are a bit more relaxed with things like being on holiday, but this prompted us to action. We made castle touring reservations and lined up hotels, and we have a great few days ahead. We are really excited about what we will be seeing.

We planned on leaving Oxford at 1, and to be truthful, I was not quite ready. It seems that I have been packing for a month, and in some ways I have, but come this morning, there was still so much to do. We have four large suitcases. The weight limit is 50 pounds. Three of them came in under that limit, with a fair amount of moving things around between them. The fourth is just going to be heavy, They are big suitcases and 50 pounds is a whole lot of stuff.

In the end, I pulled several items of clothing out and put it in a plastic bag for Salvation Army, but I couldn’t part with many of the souvenirs we will come home with. Oxford is simply a part of me now, and I have a few reminders. Silly I know.

We would have been ready to lock the door on the flat except that I couldn’t find my glasses. We combed that entire flat. We looked high and low, and they weren’t to be found. By this time, SK had manhandled those behemoth suitcases into the car, and we had our two. Carryons plus various and sundry bags holding toiletries and jackets left to take down.

We concluded that they had either been accidentally tossed into the garbage container outside (SK had emptied all of the garbage cans in our flat earlier - pardon me, but that is actually “Rubbish” containers), or accidentally packed into one of those suitcases. Neither possibility was a possibility to consider. We didn’t want to go down and sort through the rubbish of some dozen apartments, and we didn’t want to go through those suitcases out in the parking lot - and we were late!

So we left. I do fine up close, but when we are out sightseeeing, I love to wear my glasses so that I can see every detail. Before we left, SK did a pretty good job of super-gluing my other pair of glasses - which had snapped on the bridge between the lenses. They are slight askew so that they distort my vision somewhat, but I think they will do.

It was so fun to drive up to the terminal and see Erin and Ethan there waiting for us. I didn’t snap a picture! I was so excited that I didn’t think about it. 

By the way, the reason it took us so long to get to Heathrow is that we drove to the mission office first in London and put the four suitcases in a locked room in the mission office. We then drove to Heathrow. We made it in good time, all things considered.

From Heathrow, we headed southeast to Canterbury. It was a pleasant drive, chatting all the way. Ethan and Erin were feeling a little zombie-esque because they were sleep-deprived before they even left, and arrived here at would have been morning for them. They were also a little disturbed by the driving on the left side, and negotiating all the round-about.

However, it didn’t take me long to figure out that Ethan will be in the navigator’s seat for the rest of the trip....a position I gladly relinquish. Ethan already seems to be oriented to this beautiful country.

We did a certain amount of bumbling around before finding the parking lot for the hotel. We each got out our luggage, and in the closing light of day, dragged them through the parking lot, along a sidewalk and then down a quarter of a mile of very old and quaint shops to our hotel. 

The hotel itself is several hundred years old. The cheerful woman who answered the door grabbed by suitcase and asked me to follow her up a flight of old rickety stairs. I protested but she said, “I’m stronger than I look and I am happy to help.” Everyone else followed us. She got us checked in and then started dragging my suitcase again as she as motioned for us to come. We went down a few steps, down a short hall, up a few steps, outside into the cool night air, up some more steps and into a door, down another hallway, where she showed Ethan and Erin their room. Around a corner and down another hall, she deposited my suitcase and energetically went on her way. 

There are stairs everywhere in this old place. SK and I have a hard time walking in our room, because it is slightly sloped. It IS an old building and rather charming. It is very very clean, and I’m looking forward to breakfast tomorrow, which will be served in our room.

After seeing where we would lay our heads this night, we went out into the center of Canterbury to get something to eat. The same lady at the hotel had been calling around until she found a restaurant that was still open at 9 and made reservations for us - admonishing them to be nice to us, because one of us is having a birthday!

We walked the distance of perhaps a third of a mile to a lovely little restaurant that was in the happy midst of serving nearly a full house. It was a seafood restaurant. I of course ordered fish and chips and Erin got cod and mussels. SK got fish and chips and Ethan got sea bass. We also asked for salted carrots and another dish - cauliflower wings. Every single things was out of sight delicious. It was a wonderful meal with more visiting about home and so many other things.

Back through the darkened streets, walking along the cobblestones, past people celebrating who knows what, individuals staggering around after celebrating a little too much, and other characters. Back into the quaint little hotel, down the little hallways, up and down stairs, outside and inside again. Into our rooms, into our pajamas, and into bed. Ahhhh. 

Tomorrow we see the historic Canterbury Cathedral. And we are sharing it with loved ones! It doesn’t get much better than this.