on the train to London.. Sunday.. afternoon..

Welcome to the big city.. Ahhh London.. and what great joy it brings.. If nothing else.. Has to have a bed that doesn’t have 50 year old SPRINGS.. that kill your hips and butt.. Mattresses! I have felt every spring in every bed we have slept on here in England.. In Scotland.. The bed was comfy had springs.. but also had a mattress cover.. that helped! .. All though we have found that their KINGS are actually like a queen in the states except not as wide,, but they are 6 foot long. Good for me.. Sucks to be Mel. They do happen to have lovely quilts.. Called DUVET here. They don’t use top sheets just the cotton duvet with the quilt inside.. As for the ones we have had.. 13.5 TOG. TOG is the weight of the quilt.. or how thick it is.. Lovely wonderful warm and comfy.. I will either buy one and ship it home or make one.. Which ever.. We need one.. And I never thought I would say that..
So where do I begin.. We picked up our boat.. Had the 20 minute lesson and off we went.. Down past the marina about 100 feet and moor’d for the night.. Starting off the next morning. But that is all old news.. We made it to Ellesmere, it was marvelous and warm.. Sunny and bright during the day. Got up to Llangollen and it seemed the days were nice but once the sun went down.. Wow so did the temps! I thought it was because we were up in the Welsh hills.. Which I am sure that some of it was for that reason. BUT.. They all agree… Autumn comes fast here in England! And.. I have to agree. We spent a couple days in Llangollen. Had a couple very narrow spots in the canal and it was amazing to watch some of the people that just took off down the canal with no spotters.. There was a reason I am sure they had the BIG BLACK SIGNS WITH WHITE LETTERING posted that told of the narrow canal and to have a spotter run along ahead. Hmm but far be it form me to tell them anything.. So I got out and ran ahead.. It was a very pretty stretch of canal and it was a good walk.. I swear I have lost 10 pounds on this trip. Besides.. Food sucks.. We DID happen to find the BEST place in all of this area..JACK MYTTONS.. Oh my gosh.. It was so good.. Salmon poached in white wine.. With a Baileys Sunday.. Fresh veggies.. Omg.. It was so good. We had to stop again. There was a place also in Whitchurch that was okay The Swan Inn.. But no where close to Jacks..
I think our favorite town along the way was ELLESMERE (mere meaning lake) Lets see if I can pick up about where I left off with the short blogs to at least let everyone know we are alive. You know it was relaxing and enjoyable on the boat.. it was fun watching the boats.. big and small turning around in the turn arounds. If you know how to do it.. it is quite easy.. if not it can be quite a dyer situation.. As they generally get stuck on the mud and sit there and crank the engine full throttle and ... go no where. The years and years of mud and leaves get readjusted and get to float on down stream.. the boat.. it sits. You have to remember our SMALL boat is 16 to 18 TONS... the larger boats are 72 feet long and perhaps almost double in weight.. They also trend to forget that you don't go at break neck speed, because you have to slow the tonnage down.. and if you are going to try to avoid the boat you are dead ahead for.. well it pivots at the center point of the boat.. or there abouts.. and.. one pet peeve of mine.. the people who had to go by your boat in the morning going full throttle all out.. I guess someone did that to them.. so pay back to other boats is in order.
I cooked a lot on the boat.. had to if we wanted any taste.. In the hamburger.. which I found to be quite good.. I used onion, garlic and yellow pepper chopped up.. used mixed spices, salt, pepper, and finally used whole seed mustard.. then fried it all up.. turned out pretty good. Did the same with potato's too. Green beans.. they have no salt added.. sure do taste funny without even a little salt. Taking a guess I would say their salt is maybe a 16th of how salty our salt is. That make sense??? Anyway we literally poured on the salt to get salt taste.. then remembered I snagged a bunch of McDonald salt packets and used them. Sad..sad.. our evening snack was potato chips.. for the salt craving.. heheheh
Well now we are heading towards London.. I will try to down load a few photos now.. since everyone has been asking.

Here are a few photos……


This is just trying to show the length of our boat.


That is Mel.. wayyyyyy up there :) can you see him :)

Well dang.. getting close to London.. will have to shut down and do it all later.. meantime.. I don't think TMobile is my fav..

hugs.. keri