Our First Snafu!

We were supposed to go to Liverpool today. We got to the train station at 6:30 a.m. for our 7:07 trip. We wouldn't have gotten home until about 10 p.m., so it was to be a full day. When we got to the station, the person that we were to meet did not have us on her passenger list. To make a long story short, Butch was getting worked up (only the 2nd time for the whole trip), so I sent him away to let me handle it. We missed the train and decided to get our money back. Mary, my travel agent friend, is handling that for us. Instead, we went to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels today instead of cramming it into our already full day tomorrow.

Afterwards, we had lunch at a German restaurant. Turns out that England is full of foreigners---not just the tourists, but the residents too. The food was delicious---except for the curry flavored ketchup. That was nasty---they didn't have regular. The bartendress (is that what you call a girl bartender?) gave Butch a beer glass and he bought another. Getting free stuff always makes him happy.

We took the "tube"all over today. Butch has been doing a lot of geo-caching all over England. Then, he found the Twinings Tea Shop---the original---started in 1706 and took me there. Such a cool place. I bought a lot of tea. More geo-caching. I decided to sit in the park. Remember I said they have no benches? Well, today, there were chairs set up everywhere. I parked myself---Butch warned me not to fall asleep. So I rigged up my purse through my shopping bags and attached it to my wrist.

I'm feeling all safe, like even if I fall asleep, no one could get my stuff. I was thumbing through a magazine, people watching, listening to all kinds of different foreign conversations and just enjoying the beautiful sunny day. A man walked up and said I owed 1.5 pounds (that's more than $2.25) to rent the friggin' chair for ONE hour!! Now it made sense. If they had benches, no one would rent the chairs! What a way to get a little extra revenue.

I watched a little girl about 2 yrs. old who had taken off her shirt and shoes and was pretending to swim in the grass. I kept thinking about how itchy she was going to be. Then she wanted her mom to blow on her arms. I realized that she was pretending to have her water wings blown up as she kept blowing on her arms herself too. Very cute. Kids are the same all over the world!

We got back to our hotel about 5-ish and settled in for the evening. We ordered room service for dinner and split the spaghetti. We had the best day and agreed that we were sort of glad our plans for Liverpool fell through.

 This is the original mosaic threshold to the store from 1706---it's the exact same location.

 Butch---geo-caching. Don't let that look fool you---he's had a great time geo-caching while I was in Twinings.

 These are the original pieces of art over the door. Inside, the walls are lined with old oil portraits of the Twining family through the centuries.

 Here are the rip-off chairs.

Here's my security system. Ain't nobody gettin' my tea!!!

I'm about ready to drop---but we're having a great time!