Travel Tuesday/Day 3

Let me start off by telling you about my "bang" mishap on Friday before we left. You may have noticed them in my pictures from yesterday. Here's what happened. I prefer to travel in the morning--I don't care how early it is. Otherwise, you spend the day waiting around to leave. Same thing for coming home---I want to go early.

Anyway, I was at loose ends on Friday. I was packed, had my nails done, Butch and I went out to lunch and then I did two scrapbook pages. Since I wanted to sleep during the flight, I did not want to take a nap. Around 3:30, I took my shower to get ready for the trip. That's when it happened. I decided that my bangs needed a little trim. It went downhill from there. You might have noticed my pictures from yesterday--my bangs are really short! Oh, well, that's what happens when I have too much time on my hands. I start thinking and that never leads to anything good! One good thing--they'll grow out.

So, on to today. On our itinerary was Bletchley Park. I was so looking forward to it as I've read books about it and watched a BBC show called--no surprise--"Bletchley Park." Oh, and I saw the "Imitation Game" a few years ago. We took the train from London--just about 40 minutes. It was a 5-minute walk to Bletchley. We opted for the self-guided tour. 

The mansion is beautiful. We spent a few hours touring and then had a really good lunch there at the little cafe. We didn't really hold out much hope that it would be good---you know, a lot of prepackaged foods. But surprisingly, the food was delicious. We shared a sandwich of brie, caramelized red onions, and spinach on ciabatta bread--grilled, so the brie got all melty. I'm going to try to make that at home. We also had a bowl of potato and leek soup--also good. 

I love sharing things for a couple reasons: 1. Butch always lets me pick (remember, he doesn't really care about food), and 2. If we share, then I can justify getting dessert. We got a shortbread bar with caramel and chocolate---omgosh! So good!

In this picture, you can clearly see the "botch" job I did on my bangs. And then today, I had another mishap. Since I am going to be here for two weeks, I had to plan for lots of clothes. I brought 3 pairs of white pants and 3 pairs of black--plus the outfit I wore on the plane will be what I wear home. My plan is to wear each pair of pants twice. I know that white is risky, but I do okay with white pants---usually! Not today. 

We got to the train station about 15 minutes early. We sat down on the bench. When it was time to catch our train, I realized that I had sat in something sticky. I asked Butch is it was bad. OMGosh! I'll say. Turns out whatever the sticky was, pulled up the paint from the bench on to my pants--and NO, it wasn't wet paint! 

I started planning about how I would clean my white jeans when we got back to the hotel. I brought some little, travel Tide liquid detergent packets. My plan was to wash them in the tub. But there wasn't a rock nearby, so I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. Now remember, I still didn't know what they looked like. Butch said he thought they were beyond hope.

I'm so sorry I didn't remember to take a picture. When I took the pants off, I was aghast. That's a word that actually is the sound you make when you are aghast! Once I re-gained my wits, I realized that the paint peeled off. What? The sticky stuff was a light brown--like syrup. After a minute or so of peeling the paint off, it stopped being easy. I ran the water over the jeans and then, miracle of miracles, the paint came right up. Instead of using the Tide, I just used the bar soap and scrubbed. They are not perfect, but are definitely not ruined either. Luckily, I think my blouses will cover the bit of discoloration that's left. Or, they might even dry lighter and not show at all. We'll see. At least a disaster has been diverted! I do plan to go to Marks & Spencer to do a little shopping when the girls get here. But when you really need something is when you cannot find it!

Total miles walked today: 4.26

Unusual things that need interpretation:

I keep seeing a sign around town for Barclays. I don't know what that is, but it's some sort of chain.

I saw a sign for a German gymnasium? What? Does that mean it's a gym only for Germans?

And then there's this:

What in the world is tropical medicine and tropical diseases? Plus, why would it be in London? Seems like it would be located in the tropics!

And lastly, as much as we learned today, I didn't learn a darn thing. I cannot wrap my brain around codebreaking. It seems way too impossible with infinite combinations. I told Butch that they needed someone to explain it to me in a very basic and slow way. Turns out, there was a "guy" who did just that on the little screen on our self-guided tour. I watched it twice and still had no idea what was happening. Impossible, I tell you. Many of the people who did it were geniuses, but many, many others were just regular people who brought different skills--musicians, linguistics---don't know what they have to do with any of it. One woman was saying that they brought her a slip of paper with stGochi---on it. She said, "Could that "G" be a lower case "g"! Then she said it was Santiago, Chile! My little pea brain could never interpret any of it!

Up next: Hever Castle tomorrow! Another train trip to visit Anne Boleyn's childhood home and gardens. I can't wait!!

Shout out to Morgan, Olly, Jordan, and Robbie. They spent Labor Day weekend camping in Yosemite National Park! It's Butch and my favorite--so beautiful.

They hiked to the highest peak. Butch and I were talking about it. I only made it a little past the first part. Butch made it a little past the second part. We didn't go for the top. As far as we're concerned, Yosemite is the most beautiful park in America---all those gorgeous waterfalls! I love that these two sisters and their guys like to hike together. Considering Jordan lives in LA and Morgan lives near Chicago, I think it's great that they can get together like this.