London Day 5: Into the Woods!

 Day 5 was a good one. we had to get up early (for vacation) so we’d bought some groceries the night before and made some eggs in the room for breakfast. This involved figuring out how to use “the hob” which was the electric cooktop. Jason got it sorted out and made an egg scramble. I’d wished I’d grabbed some butter from the breakfast buffet the day before for our bread and I am really missing having all the world’s best EVOO at our fingertips!! 

We grabbed an Uber to take us to the Waterloo train station. We had to be on the 10 or 10:30 train and when we got into the Uber the first thing he said was, “Man, traffic is so bad right now.” Great.

We missed that 10:00 train but arrived at 10:10 or so and I was feeling good. We bought our tickets at the kiosk and then spent 11 minutes trying to find the bathroom. By then, it was time to board! It’s cool these days because you can buy an “anytime” ticket and not be locked into having to get on a certain train at a certain time. If you know me, this is my preferred way to travel. Whatever, whenever. Bam.

We had a lovely, easy, peaceful train ride to Haselmere where we were picked up by my lovely employee Emma and her husband Chris. After years of working together, we’d still never met in person! We were so excited to see each other in real life!! My team plays a game where we try to guess how tall someone is when we finally get to meet them. We’ve only ever seen each other’s faces on video calls! I did NOT expect Emma to be shorter than me! What a cute little thing she was! 

We took off in her green Mini Cooper (I was feeling exceptionally British, I have to say) for a local village pub where we were going to meet Matt and his wife Vicky. Matt and I have been working together the past couple of months and we realized he and Emma lived about 10 minutes apart! Insane! 

We get to this village and you guys…it is…it’s so damn tiny and so damn cute I can’t stand it. We walked up to the pub/restaurant place and I said, “If I wasn’t with you guys, I wouldn’t know this wasn’t someone’s house! How do you know to go in here???” So there was that place, a tiny shop, a post office and like…12 houses? When I close my eyes and think of a little English village in the countryside, it is EXACTLY what I picture. What a dream!

Matt and Vicky arrived a little bit later - hugs all around! Everyone was chatty, and lovely, and warm. The meal was delicious! I had a risotto and Jason finally had fish and chips. 

We had plans to go to a vineyard for wine tasting after but we had a little sliver of time first so Matt and Vicky ran home to grab a taxi to the vineyard so they could fully enjoy the tasting without having to drive. Emma and Chris took us to a (oh my gosh why is everything so freaking cute) little brewery to try a hyper local brew. We all had a little half pint of stout and whoa - man, it was good. I was surprised to find a glass of free condoms in the bathroom! Hahah - I guess a day of drinking has led to quite a few babies;)

Now, while there, we started talking to the lady working there. Chris and Emma are throwing a huge festival in their village on June 8 and have made their rounds all over the neighboring communities to invite local people and business to the Festival of Food and Fizz! So, this little brewery is coming. In the convo, they talked about other happenings going on around the area and this is where we made the most hilarious discovery. There is a “famous” local celeb who is a drag performer with the most glorious name….Camela Toe. 

Oh the laughter.

We’re still laughing. 

It left with Chris and Emma texting their village vicar to see if it would be acceptable to bring Camela Toe to the Festival of Food and Fizz and this whole thing just has me in hysterics. Who texts the vicar? The vicar gets to weigh in on the drag performer coming! Camela Toe! 

So, we then made a bee line to the vineyard. It started with a bit of a tour in the vines. It was really nice. They make all sparkling and their terroir is similar to Champagne, France so I was excited to see how everything tasted. 

We went inside and got to taste 3 different sparklings; all of them were delicious! The group consensus was the middle one, which had a touch of sweetness, was the most enjoyable. So, Chris popped up and went and bought a bottle for the table. So, Matt popped up and went and bought a variety of cheeses and things to snack on and we sat and laughed and visited until the place was closed! 

After a good round of hugs goodbye, Emma and Chris took us back to the train station - with a slight detour to the local grocery to get some ‘gin in a tin’. Because, surprise! You can drink on the train! Gin and tonics and a train ride home in the rain for the win.

By the time we got to Waterloo, found an Uber, and got back to the hotel it was around 9:30. I was all full up with the goodness of the day. What an absolute delight to meet such beautiful people and enjoy the day with them. 

In the drive home, we had a wonderful driver who was extremely knowledgeable in the area and took us past all kinds of things we’d somehow not seen despite being in London a week now - you know, like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, etc. It’s a different kind of trip to be in a different country with so much to see and do but to be spending most of the time being with friends. I love it. 

Tomorrow would be our last full day in London and we had some loose plans. But first, sleep!!

London Day 4: High Tea at Harrods

 Wednesday morning we had a slow roll as we didn’t need to be anywhere until 2. We had some coffee in our room. Coffee over here is interesting. All the coffee shops make amazing, delicious coffee. But in the hotels and air bnbs, you get freeze dried coffee. And, oddly, it’s pretty good. All the rooms have electric kettles. Our hotel had little packets of milk. Just throw it all in a mug, add hot water - bam. The best of this type of coffee we ever had was in Adelaide Australia. Man. I can’t believe how good it was! 

While reading and surfing the web, we realized we could get going earlier and meet up with Ashley again before high tea. She was down so we got ready and grabbed an Uber to Harrods.

If you’ve been to London, you’ve likely been to Harrods. To call it a store is…not sufficient. It’s this massive…I don’t know, 4 or 5 story complex with everything for sale from cars, to whole pig legs, to perfume. There was a tea room and that’s where Ginny booked us a reservation for high tea.

When we rolled up, we hopped out and realized that saying, “I’ll meet you at the entrance” as dumb, because there are something like 194 entrances. Approximately. So, we strolled around the building looking for a pub. Didn’t find one but did find a lovely little Italian restaurant with outdoor seating and plenty of room at the bar. We grabbed a seat, texted Ashley where we were, and a few minutes later - there she was! 

Now, Jason was able to login to Verizon and add a 2 week plan that gives him cell service for something like $10/a day while we’re here. We decided it was a good idea if one of us could pull up a map or call a cab at any time. You know? But also, in London, every place we went had very good WiFi and only one place so far required a password. This means you could reasonably walk up to the front of a pub and hop on WiFi long enough to look at a map or something. That’s pretty great! 

Anyway, we enjoyed our drink and chatting with Ashley for a bit and then needed to split up and find the MALBEC crew. When we last heard from them, they were meeting in their lobby and getting a cab over. The guys were going to hang at a pub while we had high tea. Jason and Ashley took off towards a pub that sounded promising and left me waiting outside the Italian joint, across the street from Harrods. I was hoping for the best because if I walked away I would lose WiFi and have no way to contact anyone.

Right about 2, I saw the group heading my way! I told Rich and Mike what pub Jason and Ashley had gone to and provided ample directions by saying, “They went that way” while pointing down the street. They also didn’t have WiFi but just started wandering off. Ginny and Diana didn’t look concerned so I thought, ok, well, good luck! I texted Jason to ask him to walk this way and make sure Rich and Mike found it but I couldn’t tell if the text went through. Good luck gentlemen! I can’t worry about it - I have 27 little sandwiches to eat.

Ginny, Diana and I went in and found the tea room. We were a few minutes early so we waited at the bar. There was an absolutely delightful pianist playing - everything from the Mama Mia soundtrack, to Billy Joel, to Miley Cyrus. I loved listening to it! He was an older gentleman. I’d say maybe 65+? Which made his set list all the more impressive. 

We were seated at our “couch” which was a velvety half moon shaped couch booth thing. It was very comfy once you were in, but if you’ve ever tried to slide across velvet, you know we struggled to get around that sucker! 

We ordered a glass of bubbles, picked our flavor of tea (I went with jasmine) and then the trays of goodies started coming out. All the usual suspects - cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon, egg salad, little tiny tarts and cakes. Everything delicious, of course. After we finished our sandwiches, our server asked if we wanted more of them. Good Lord man. We just ate 17 sandwiches, still have a tray of sweets, and THEN the scones would be brought out. I think we’re ok here. Plus, we have to slide back out of this velvet thing and we don’t need to weigh any more when we do it! 

It was quite the treat! Delicious and relaxing and fun. 

When done, we decided to walk through a couple of shops. Mostly so we could laugh together and the ridiculousness of someone paying $490 pounds for a tan colored sweater that looked like one you’d get at Kohls. That said, the clearance racks were pretty impressive. I saw a really cute dress that I would have loved to wear for the yacht wedding if I could somehow drop 25 pounds while eating and drinking all day in the next week. You know. 

So, now we were walking through the bottom floor food halls and HOLY COW. Every delicious thing you can imagine for sale down there. Including entire pig legs at the Charcuterie place. I have my own ample supply of pig legs back home, not to brag, so I just admired theirs and walked on.

Jason and I were trying to figure out how to reunite the group. Should we walk to pub? Would they walk here? Problem was, the texts weren’t going through all that quickly which made it get confusing fast. Finally Jason said, “to be clear we ARE NOT WALKING THERE. You ARE WALKING HERE” Ok! He sent a pic of a map and walking instructions since we’d lose WiFi when we walked out.

Problem was, when we did walk out, we weren’t where the map started. I sorted could make sense of part of it so we went that way. WE realized we weren’t on the right street and needed to cut over one, which was fine but also great because then we saw a car being towed. And dang man. I had no idea that other countries tow cars differently. This tow truck had this claw thing that dangled over the BMW and then connected to some chains they slid around the tires and then plucked the damn thing right up into the air - swinging around and all and then placed it on top of the tow truck. How cool!

About that time, I saw a store that was conveniently marked on the map and then we knew how to get the rest of the way. So, we met up with dudes and Ashley who had been having a great time of their own. We stayed for a drink and then Jason, Ashley and I took off to ride the subway to meet up with Janine for dinner. The rest of the Malbec crew went back towards their hotel for dinner as well.

We ate at this cool outdoor place that’s really a bunch of permanent food trucks called Vinegar Yards or something like that/ You can sit anywhere, order by QR code on the table, and it texts or emails when you can grab your food. I wasn’t hungry (obvs) so I had a drink while everyone else enjoyed some dinner. We were right by the Shard, which is a gigantic tall skyscraper that looks like a shard of glass. Across the street is the Borough Market, which we planned to go to later in the week. It was a very busy, bustling area and everyone was out and about enjoying the evening. So nice to see such a lively city. When we finally got an Uber back, we realized how late it had gotten. I think we got to the hotel around 9 and we were once again very worn out!! What a lovely day of being out with friends and enjoying the sights!

As a bonus, we saw some graffiti while waiting for the Uber - a shoutout from our favorite very good boy- Hi, Brix! 

London Day 3- Taking the ‘Ol HoHo to Nowhere

 Ah, day 3. We’re now fully rolling and about have the place, that being London, figured out. We decided last night at everyone’s hotel that we’d buy Hop on Hop off bus tickets for today. The MALBEC crew calls these “the HoHo”. You know you love it.

While speaking with the concierge, we asked which company was the best HoHo. The concierge said it was “BigBus”. Ginny asked why. Concierge said because they are all former educators or historians and know a ton and it’s been around the longest. 70 years. “70 years???’ I questioned. Yes, he confirmed. I said, “Are you sure there were busses 70 years ago?” He laughed and then, having just discussed our ages at happy hour I said, “Wait, Ginny was alive then…Ginny, were there busses?” She laughed. The concierge looked at me. I said, “She was conceived on a bus.” It was worth it to see him blush! HA! And hey, maybe she was. I don’t know. 

Anyway, again with the bowl of cucumber breakfast and the slow elevator. A walk to Tesco grocery for ice (OH MY GOSH WE MISS COLD DRINKS) and some more Amarone. And then, we start walking to the nearest spot where we can get on the HoHo. Plan is for the others to get on near their hotel and ride to us. They only go clockwise, so we just wait. In a fabulous stroke of good luck, after walking for 40 minutes or so, we find the HoHo stop which is exactly, directly, 100% in front of a pub. Hot damn. I got thirsty walking all the way over. So, we go inside, grab a table at the front window and grab drinks. 

And then, we waited. There is a cool app for the HoHo, so once the gang was on their bus, I was able to actually follow their progress through the stops. That said, it took them over an hour to get on the bus because apparently 3 stations closed and no one told anyone and wouldn’t you know one of the three is the one they were waiting at. So, by the time they finally got on, it took over an hour for them to get to our stop. And we didn’t care in the least! We did some terrific people watching, kept dry from the drizzling rain, and sipped our cider.

Once we made it on the bus all together, we’d gone about 2 stops when they needed to get off to pee. Fine with us! We hopped off at the Marble Arch, which sounded magical in the narration but the problem was, I couldn’t see it. ‘So guys, excuse me for being skeptical…but does anyone see a marble arch?” Turns out it is being restored so they have it covered up with a…. Very enormously large Ralph Loren Polo advertisement. I didn’t see that coming!

Turns out the closest bathroom was in a hotel about a block away, so off we walked. And then we strolled into the magnificent Cumberland Hotel - which is the last residence of Jimmy Hendrix. In tribute, the entire lobby was incredible - all rock n’ roll, guitars, old black cabs…it was AWESOME! After everyone visited the bathroom, we decided it was too cool to leave so we hopped into the lobby bar for a cock tail.

After awhile, we realized we needed to hop back on the HoHo because we had early dinner reservations and who knew how long it would take to ride over into the Piccadilly Circus area. We managed to grab a group photo before heading back to the bus. Shout out to people kind enough to take photos for others! Also, if it isn’t too much to ask, please stop squatting to take the photo. It makes my chins look so much bigger. Please hang from the ceiling and take a photo straight down. Thank you.

Back on the HoHo, we cruised right over and hopped off in the middle of very fancy, high end shopping. If you need a 17,000 purse, let me know. I’ve got a place for you! We were an hour early for the reservation so we walked around a bit and then went into the restaurant bar for a pre dinner drink. Ginny just so happened to have family also visiting in town so the 4 of them met up with us. The food was terrific!! Unfortunately, they don’t like to split the checks here so we went round and round for a bit figuring out what everyone owed. By then, we were once again SO TIRED! We all headed out and back to our hotels for the night. We needed to rest because the next day, we had high tea!

London Day 2 - Friends Abound!

 So, we were super eager for our second full day in London because the most amazing coincidence happened. When we were still hanging in Philly waiting to fly to London, I was scrolling Instagram and saw my buddy Ashley post a picture of the Tower of London Bridge with the caption, “Hello, London.” I quickly jumped over to DM her to see how long she was going to be in London. I figured she’d say she was heading home that day. Instead she said - all week! And oh the fun to reply back, “SAME!!!”

To catch you up- Ashley, Jason and I have been friends for years. We all met when Jason started working at 6 Stones. Ashley’s the one who invited us to brunch some random day and casually said, “Jason, we’re starting an urban farm and I think you’re the farmer.” No one was more emphatically sure he wasn’t the farmer than Jason himself who yelled out, “I don’t even like to mow the lawn!”

The urban farm led us to wine making which led us to olive oil. Ultimately. What an amazing series of things.

Anyway. Back to day 2. Ashley has since moved to Germany and we moved to California shortly after we all went to Ireland. Man, I’m really rambling but you need to know it’s been a minute and all kinds of things have happened since we saw each other last! 

We went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast which was free and pretty good. Traditional English breakfast with the beans and all. And then some curiosities - like always a bowl of cut cucumbers. I love cucumbers and I often eat weird things for breakfast, so cool, but also…I think that’s odd. I asked some British people and they also thought it odd. But, it’s really the only vegetable we encountered the entire time (other than fries, which don’t count) so breakfast cucumbers it was!

While we were walking out from breakfast, we saw Wall Texas Man! We ran over to say hi and laugh about how he knew Brent when we discovered he did NOT know Brent. LOL. Turns out the reception man asked him, “Do you know Brent or James?” Rather than, “Do you know Brent Jameson?” And, he knew a guy named James. 

I don’t know how they could all be in this same tiny town and NOT know each other - but maybe this will cause them to meet up! Wall Texas Man’s sister got married in Paso Robles, of all things!!! I think we will encounter him again. Unfortunately, despite all this and having his phone number, we do not know his name so … Wall Texas Man. 

After that and the very long and slow elevator ride back to the 7th floor, we cleaned up and got ready to meet Ashley and Janine! We felt like we’d met Janine because we’ve had several almost meets- she’s even stayed in our Grapevine house before but we weren’t there! But, we already felt like friends and it was awesome to meet in real life.

They were staying across London so offered to come to us since we hadn’t yet figured out all the trains, tubes, and buses. We met up in the lobby with big hugs! YAY for friends! Maybe the only person more thrilled for us to see each other is Ashley’s mom- shout out to Belinda! Moms are always happy to see their kids so happy! 

Then, we were off. A wonderful walking tour to and through Kensington Palace and grounds! Tons of people out walking and enjoying the day. Met lots of British dogs. The palace gardens and pond were so pretty. We found a pub to have a refreshment and ended up hanging there for quite some time talking and catching up. I had some fried Halloumi, which is the most amazing Greek cheese that you can grill. I can only rarely find it in Paso so it was an extra treat!

And then - it was time to rush over to Westminster again because we were meeting Mike, Diana, and Rich and Ginny for happy hour. R&G arrived at the hotel around 3 so they were ready to roll. Grabbed another Uber and took off! We all met in their lobby and finally decided to just hit the hotel bar. This is when we discovered the porn star martini. It’s a nice cocktail with passion fruit juice. I never heard of this but later we saw it on every menu so it’s a London thing for some reason. Hilariously, I also saw a mock tail version of it on some menu called The Born Again Porn Star Martini. If that’s not funny, I don’t know what is.

So, the MALBEC crew was together again! The 6-pack was back! So much fun catching up. We’re all going on the Antarctica cruise together at the very end of the year, so we chatted some about that. Who is doing what excursion, etc. Somehow I took NO pictures of this part of the day- dang it!!!

By then, whew, we had worn ourselves out and left them to have dinner while we ubered back to our side of town again. We grabbed a lite bite, sipped a glass of ridiculously good Amarone, which I got for 20 pounds at the grocery store next to the hotel. BAM!.

London Day 1- Where am I? How did I ever live without WiFi?

 So, as we waited at Heathrow for our luggage, we tried to figure out where to go to grab an Uber or a cab. And in just that one tiny second, I realized how my entire life revolves around WiFi now.And the cool thing is, I don’t have it here. At least not when I’m out and about. Which is, shall we say, when I really need it. 

By the way - business class on British Airways - TERRIFIC. The lounge while waiting - AMAZING. Leftover red noses from Red Nose Day - BRILLIANT!

Oh, I would be remiss to leave out how delightful the customs process was. We strolled through, scanned our passports, chose the ‘nothing to declare line’ and walked right out. Bam. Also, no one yelled at us or anyone else the entire time. So blissfully un American. 

Anyway, grabbed our bag, used our actual eyeballs and a small portion of brain to follow the sign to taxi and then successfully climbed in one. This is big because if you’ve followed our travels you know that we absolutely SUCK at getting a taxi in any country. But look at us now!

Taxi driver says - where are you going? We said the hotel and the neighborhood. He said, “what’s the postal code?” Well. I didn’t see that coming. And you know how we would look that up? WiFi. So, we said, “We don’t know.” He said he needed to know. So we said we didn’t know. And then magically he realized he had WiFi and also GPS and also the Uber system so off we went! (Imagine navigating only by postal code!! In a massive city!)

Next thing you know, we arrived at our lovely hotel about 8 hours before check-in. The reception desk was absolutely lovely. They let us into the restaurant for coffees and continued to press the housekeeping staff to prioritize our room. (Yay for Marriott loyalty points!) We got in around 11 after an insanely joyous amount of people watching in the lobby chairs. So many people, countries, languages, mannerisms! Everyone was calm and chill, even when frustrated. That was nice. 

We became acutely aware that there were 2 lifts and both were the slowest, like tragically slow, elevators I might have ever seen. Large lines would form. And then 15 people would try to cram into the space for…let’s say appropriately 6-8 with no luggage. These lifts would be the Bain of our existence- 100%.

We took a walk about while waiting for our room- it was a bit rainy on the way back but we ducked under shop entrances and managed to stay dry. We were right off a major street with tons of restaurants, bars, shops, etc. So cute! I love a walkable city!

Our room is perfect - a bedroom area to the left, the bath, and a full living room and kitchen to the right. We wanted to stay here, even though it was farther out, for the full suite since we’d be there an entire week. And- amazing - free laundry in the basement! W00t! 

With that done, we decided to grab an Uber over to Westminster area to meet up with Mike and Diana for a pint since we’d all been able to check in and grab a nap. 

We got to their hotel and found them waiting in the lobby for us! YAY! So good to see them again! Big hugs all around and then off for a walk to a neighborhood pub. 

Everything was delicious - cider, beer, even the white wine! And, there was an incredible singer playing the guitar with an American set list from the 70s to today. We enjoyed him so much and the time to catch up. 

After that, we grabbed an Uber from the pub because we were on their WiFi and headed back to our hotel. They had a room service agreement with the Italian place across the street so we called in an order for some pasta. We ran (slowly because, see above, elevator) down to the lobby bar to grab a bottle of red before our food arrived. While standing there, the only other person sitting in the bar looks at us and says, “Where y’all from?”

And wouldn’t you know.

Jason said, “well…. Texas and California.”

The guy smiled. Then he said, “Me, too.”

Because of course.

So, he is a cattle rancher from Upland, CA originally. Moved his entire 5000 head of cattle to Texas a few years ago- about the time we passed him moving to California!

Jason said, “whereabouts in Texas?”

“San Angelo.”

We smiled. We know people from there.

“Actually, he says, Wall, Texas. Teeny tiny. No one knows it.”

“I do,” I said, because I KNOW I DO but the old brain was done braining for the day and I couldn’t come up with it until we shook hands and left. Then, while spending 12 minutes in the elevator I screamed out, “Brent and Sandy Jameson!” Jason was in his fraternity with Brent and I in my sorority with Sandy and they married (Brent and Sandy - not the fraternity and sorority.)

Anyway, back in the room Jason says this is too funny. I want to know if that guy knows Brent so he calls the front desk and asks to be transferred to the bar. “Well sir, I cannot. There is no phone there. Can I take a message for you?” (LOL!!!! I love other countries!!!) 

Jason says, “ok, grab some paper. Go ask that one guy at the bar with the martini if he knows Brent Jameson. We just met him - he’ll remember- but ask him if he knows Brent.” 

Reception man, ‘Ok, sir.”

A minute later the phone rings. Reception man, “Sir! He says he knows him! He wanted me to give you his cell and said to text him!”

HAHAHAHAHAHA. 

By then it was very late- so we finished our (amazing) pasta, enjoyed our red wine, and planned to text Wall Texas man in the morning. 

I love a small world story ALL DAY LONG.

And now for a brief interlude in London…

 So, there we were. Sitting around the ranch one day about 8-10 months ago when a text popped through on our (texas) fantasy football group thread.

“Guess who is getting married?”

“Who?” We all said, legitimately having no clue.

“We are!” Said Pete and Mandy.

“For real?” We all said.

You see, they’ve been dating for ever. Like….15 years? No one had a clue marriage was even a consideration. And then one day - boom. 

Next question came.

“Who wants to come to Cadiz, Spain for the wedding?”

Less than .0001 seconds later Jason and I both reply, “me.”

I mean, duh. Obvs. We’re ALWAYS IN FOR THE ADVENTURE, YO.

So, a few details changed during the planning. One being, it wasn’t going to be Cadiz. It was going to be Antibes, France. We were a bit bummed because we’d recently been to Cadiz and it is completely rad. But, it also feels super dumb and incredibly entitled to have an attitude of being annoyed at going to the south of France in the summer so we got over it. 

Once the actual date of the wedding was announced, we had another issue. We were supposed to be on a cruise to Iceland with our cruising buddies then. Dang it. It sucks having too many awesome things to do at one time, you know? But, we realized that you can’t say no to a wedding 15+ years in the making that you never knew would even happen.

So, we could have simply flown over to Antibes, through the Nice International airport, but our mantra is never say no to the fun for a reason. We chatted with our cruising buddies and decided we could all spend a week in London together first. BAM! Doesn’t that sound great?

Jason and I left San Luis Obispo, changed planes in Phoenix at midnight, and took the red eye to Philly. We had one night’s stay and then took another red eye from Philly on British Airways to London Heathrow. Business class - like a boss! Lay flat seats are always the right call. We arrived Sunday morning around 6 am.

Mike and Diana left their place in Virginia, changed planes in Detroit, and also landed just about the same time. We hoped we’d see them in baggage claim but alas, we did not.

Rich and Ginny flew in days before and popped over to Dublin for some shenanigans there first. They arrived in London the day after the rest of us.

As a reminder - we all met originally on sabbatical #2 when we did the 36 night cruise across the Atlantic into the Mediterranean. We’re all wine drinkers and met in the Vines wine bar which became our nightly meeting place. At the end of the cruise, we all ended up quarantined in Barcelona - except Ginny who was healthy and headed home lest she come down with Covid later and ended up extended their quarantine into the 4+ week range. Whew! 

Then, we met again a year later - same ship, same Vines wine bar, but this time for a tour of the Caribbean. And this time, no Covid! 

So, now here we are in London. I should have been keeping track of the number of countries we’ve all been to together by now!! I’ll add them up in a bit. 

Stay tuned for the stories of the week and more as we head to France later tonight. There’s been a ton of laughing, lots of catching up, some very unexpected surprises, and lots of walking!