ON THE ROAD AGAIN.....

This is already Wednesday, but I'll try to fill in on the last few days.  We left LA on Saturday.  The great fear at the time was that CARMEGGEDON  would destroy the traffic in LA.  The powers that be were closing a 10 mile stretch of the 405 Freeway.  Friday night was a barrage of new-casts basically declaring that we would be stuck for hours on any Freeway we tried.  We dropped Wally at Jodi's at 1:00. (Our flight wasn't until 5:55 pm - but CARMEGGEDON was here!!)  All the traffic reports Saturday morning had nothing to say.  We left Jodi's at 1:10 and drove straight to LAX.  HO HO HO.  We got there in 40 minutes.  We had checked in to our flight and were sitting in the Red Carpet Lounge by 1:45.  CARMEGGEDON was an exciting story, but there was no there, there.  Our flight was as smooth as smooth could be.  We landed in London by 11:30 Sunday morninig, easily found the bus to Cambridge, and were met by Mike, who walked us to their house.  Tea, and a nice chat.  Walked back along the river to a pub for some English beer. We got Indian take-out for dinner.  Easy easy easy.

On Monday we had a slow nice breakfast, then took a walk to town.  We strolled up and down the river went into town briefly,  got a coffee, then back to Mike's for our quesidilla lunch.  After lunch we went to Newnham - our old hangout.  We wandered past 27 Marlowe Road - our old flat looks pretty much the same.  The yellow door is now white and the kitchen looks like it's undergone renovation.  From there we walked to Grantchester - one of our favorite strolls.

Punters can be seen on the Cam from the path to Grantchester.  Since the Cam is level with the path, it gives a surreal view of people on the river - they look like they're plowing through grass.

Back to Mike's.  Last night we had a meal with Mike, Maureen, Vikram, Norman, and his new girlfriend, Jeanette.  Interesting night.

This morning after another leisurely breakfast, we wandered to town and went to the Scott Polar Research institute (the Scott Polar Museum).  There were exhibits from the Arctic explorations, the Inuit people, and the Anarctic explorations.  Lots of memorabilia.  Very interesting.  Learned a lot about Franklin (as from the Canadian folksong - the "hand of Franklin" - which describes the hunt for the Northwest Passage).

We met Mike for a coffee, then went back to his house.  We picked up our bags and he drove us to the train station.  We got the 12:45 pm train to King's Cross, and got over to St Pancreas Station to get the Eurostar.  Things had gone so smoothly, we were there by 1:45.  We tried to get an earlier train, but we had bought our tickets on-line, and, unbeknown to us, got a great deal.  So here we sit, in the St. Pancreas station waiting for our 4:22 pm train to Paris.  Nice WIFI though.

Hasta Manana -