Happy 4th of July!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY from across the pond in ye olde mother country!!! 🇺🇸 🦅 🇺🇸 🦅 🇺🇸 💖💙💕

Time for another catch-up (ketchup? catsup?)

Sunday, July 1st

Christine, one of the group of mates from way back when, graciously made the trip over from Frome (pronounced like "Froom"; apparently it was spelled with a double "o" at one time) for a visit and the hand-over on Monday to more of the mates. I'm SO glad she did as we've never really had a chance to sit and get to know one another, and she's a delightful and accomplished lady!

That evening the four of us went to an interesting place called The Gumstool Inn. It's part of a hotel and spa and it's cozy with a "fancy talk" menu. Here's a sample Sunday lunch menu - you'll see what I mean. Interesting also because as we were having our Sunday meal two women and later a man walked through in spa robes and slippers, carrying their clothes! We had a good giggle over that! Here are a few photos for you:

I didn't get a picture of it but they have a clever sign as you drive in that says, "Free range children. Drive with care." 😄

Oh, almost forgot - we asked Vic about the name and he convincingly told us "gumstool" was a type of mushroom. I wanted to know more so I looked it up... it's not. The following is from a website about the area -

The original market place, also known as the 'Chipping', is now a car park. The car park gives way to a steep Medieval Street known as Chipping Steps which end at what is known as Horsepool Bottom. Here fraudulent traders were ducked on a ducking stool, sometimes called a 'Gumstool', after the slang 'gummy' which probably meant something like 'mouthy.' 

You can learn more here if you're interested. 😏

Right, there's Sunday done; more later. 😘

Dinner in Coates

We had dinner at a really neat pub called The Tunnel House Inn. It's out in the countryside down a dirt washboard road and well worth the trip. It has quite an interesting history, a little of which you'll read about on their website (linked above). I didn't think to take my phone so if you want to see pictures, please see the linked website above.

TTFN!

On the train again

We've said a sad farewell to our friends in York and are on a cross-country train to Cheltenham Spa station to visit our friend Vic Goodale who actually lives in Cirencester
 Brian and Vic grew up together, attended Ma Taylor's dance classes, and played rugby together for their local club in Thornton Heath, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. 😉😆

Updates to follow as soon as there's something to tell. Cheerio!

Malton

We've been enjoying a couple of days with Mike and Joyce in Malton which is a lovely village in north Yorkshire. Mike is the bloke I told you about earlier that Brian met during boot camp in the RAF; they've been close friends since they were 18. Brian was best man at their wedding 57 years ago. Today I was able to get a picture of the three of them in front of the same church in which they were married. 

Earlier in the day we went walking 'round the lovely nearby village of Thornton Dale. 

This is us in front of the "chocolate box" cottage next to a stream. We'd all been here on a previous visit, before digital pictures, and it was fun to share memories with Mike and Joyce.

If you enlarge this enough, you can see the remarkable detail of the thatched roof at the top.

Someone had made this adorable caterpillar out of a log. You could tell they'd put a lot of work into it.



We finished up the day with proper English fish and chips and a good chat before turning in.

BTW, it's been quite hot and is predicted to get even hotter - up to 87 degrees F/30 degrees Celsius. 😖

The Luggage Saga Resolved... Finally

So, Tuesday morning it took two phone calls, over 10 minutes on hold, and a lot of explaining to two different people to finally get the correct information recorded properly in the baggage system. Whew! Later in the day we received another email saying our luggage was on its way from Brussels and would be delivered that evening between 7 and 9. It finally arrived after 10 p.m. so today (Wed) was wash day! (We had a change of clothes and meds, personal care items, etc. in our carry-on bag but have been wearing the same two outfits since we checked our cases in Rome back on Sunday.)

Mom, thanks for teaching me how to hang out the washing all those decades ago during my childhood. I still remembered how! (Kudos to Mr. Gates for helping!)

Planes, Trains, and a Land Rover

Well, I decided to wait for everything to get sorted before posting again. Here's a (probably not) quick rundown:

• Sunday we got stranded in Brussels; the airline, which shall remain nameless <cough, the city's namesake> very efficiently booked us a nice hotel which included dinner and breakfast, booked us on the first flight out the next morning, and - according to them - transferred our luggage to that flight.
• Got our flight Monday morning from Brussels to Manchester, England, no problem, except for minimal sleep and flight delays, again. The airport does, however, have a sense of humor:

• After making it through Border Control (for the umpteenth time) we found our luggage claim carousel, only to discover that our two suitcases were NOT transferred to our new flight. After filling out the form for Global Baggage Services and providing them with our luggage tag numbers, it was determined that our luggage was sitting in Unclaimed Luggage back in Brussels. They said our bags would be flown to Manchester on the next flight and then couriered to us in York where we are staying for a few days, possibly that same evening or the next day at the latest. We figured, not too bad, and it saved us lugging the bigger suitcases on the train to York. Even better because the next three trains were delayed, then cancelled. Finally, we got a train to the next station and transferred to a different train to York. Simon was there waiting to bring us home in his Land Rover. 😊 (Yes, the same Simon who visited us a couple of months ago.) 
• We had a chance to go visit more of the family (whom we had not  seen since our last visit to York, more years ago than we can remember). Simon's daughter, Charlotte (front row, long hair, black dress, beautiful), popped in after work (she's a French teacher in a middle school). We also finally got to meet Samantha's (between Brian and me) and Stu's (he's on the other side of Brian) twin daughters Hattie (with the glasses) and Poppy (all the way to the right). They are 12 now and quite remarkable young ladies! That's Simon at the back right. Here's a picture of us all and another to show the beautiful weather we're having:

• Simon's son Sam, whom we had not seen since he was a young lad and who is now 25, returned home later with his significant other, a lovely young lady named Meg. Sam's passion is what I think of as extreme sports (spelunking and rock climbing) and he has found a way to make it his vocation. Meg is also in education on the Teaching & Learning side of the house so we had a wonderful conversation! Mike and Joyce, the original friends and Simon's in-laws, stopped in for a visit as well. (Mike and Brian met in "Square Bashing", the English equivalent to our Boot Camp, when they  did their National Service in the RAF. They were 18 which means they've been friends for over 60 years!!!) Mike and Joyce are coming to collect us Thursday morning for a quick visit to their house, back Saturday to leave for the next leg of our journey.
• Later that night (still Monday) we received an email from the Global Baggage company (remember them?), recapping the details we had given them and getting almost every detail wrong! 😮 It was too late to call them so that was our project for the next morning.

To be continued...

... and we're stuck in Brussels

Our flight was late leaving Rome this afternoon (after waiting at the airport for over 5 hours, no less!) so we missed our connection in Brussels. The next flight to Manchester isn't until tomorrow morning. Although the Brussels Air flight crew didn't seem the least bit concerned about possible missed connections, the service agent (who was just headed out the door, literally) booked us into a hotel with dinner and breakfast included as well as giving us our boarding passes and rebooking our luggage as well. It's much too late for dinner so we're headed to bed and hoping for a few hours sleep before we're on the go again. Who says old wrinklies aren't flexible? 😁✈🚢🚘

Our final port

On Friday (June 22nd) we visited the port of Katakolon, Greece. It's the only stop on the mainland of Greece (the others being islands). We took a tour into the little town of Olympia where we explored the ruins of the original Olympics. As you'll learn from the article I linked, the ancient Olympic Games were primarily a part of a religious festival in honor of Zeus. Our guide was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot that we never knew. She (the guide) stressed the religious purpose as well as the training and military background of the games, and stressed the importance that was placed on all men to develop themselves not only physically but academically as well. As an example of the ideal Greek male, she referenced Plato who, in addition to his renown as a great philosopher, also won double gold medals in the Olympic games of his time. Here are a few pictures:

After we left the ruins we went to one of the two museums on the grounds. This one held many of the artifacts that have been unearthed since the discovery of the ruins. This great carving depicts Apollo (the tall guy in the middle) during a battle. It was part of the west pediment of the Temple of Zeus. 

This is for the Griffin clan:

And this is for Our Boyz:

It was very hot and tiring (I pooped out pretty quickly) so when we got back to the port, we had a drink and a little rest before we did some mild shopping. As Mr. Gates said, now *that's* a beer!

Some parting shots from our last night:

Our final towel creation, and, 

a view of the Centrum which went from the 4th - 11th floors.

So now we're in a passenger lounge in the Roma airport, killing time before our flight. We arrived at the airport at about 10:00 this morning and our flight to Manchester, England (via Brussels) doesn't leave until 5:30 this afternoon. We'll spend the night there in a hotel near the airport and travel to York tomorrow by BritRail.

Until later then, Ciao Roma! 💕

Back in Italy

We're headed for the airport in Roma where we have h*o*u*r*s. I'll update more then. 😘

Athens, the tour we didn't take

We had planned a tour to Athens (our port of call today) but it was predicted to be really hot and we knew we would never be able to make the climb up to the Acropolis. Plus, we were just tuckered out and, from a distance, Athens looked very crowded and metropolitan (which we can get in the U.S.) so we opted to relax on board. Very good move! (A couple we met yesterday confirmed this for us as well.)

Here's today's creation. Mr. Gates thinks it's an ostrich; I think it was meant to be a swan (with the news flyer in front of it). What do you think? 

UPDATE on the 70's Dance-Off:
The winners were really good and the fun didn't stop there! First, there was a warm-up duo singing 70's music - as you can see, there was quite a crowd on the dance floor (the busiest night ever!):

Then, the cruise team put on quite the show, hosting a 70's dance party:

Of course, the Village People made an appearance for the rest of the party, dancing to all the old favorites:

They carried the action into the elevator!

And The Love Train sprang into being:

It was the best night yet! We were movin' and groovin' with a group up on our floor (7th).

Mykonos

Our 2nd stop and tour was a big success! 😄 Mykonos was exactly as we pictured it would be - small, quaint, and filled with history. We thoroughly enjoyed it! The water was amazingly clear and there are little chapels everywhere.

One of our stops was a little folk museum. The entrance, like a lot of the entrances, was low and felt like going into a cave.

We also went into a Catholic church that is overseen by a monk. We entered through a little doorway into a courtyard with a gorgeous bougainvillea; you entered the chapel across the courtyard. It was dark but very beautiful inside with a lot of elaborate artwork.

 We also visited a beach and the area known as the Greek Venice.

This was the treat our cabin steward left us.

More later - there's a 70's dance contest going on that I have to see!

More About Santorini

We did a tour in Santorini which didn't work out so well. They were waiting on some folks to arrive (which is why we were at the little bar where Brian had his first Greek beer - see earlier post) and started late. And there were way more people than they said there would be. And we ran behind all day so we didn't get to spend the time we should have at 2 of the 3 places. And our tour guide dropped us at the cable car station to get back down the mountain to the ship (more about that in a minute) and then disappeared. And we waited in line for about 1-1/2 HOURS to go down the mountain in a little metal car zooming through the air on a metal cable that skimmed through a cut-out in the retaining wall!!! Brian said it reminded him of the scene in the movie, "Where Eagles Dare" and he was right! But the visit to the winery was good ~ except for the unsuspected fellow traveler that Brian knocked a glass of wine over (it was a white wine, thank goodness!). He was a very good sport about it.

In a previous post you saw the picture of us on the tender boat over to Santorini. In that same post you saw another picture showing the town, way high up on the top of the mountain (for lack of a better word). What I didn't tell you then is that there are only 3 ways to get up and down the mountain - cable car (the recommended way) or a rocky trail that is very steep and takes about 30-45 to walk. And, oh yeah, it's also the same path the donkeys take (which is the 3rd way to travel, but boy, do they smell!). Following are some pictures.

View from the winery.

Food we had (and the poor guy, in the blue shirt,

who wound up with wine in his lap). It was very good!

 

The lines in front and behind us, waiting for the cable car.

The cable cars coming through the cut-out in the retaining wall. 

On a positive note, this was waiting for us when we returned to our cabin, courtesy of our cabin steward:

He made an elephant the first night, using my sun glasses, but I didn't think to take a picture. Sorry about that - it was very clever! I can do Italian much easier than Greek but here goes - Yassou (which means both hello and good bye).