Day 24, Friday, October 9 "Catching Up"

Hi everyone. We made it back to Edinburgh in one piece. We got to Bourton on the Water around 10:00 am and turned in the rental car. Mike (who owns a Ford dealership there-yes Fords are big in the U.K.), drove us to the train station at Kingham. We caught the 10:50 train and rode an hour and a half into Paddington Station in London. We went up from the train station and back down into the Tube Station. We caught the Circle Line and traveled to Kings Cross Station. Up we went again to the street level and found a McDonald's across the road. We went in, bought food and ate it slowly. (we had three hours to kill). Then we bought some ice cream thing they sell here so we could stay even longer. Finally we could eat no more so we went back into the train station and headed for their lounge. We fiddled with our phone which needed "topping up" (adding more minutes) and that took some time. Then we got on a wireless network and got to work on the blog. We finished it in just enough time to see that our train to Edinburgh had arrived on platform 5, so off we went.

We were a sad to leave the wonderful flat in Sherborne. Here are a few parting photos of the kitchen and living area. It was a very warm and inviting place to stay.

The train back to Edinburgh was uneventful and enjoyable. During the 4 1/2 hours it takes to go from London to Edinburgh, David checked his email, we bought very, very hot coffee from the trolley, went to the snack car and bought a cheese and tomato sandwich, chips and a Coke. Once we ate that for dinner, we settled in for the rest of the ride. During the last 2 hours, David struck up a conversation with the two men that were sitting across the table from us. I dozed a bit but heard them talking about football (soccer), the royal family, Obama, cricket, pubs, and several other interesting topics. We got into Waverly Station around 9:00 pm, tried to get a bus but realized there wasn't one going our way from that stop, so hopped into a cab.

So today was a catching up day. David got started early, working on The Voice. I got going on chores. I washed two loads of clothes. Since there isn't a dryer, you get creative about where to dry things. We have a small drying rack and the rest go on the radiators, hooks on the back of doors and even spread out on the floor. I washed some dishes, cleaned out the fridge of all the week-old food, took out the trash, etc. For the next few hours, I answered HBU email and managed a few other computer chores. Then we headed out to walk up to Tesco and buy some food to restock the fridge and cupboards. After lunch we got back down to business. David has to catch up on the writing he didn't do while we were gone; and he made good progress today.

Remember that we told you that our camera lost its power on the day we were touring the Roman baths? Well, we did get some photos with David's IPhone so here are a few more:

The water is not as clean as it would have been in that day; it is cloudy and green because of different varieties of algae. But it is still very warm and it still has little gas bubbles floating to the surface. Of course, in that day there was a roof over it, but today that does not exist.

This is a head of the goddess, Sulis Minerva, that was worshiped in the temple before and during the Roman occupation. They found this when they were doing some maintenance work on one of the side areas.  Imagine digging a hole and finding a priceless artifact.

 Now remember we told you about climbing the 212--or was it 412 step? to tour the Abby Tower ...no it just seemed like it. Anyway, remember that we told you how we were able to duck down and walk into a little small space and see the back of the clock. Here it is. You can see that we were standing right behind the clock face and the gears that turn the hands.  Notice how few there are!  There are more behind us in another room. Of course this is at the top of the tower so that the town can see what time it is. The guide told us that, back in the day, the clock was illuminated by a oil lantern. There was a person who sat up there all night to make sure the lamp didn't go out and that it didn't catch anything on fire. Talk about a boring job! And she said that the clock would chime at 9:00 am to tell people to go to work, at 1:00 pm to tell them to eat lunch, at 5:00 pm to tell them to go home and finally at 9:00 pm to tell them to go to sleep. Since only the very wealth had time pieces, the community depended on the Abbey clock to order their lives.

And speaking of time and the clock, we see that it is about time for us to begin to wrap things up and get ready for sleep. Have a wonderful day and we will check in with you tomorrow. We have another adventure planned if the weather cooperates.