I am in my hotel room in London, listening to BBC4 Radio.
I promise I will update and fill in the days since my last post, which admittedly was a while ago, but, with all the hiking and moving around and everything, updating my blog went to the bottom of my to-do list. But, this is a good thing!
In a nutshell, we averaged over 11 miles every day of hiking and/or walking. The weather the first few days was nice, but we had a couple days of hiking later on that were absolute downpours. The good news – my raincoat kept me dry, and my daypack kept my stuff dry for the most part (some tissues were barely damp, but considering how much rain there was, I’m pretty pleased)
Our REI hiking group was great – everyone got along well and we all had a lot of fun. The food was good, the Trip Leaders (“please don’t call us guides”) were excellent, and the trails were beautiful.
After the REI trip was over, Cilla and I caught a train to Madrid. Unfortunately, we also caught a stomach bug, which I’m pretty sure we caught on the train. So, our one night in Madrid was not very enjoyable. I’ll spare you the details.
We went to the airport the next morning, a little green around the gills, but we both got to our destinations – she back home, and me to London. I spent my first 18 hours in London sleeping.
Yesterday I went to the Tate Modern and the Design Museum. This morning I will go to 23 Heddon Street to see a plaque commemorating David Bowie’s photo for the cover of Ziggy Stardust, and then hopefully get to the Handel and Hendrix museum https://handelhendrix.org/ before catching a train to Pewsey this afternoon.
Since I felt better yesterday evening, I enjoyed a martini from the (in)famous martini cart at the Connaught Hotel. It was made with vodka from Poland, and the bitters added were Cardamom. I had a choice of Lavender, Coriander, Cardamom, a kind of Lemon Verbena, and one other bitter that maybe I’ll remember later.
Anyway, I will fill in all the holes between when I last posted and now. Just thought I’d give you a quick update for now!