We arrived back home to California last night, after 2 grueling flights (one nearly 10 hours and another nearly 3). This was the pack-em-like-sardines portions. We had 4 very small children around us, all about 14 months to age 3. I often say a little prayer when we fly, hoping we won’t be seated next to or near children on any flight actually, but especially on a long, transatlantic one. All the parents involved did their best, and for the most part the children were good. But the screaming-meemies were difficult – you know that stage of childhood when the child realizes that if she/he screams as loud as possible for a long, but piercing burst, they get attention? Yup. We had 2 of those, one in the seat just ahead of us. The other 2 rows behind us (she was not part of the 4 children in our immediate vicinity, but her piercing screams felt like she was too close! Anyway, we survived the flights and got home about 7:00 pm last night. It was over 100° here in Southern California yesterday, and our house, where the A/C had been left off, of course, was hotter than blazes. It was 90 on our upstairs floor. I could hardly stay awake until 9:00 pm and promptly went to sleep. I woke up at 4, and finally got up at 4:30. I’ll be doing this for some nights, readjusting my system to California time.

We piled up laundry (nearly emptied both of our suitcases doing that), took showers and toddled off to bed. But not before I put my iPhone on to charge – it was completely dead. And not before I put my iPod on to charge – it too was completely dead. My Kindle is charging, although it still had a whiff of juice left. My mini-laptop actually had some charge left, but not much. I wrote a couple of blog posts on it while we were en route.

So, as we were flying I wrote down some things I thought you, my readers, would enjoy. If you’ve never traveled to England, you might enjoy this the most. Those of you who already have may not find the list all that interesting. Observations of traveling (for Americans) in general and a few about the Brits:

• Habits run deep . . . it’s hard remembering what side to get into a right-hand drive car . . . on the right side! We were both still making that mistake after two weeks of driving.
• When you travel by car, you live in a near state of dehydration . . . because bathrooms are hard to find. There are fewer gas [petrol] stations in Britain than in the States and many of them don’t have toilets.
• Nearly all hotels and B&Bs use duvets, and I find them stiflingly hot in summer. Nearly every night of our trip I found myself awaking to throw off the duvet, then being cold in a matter of minutes. It took some time to start  your night’s sleep with the duvet just hovering over you, not draped over both sides of you. At least I guess that’s the way the locals adjust
• Brits love old American TV shows. Hotels offer a very limited selection of basic TV (not so different from U.S. travel, just less) and after you’ve listened to the BBC and CNN for 30 minutes you usually switch to something else and what was on mostly was The Golden Girls. Yes, really.
• Speed cameras are everywhere. The difference is that they signpost them, telling you there [probably] is one at the beginning of every village where the speed limit slows to 30-40 mph.
• The cost of getting from the airport [Heathrow] into London is dear. And time consuming. Took us about two hours to get there. We were staying at the Marriott at Heathrow, so needed to take the “park hoppa” bus (about $6.00 each for a 20 minute ride) from the hotel to one of the main terminals at Heathrow. Had to walk a goodly distance to get to the underground (tube) to take a train into downtown. Cost about $4.50 each, one way. I’d think twice about doing that again, yet we wanted to stay at the airport for our early-morning flight departure (that part worked very well) but didn’t want to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant. Reminder to self: just get used to it – stay at the airport and eat at the hotel next time.
• Roundabouts – you know what they are? Instead of traffic lights the Brits use an ingenious system of round circles to keep the flow moving. If you’ve never driven in Britain they do take a bit of getting used to, but they’re wonderful. Only twice did I miss the correct road out of the roundabout, but what’s so great about it is that if you miss, you just go around again.
• Finding a place to pull off the road are rare (like to check a map, get a drink of water, stretch your legs). On the motorways (freeways) they have “services” areas every 30 miles or so (for petrol, food, bathrooms, etc.) but they’re so far and few between. And those work great when you’re on the motorways. Otherwise, lots of luck trying to find a place. I drove slower than the general traffic did and on narrow, 2-lane roads (of which there are tens of thousands all over Britain) there are no places to pull over, hardly, to let someone pass. Often fences go right up to the side of the road – there’s no shoulder or anything. We always prefer the more scenic routes and forgo the motorways when time permits. Bear that in mind if you decide to drive yourself!
• Brits like cold toast. It’s just a matter of a cultural difference. We always like hot toast, but the Brits put them into the cutest little racks and you eat toast stone cold (freshly toasted, but still cold).
• If you’re a coffee and cream drinker, take Coffee-Mate packets if you can. The Brits don’t use cream in their coffee – only milk. And usually it’s low-fat milk. That’s one of my idiosyncrasies . . . I like half and half in my coffee. At one of the B&Bs the owner actually went out and bought cream for me – bless her! Otherwise I had to get used to it.
• Having read the book The World Is Flat 3.0, I see more and more of it. . . I heard so many different languages in England (more in London and at the airport, of course) than any place I’ve ever been. Most service people in Britain are foreigners – they speak British English – but they’re very hard to understand. England has more people from India and Pakistan (at least that’s my observation).
• If you’re a techie, you may need more than one converter and British plug adapter. And yet, most hotels will have just one available plug (if you can find it) – you’ll be lucky if you have two in any one room. This was a source of frustration for me as a traveler.
• Sunday Lunch is an institution in England. Meaning it’s the main meal, and they like nothing better than a big roast with all the trimmings. We had one of those meals with friends, which I’ll write up later.
• Soft drinks are very pricey. They do have sugar-free drinks, fortunately, but canned soft drinks cost dearly – at least 2 pounds each (about $3.00) and that’s for one glass. No refills. And you may have to ask to get ice.
• The double bed is still alive and well in Britain. Queen sized beds are becoming more well known but king beds are a rarity. When a hotel says they have 10 doubles, 2 twins, that means they have 10 rooms with double beds only and 2 with 2 twin beds. Just so you know . . .
• Pay the premium for a sat/nav or GPS with your rental car – it can be a lifesaver when you’re driving internationally. I cannot advise you enough – pay the price – it’s worth every penny.
• Dress codes are almost a thing of the past – we found casual dress the norm everywhere. Even in a pricey London restaurant it was casual. I’m sure there are still holdouts and we did see some people dressed to the nines, but casual was also acceptable everywhere we went.
• Brits are really fond of their stick shift cars. I grew up driving a stick shift, so it’s not a problem for me, but I decided this time to pay the premium (yes, it’s a premium to rent an automatic). When you’re concentrating on driving on the other side of the road and making right turns across incoming traffic can be stressful, it’s nice to know you don’t have to fret about shifting gears all the time.
• And the best one – if you rent a GPS or a sat/nav with your rental car, what you need to get you anywhere in the country is the 6-digit postal code. It’s an ingenious system – that postal code takes you TO the exact address. Nothing like ZIP codes here which may cover 10-20 square miles. Although I think with the U.S. 4-digit addition at the end, it takes you pretty close.
• Green salads are relatively rare. They do serve a little bit of greenery with meals sometimes, but they’re not dressed as we expect they might be. The Brits like giving a salad a little squirt of concentrated balsamic (thick, sweet) and that’s it (inexpensive and efficient, not necessarily tasty). And most green salads are made with more unusual lettuces like frisee or rocket. You’ll likely not see much head lettuce or Romaine anywhere. Salads I did miss – my first dinner here at home is going to be a big green salad with chicken.
• The Brits have perfected the mechanics of an instant-heat hot water kettle. I showed one in one picture in a previous post (on the tea tray in most hotel rooms). We just can’t believe how fast they heat water. But then, my DH says it’s because it’s heating with 220 vs.. 110. That does make a difference.
• French Fries – oh my goodness. Do the Brits love their chips! I was offered chips with nearly every meal I ate there. Not that I don’t enjoy a few now and then, but the Brits adore them. And they like to sprinkle them with malt vinegar, not ketchup.
• An English cooked breakfast includes: fruit juice, a fried egg, some bacon (more like salty Canadian bacon than our streaky bacon, it’s called), a pork sausage (usually big, fat and unless purchased from a local butcher it has lots of filler in it. . . not to my taste), some grilled tomatoes, some sautéed mushrooms, hot canned baked beans (the Brits are crazy about old-fashioned canned baked beans – they have them on toast for a light lunch or dinner too), perhaps some Black pudding (a blood sausage product – you don’t want to know what’s in it), toast (white, brown or sometimes a grain or seedy bread), coffee or tea. It’s enough food to get you through the whole day if you fill up on it. B&Bs and hotels will serve you all of that, along with some yogurt maybe, fresh fruit, and cold cereal. We missed our favorite Fage yogurt – apparently it’s available at the markets, but they didn’t serve it at any of the hotels or B&Bs – it’s a premium yogurt, so I guess that’s understandable.

Stay tuned for more stories about our travels. It will take me a few days to get back into the cooking groove, although I DO have two posts about food that I did before we left on this trip. So I rewarded you with one of those today too. So, Dave is off to the grocery store to buy all varieties of fresh produce and fruit, yogurt and fresh bread. And my favorite cream for my coffee.

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