Bordeaux wine

At one point Dennis needed to pick up several bottles of wine for a company event. The best wine available was in Bordeaux, France, so that's where he went. Never one to miss a trip, Rita and I joined him.

Along the way we got him to stop at Cap Ferret, where we got out to gather sea shells. It was overcast and windy, but a lot of fun!

Then back in the car and on to Bordeaux. We wandered around the town just a bit before finding the wine store.

Our real destination was the Badie Wine shop. I don't know anything about wine or France, but they had a lot of excellent wine.

But the carved heads over the doorways interested me more than wine!

Dennis bought a ton of wine. We completely filled the trunk and piled the rest in the backseat, beside me. Of course Spain has bootlegging laws, too, and it was surely against the law to transport that much alcohol across the border. Dennis hatched a plan, in typical Dennis fashion. If we got stopped, we all would pretend to not be able to speak or understand Spanish, which was not much of a stretch for me. My specific job was to drap my coat over the cases of wine beside me, lean over them and pretend to be asleep. I am not sure why Dennis thought this would work; we had so much wine loaded into the back of that car that the headlights pointed up at the treetops. Fortunately we didn't get stopped.

4/16 – London in 4 hours

4/16 – We had breakfast at Oakley Court, then took a taxi to London. With just 4 hours to spend in London before our flight to Spain, we asked our cab driver for recommendations. His ideas sounded pretty good, so off we went.

First stop - Buckingham Palace. We only had a little while to wait before the Changing of the Guard. While we were waiting, we admired the gorgeous statuary.

And the gates are awesome.

Then it was time for the Changing of the Guard ceremony. This is one of the most famous bits of British pageantry and they sure do it right.

 I think they have an official dog.

We couldn't go into the palace and we didn't have time anyway, so we went to St. James Park, which is between Buckingham Palace and the River Thames. A lot of people were enjoying the park today, but it's a big park and never felt crowded. I loved the black swans.

St. James has large green areas but they also banks of beautiful flowers.

There were so many white flowers that it looked like the ducks were sitting in snow.

Next we went to see Big Ben - gorgeous.

And nearby are the Houses of Parliament. 

Westminster Abby was nearby - so pretty!

As we got closer, we could appreciate the gothic architecture

with all those carved figures above the door. 

This is an area with several statues, from Winston Churchill to King Richard the Lionhearted. 

We were surprised to see that there is a statue of Abraham Lincoln here, too. 

We didn't want to stop to eat so we got a quick pizza at Pizzaland and kept going. We went by to see Number 10 Downing Street next. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but that is not necessarily a bad thing for a government building.

Then on to Trafalgar Square, which is famous for it's famous monument, Nelson's Column.

I liked Nelson's Column. It's a monument to a man who kept England safe, and it has four big, wonderful lion statues at its base.

Plus it has a huge flock of pigeons who know how to work a tourist.

With just a little bit of time left, we went to see the Cabinet War Rooms, which are housed in a fine, stately building.

That was a lot to cover in one day! We will be back when we have more time to explore.

4/16 RANDY! (Plus Oakley Court and Windsor Castle)

4/15 – Finally my wish came true, and I met Randy at airport - so glad to see him again!!! Randy had booked a room for us at Oakley Court so we took a taxi there, dropped off the luggage, and took another taxi to Windsor Castle. 

We took a tour of the castle, with no photography allowed inside.

They have guards here, but not the big regiments that you see at Buckingham, and the Changing of the Guard, which is done in front of the castle, is modest. At each of the gates, just one soldier stood guard.

The castle is surrounded by a moat, which is no longer filled with water. It's a lovely garden area now.

On the what I would call the back side of the castle is the Long Walk. It's over 2½ miles long

leading up to one of the beautiful entrances.

St. George's Chapel is also on the castle grounds. 

No photography inside, of course, but it is quite beautiful. There are several plaques on the floor identifying the royal vaults that lie below; King Henry VIII is buried here, with one of his Queens, Jane Seymour. And inside the Chapel is one of the most beautiful memorial statues I've ever seen. Princess Charlotte of Wales was the only child of George IV, much beloved by everyone, and when she died in childbirth the whole nation mourned. I thought the drapery on the mourners who were leaning against the bier was amazing. They don't let you take pictures inside the Chapel, so I just bought a postcard.

Somewhere around here we found the "Empire and Majesty" waxworks. It's rare to see waxworks of horses, but they did a good job.

Then, at the end of the day, we got a taxi to take us back to Oakley Court. It's a gothic Victorian country house, built around 1859. It's gone through a few hands and is currently a very fine hotel.

It has been used in a lot of films. It was in several of the Hammer Horror films in the 1960s, as well as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's such a beautiful building. The back is just as lovely as the front,

with manicured lawns and formal arrangements,

and it backs up to the River Thames (for some reason they call it the River Thames, instead of the Thames River).

And Tea, of course, is served every day between 3:30 and 5:30.

It was time for dinner when we finished unpacking, so we went into the restaurant. I didn't know how upscale Oakley Court was so I hadn't packed anything dressy to wear to dinner; I just had casual sight-seeing clothes. Randy always dresses better than me so he had something nice to wear, and I borrowed his best pair of jeans. The maître d' was a nice lady who informed me that I could not be seated in the restaurant while wearing jeans. I explained that I didn't have anything else. She took pity on me and said she would seat us in a discreet corner. So we had dinner at a corner table, along the back wall. It didn't matter to me; during the meal I just keep staring across the table at my husband, so happy to be with him again!  After dinner we had tea in the library - what a lovely way to dine! 

Travel with Luc and Rita

Sometimes Luc Van Herpe, the Belgium worker, joined Rita and I on our weekend travels. He went with us on a trip to see the little castle of Butron. We could not go into the castle because it was private property, but that didn't stop us from walking across the bridge to get a better view.

After Butron came Plentzia's little harbor,

and then on to the Sailor's Chapel, near Bermeo.

Jane from the USA

A young lady named Jane came over from the US to do some work here for a while. I was asked to pick her up at the airport, but I had never met her and nobody told me what she looked like. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to identify her but I shouldn't have worried. Spanish women have a lovely, self-assured arrogance that I much admired but never saw in an American woman. And they had a pretty habit of running their fingers through their hair to push back, then letting it slide back into place; I had seen little pre-teen girls practice this gesture here. It turns out that I had been in Spain long enough to instantly recognized an American when she off the plane.

De Haan

Ria and I took the company jet to Belgium with a plan to visit the seaside town of De Haan. We drove there, through countryside that Ria was familiar with. She stopped along the way to show me some of the larger houses in the countryside. She called these castles; I wouldn't call them castles, but they were certainly beautiful luxury homes.

These old country homes have been in the same family for generations. 

Since they are located in the country, they often had animals nearby. Usually there were ponies, sheep and geese, but this little guy was hanging around, too. I think he's a small fallow deer.

There was one house I actually would call a castle. What a beauty!

We continued on to De Haan. This seaside town is a resort destination with a small-town feel. I would have loved to ride horses along the beach, like these folks. 

Instead, I opted to ride a double bike with Ria! We did great - nobody fell off.

Then we went to the Ailzee hotel and restaurant. What a pretty building! 

We came here because Ria knows the people who run the restaurant, and she introduced me to these nice folks.