Visitors

Before and after our wedding anniversary in Paris, my apartment was over run by visitors. So along with work those two weeks were very busy. MQ and SL were the first to come. They came in on a Saturday night, SL left midweek, and MQ left Saturday (after we had flown to France). It was quite a good time and it was fun to see faces from back home over here. The first night of course we went pubbing a little. The pubs weren’t that great but we had a decent time anyway. The next day we went up to London and did the super whirlwind tour. I was able to park the car in the second Zone of the mass transit area so we could use a $10 day pass to go anywhere in the core of the city we wanted to go. I won’t list all of the places that we saw but in a single day we saw as many places as I had in ½ a week back in January.

That Monday also happened to be a bank holiday. Of which they have a ton of over here. While SL went to go visit an old friend from when he was a kid in Italy out in Bath MQ, along with a friend from work BMc (someone I have traveled a lot with in the UK) drove up to Oxford. You know the town with the ridiculously old school college. We did not actually go and see the college or the town. Instead we went to Blenhiem Palace, the traditional home of the Duke of Marlborough. A place I had never heard of but MQ really wanted to see. This is the family of Winston Churchill, but because he was the 2nd born did not become a Duke. I guess Prime Minister worked ok though. It was pretty nice. It is a large country estate, a pretty fancy, though not quite as fancy as Versailles in France. They were having Jousting and Falconry on the grounds and had several tours to see. The funniest was a “Hi-tech” exhibit with holograms, robots, and videos. It was actually pretty lame. After that we drove to Windsor to see that palace, but arrived too late to get in, though strolling through the town was nice.

The following day we stayed local, where MQ got himself thrown out of the historic dockyards. Then Thursday I had him ride the train up to where my client is located, I left early, and we drove out to see Stonehenge, my second trip there while living in the UK. After that we drove over to Salisbury a town with in a couple miles of Stonehenge. We needed to kill sometime because I was too pick up the wife that night and there was no point to back track all the way back to Portsmouth. Salisbury is a nice town with a lot more to see than I expected. A small river runs through the town with shops and cafes along it, and there is a huge cathedral on the south side of town. We walked around for easily an hour to see everything we could. We stopped at a pub had a burger and a beer then headed to the airport. It is quite a nice town to say the least. That night we picked up RG and the next morning RG and I left for Paris. At the end of the trip in Paris I flew to Munich for meetings and RG went back to the UK for the week where her sister met up with her.

So when I got back to town after a couple days in Munich the girls were living it up in Portsmouth. Relaxing, sleeping late, and watching my videos of the Soprano’s. Oh and of course they went into London and did some shopping. RG’s sister KB recently got engaged and she was looking for a wedding dress. So I think they had a crazy nice time. On Friday I had them come up and meet me at work for lunch, so some RG could meet some of the people I work with, on Saturday we just kicked around town. Then Sunday I drove RG to the Airport early in the morning while KB left in the afternoon via train. So with all the travelers and going to Paris and Munich I had a very busy week. So of course I took the next weekend easy!..... Yeah – Right the next weekend I headed to Cornwall and Wales, but that is another story I suppose.