we travelled south

Segment 2 involved returning to England using the same route I had taken to get there. The snow from the day before had cleared in Denver and I thought I had timed my return through Newark between storms and only mild polar vortex.  

Everything went as planned, and the flight from Newark to Edinburgh was only 5.5 hours. According to my UP band, I slept 5 hours and 10 minutes, and I managed to do this by reclining my chair at wheels up and then sleeping until the guy next to me was forced to wake me up so we could land. He seemed a bit disgusted at having to wake me up - I thought this was funny.

I took a taxi to the train station and then a train to Oxenholme in the Lake District, which took about 2 hours. Gill was slightly detained, but that is her story. She picked me up and then we raced along - at the speed limit - to Seascale. We picked up the lovely and amazing Sarah and went and checked out Gill's new house - it's gorgeous, perfectly sized and decorated so that you know it is Gills, which means it is fun, thoughtful and welcoming.

We had a nice day with a trip to Whitehaven for supplies and gymnastics for Sarah. We ran into someone we used to work with, and I did giggle at his statement that, 'I tried to convince myself it wasn't you, but it is'. 

Gill made Thai turkey burgers with roasted cauliflower and sweet potatoes for dinner. I did feel pretty worn out, but made it past 10 and had a great nights sleep.

The next day marked segment 3, which was made of 4 phases. Phase 1 we drove from Seascale to Chorley, again at the speed limit and with no incident. We needed gas, but Gill could only fill the tank halfway because the icy rain was pelting her in the face.  

We had a cup of tea between phase 1 and 2 at Gill's flat and then the taxi driver came to take us to Piccadilly station. Phase 2 was okay, but the taxi was disgusting with stains all over the seats and stinking of cigarettes and cleaning fluid. The traffic was bad so by the time we got there I felt sick and like I wanted to burn the clothes I was wearing.

Phase 3 was lovely. We got on the train - in first class - and spent 2.5 hours reading, chatting and generally getting in a holiday mood. Phase 4 was a taxi to our hotel - the Metropolitan, which Gill had got on a secret deals, which meant the train tickets and hotel were cheaper then a train on Monday - isn't she clever?!?

Gill had spent 2 hours deciding what we should do on Sunday night, but in the end, decided we would go to our favorite restaurant because the places she picked either were not open or we could not get reservations. Her first choice was Gordon Ramsey's place called Maze, which was French tapas. I tried a couple of times, but could get anything earlier that 2030, but my last try revealed a reservation at 1815. We grabbed our bags and were off.

Between 1800 and 1845, the restaurant had a special 4 course meal for £30. After 1845, you could get a 7 course meal with wine for £185. We both decided to order 4 savory courses and had everything the same, except the second course. To start, we had pumpkin velouté with lemon creme fresh and salt cod. You could taste each and every flavor and it was amazing.

For our second course, Gill had chicken thigh and I had smoked mackerel with shaved beets and horseradish. Both were very good. Gill's was also smoked and very rich. Mine was super light and everything worked very well together.

Our third course was black cod is a seaweed broth. When I say seaweed, I mean seaweed. You know all of those pictures I take with the pinky seaweed and the black seaweed buttons and the dark brown lacy seaweed - all in my dinner! It tasted so perfectly of the ocean, but it wasn't fish, and the fish of course was perfectly cooked.

The fourth course turned out to be my favorite and that is saying something. It was a pork steamed bun with a hot corn relish. It was so rich and so homey, it made me want to lick the plate.

We turned down dessert as everything was so perfect who could want anything else, but they gave us a little plate with chocolate truffles, passion fruits meringues and orange jellies. They left us for a while and when we asked for the check they brought us another tray of these same treats and we ate those too.

We wandered out into the night and found our hotel. After watching a favorite home improvement guy make his very own personal shed, we drifted off with very full bellies thinking about tomorrow's final segment...next stop Hong Kong through Turkey.