The Cotswolds - May 16, 17, 2017 Just open any illustrated book containing a story or poetry in a country setting in England. It is likely to have a drawing or photo of a spot in the Cotswolds. This area is just to the north and west of London, and has a long history of sheep husbandry and very prosperous wool trading business going back to the middle ages. Thankfully, throughout time, many of those Middle Ages structures made of Cotswold limestone were t...

The University of Gloucester is here in Cheltenham. I cannot picture a more idyllic place to study. The land here is relatively flat so biking is a simple and quite an expedient affair. There is a paved walk/bike-way that runs about 2K from just north of the University to the rail station in the south where everything, trains and some buses come together. The path is like a walk in the woods, except it is paved. Students and locals alike use this path to rea...

Whirlwind! Absolute blurr! How fast these three days have gone by, and what an experience! The bad news is our time together with Greg and Mary in London is done; the good news is we confirmed once again that we are good travel partners and plan to make many more trips together. We got along famously, we laughed until we cried. We found wonderful places to eat that offered things we all like which proved to be a little challenge since Mary, Stan and I wil...

It was so much fun having sweet friends to spend the day with today! Everyone woke up systematically this morning. Stan woke first and made the coffee. I woke next and was first in the shower and first to dress; then I began work on yesterday's blog. Stan got his shower and came out looking all fresh and handsome as ever! As I finished the last upload, Mary and Greg woke up and came to see us, still in pj's. We chatted for a bit then made some breakfasts....

While flying from Paris to London is less expensive, making this trip via Chunnel was on our list. I do not like and will not use the term bucket-list - it's so conclusive. I prefer the term, our list. The Chunnel is fast! We clocked speeds of over 200 mph and only about 20 minutes of the trip is actually in the tunnel under the English Channel. Most of the trip is through rather flat French farmland where we saw brilliant green fields of new crops, sand...