Let us go then, you and I...

The girls and I have now said ciao ciao to Dave and moved on to England. Dave spent one final night in a small hotel in Mestre (mainland near Venice) and then flew home. We called him last night to make sure he arrived safe and sound, and to let him know that I still have his driver's licence...oops!

We had a decent flight on EasyJet - no problems at all getting a seat, as I had feared. I'd read reports of mass stampedes for seats so purchased the speedy boarding option (only an extra 11.25 euro). We were first on and off the bus and got three seats together at the front of the plane. Our flight was running 20 mins or so late, but was smooth. Dad was waiting for us at Gatwick, so we were quickly on our way.

I haven't had much time to blog this week, we've been on the go quite a bit. And even now I fear I'm too tired to write very much.

We were up early and went to Stonehenge at 6:15 this morning. We saw the end of a dawn Druid ceremony and got to walk amongst the giant stones ourselves. At the end of our timeslot, I took one last stroll around the outside of the circle. As I walked around, I realized everyone else had started back toward the parking lot, so I stepped back in the circle, closed my eyes and stood there. Entirely alone in the middle of Stonehenge. It was so incredible, magical, mystical I can hardly believe it happened.

We've slowed down this week so I finally have time to bring you up to date. Last week was quite a rush (in both senses - thrilling and zoom-zoom!)

As I mentioned, the weather has not been as glorious as Italy, but instead is rather on-off. We hardly know what to wear each day! One minute hot and sunny, the next is a rain shower. And the air cools suddenly when the sun is covered by a cloud (unlike in Nova Scotia where the air temp remains fairly stable in the summer whether sunny or not - although I know some would argue with me on that!) Fortunately we missed the torrential rains in the Southwest. When I say fortunate, I mean it quite literally! I may have mentioned this last post, but after we returned from our overnight trip to Stonehenge/Bath, we learned of people stranded in their cars for 20+ hours on the motorways very near where we'd been! Actually the road we took home had been closed due to flooding on the previous day. But somehow we manouvered our way through with relatively few delays. And no signs of flooding in the Suffolk area, thank heavens.

As mentioned, we are taking it a bit slower this week, although still did a fair bit of driving yesterday. We went to Framlingham and Orford Castles - both fantastic although if I had to pick only one, it would be Orford. Both for the amazingly well preserved castle keep itself and for the lovely town of Orford.

Framlingham is a big ring of towers connected by walls, upon which you can walk around looking down on the courtyard below. There is a great footpath running around to the "mere" (pond, formerly a marsh) but unfortunately we didn't stay long enough to walk it. Another visit, I could spend my entire two weeks in Suffolk and not run out of things to do...the small, often most interesting things are encountered quite by chance when one is ambling around, taking it slow. (However, it was our first trip to England and we did have a couple "must sees" like Stonehenge and London so I am not complaining, just musing that we could have stayed much closer to home and had just a great an experience.)

The end of our trip has arrived. TG is definitely ready to go home, she has been quite homesick the past couple days. MN and I are less homesick, but feeling that we've been away long enough and wanting to see Dave and other family and friends.

We ponder what would be the best plan for getting to the airport, since our flight leaves from Heathrow at 6:25am. Dad's house is roughly a three hour drive from the airport, plus rain is forecast so there is concern about roads flooding, or just plain old nasty driving conditions, since driving in heavy rain can be a harrowing experience, especially at night. Dad says we should have plenty of time if we leave at midnight...of course that will mean that he basically ends up driving all night since he'll have to turn around and drive home.