Auditioning Shoes for England

As you read this, I will be touring Merry Old England! I have always liked why my college history professor said about England. He always referred to it as “The Mother Country”. One of the students asked another “What part of England is Dr. Smith from?”. The other answered wryly “Mobile”, which of course, is in our own rural Southwest Alabama. Along with Dr. Smith, I have always been something of an Anglophile. I love all things British. Team, hot, not the sweet tea that has been called the table wine of the South. Okay, I admit it, I make the tea hot in the morning to drink at the start of the day, but in the afternoon, I pour the leftover tea into a big glass of crushed ice. I don’t sweeten it, though. Really sweet tea sets my teeth on edge! I’m really looking forward to drinking tea with the locals over there.

I have made up my mind not to buy many souvenirs. The pound is made up of two dollars, which means everything costs twice as much. I learned a shopping lesson in Italy, a few years back. I debated hard about whether to buy this beautiful pottery pasta bowl. I was afraid I would break in on the way home. I didn’t buy it. I came back to the US and found a very similar one by the Italian pottery maker at a local discount chain. It was less than half the price of what it would have been in Italy. I plan to try to buy some tea that I can’t get at home. I may treat myself to a scarf or something easy to bring back. I have learned that if your bag (we are only allowed one) weighs one pound over 50lbs, we’ll have to pay $150. That will cut down on your buying quick! My everyday china is by Portmeirion, an English company. I can get all I want of it at the same discount store I bought the Italian bowl at. I’ll let you know how well I stuck to plan when I get back,

As I write this, I should be packing. My clothes are lying next to the suitcase for editing. I know that I am limited on what I can put in my 1 suitcase. I will debate with myself the rest of the night about what to take. Everybody tells me it will be damp and chilly, so I am planning accordingly. I am going to layer my clothes. The one thing that I know for sure about my wardrobe is that I will be taking two pair of the most comfortable shoes I own. I have been auditioning shoes for months to find the best candidates. Believe me, it was not a beauty contest. Neither pair is very pretty, but they make my feet feel well cared for. I promised my feet long ago, that I’d never do anything to hurt them again! If my feet are warm, I’m warm all over. If my feet are not hurting, I can walk many miles. My goal is to see everything I can in the short eight days allotted to the trip. I am going with friends that I have traveled with before, so I know we’ll be a congenial group. The only place I anticipate any trouble is try to drag my dear friend into an Indian restaurant. My daughter has traveled to England a number of times and says that the best food is the Indian food. There are a lot Indian restaurants because of its being an English colony for so long. Nobody has anything nice to say about English food except the pub food. I love to eat. I am like an army, I travel on my stomach.

The one thing I must do while I am there is to have a high tea somewhere. I love to go the Windsor Court, the English hotel in New Orleans for tea. I feel so elegant eating the frilly food served on those pretty little stands while harp music is being played in the background. Another thing on my MUST SEE list is the food hall at Harrods, which I understand cover several floors. There is bound to be something special amongst all those. Anther on the list is the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.
We’ll also be making excursion to Stonehenge, Bath, Salisbury, Windsor and a very long day trip to Paris via the Chunnel (the tunnel that runs under the English Channel). We leave at 4:30 am for that, but some things are worth it.

I can’t begin to predict how things will go, but I can predict one thing – I’ll be wearing comfortable shoes. The two pair that made the cut will assure me of that!

I love living in rural Southwest Alabama. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see the world. I must admit, though, it is hard to leave now that the cold has gone away  and I can sit on the porch. A neighbor and I enjoyed wine on the porch last night. I’ll have the rest of my life to do that, Going on this trip will give me some new stories to tell on the porch.