So yesterday, I went from this:


(Schiphol Airport, the blurring reflects how fast everyone was moving and the fact that I'd already been travelling for about 18 hours, through multiple time zones) to this:
(View of the Somerset countryside from my plane) The travelling was alright. My first flight, from Tucson to Minneapolis, went well. We boarded on time, sat for about 15 minutes before we got the all clear. I noticed that one of my seatmates was reading a Margery Allingham mystery. I commented that she was one of my favorites and we were instant friends. That helped with the take-off, I hardly noticed it. It's a 2.5 hour flight to Minneapolis and after chatting for a bit we both buried our noses in our books--I was reading Josephine Tey's "The Singing Sands"--and before I knew it we were at Minneapolis Airport. That airport is well laid out, quite large but not as overwhelming as the really big airports. I saw a few restaurants but ultimately chose French Meadow to have dinner at. It was quite good and I noted all of my fellow travellers with their laptops or cellphones out, busily communicating. I had my Blackberry and my Macbook and alternated between the two. It was nice to be able to update friends and family as to my status. After 4 hours' wait, I boarded the NWA flight to Amsterdam. It was completely full--so much for a recession. I had paid the extra $50 to get a window seat in a two-seater aisle. I was soon joined by my seatmate and discovered that she was a law professor at Iowa State off to a conference in Geneva. She was also probably about 20 years younger than I was. When she asked me what I did, I said happily that I was retired and was off for 2.5 months to explore England and Scotland. I didn't feel the least bit envious of her "lawyerhood." Perhaps if I'd been 20 years younger. . .but I'm not. I don't sleep well on planes. Well, I don't sleep all that well most times anyway, but I found it hard to get comfortable and hard to fall asleep sitting up. So I watched movies--Inkheart and some Jim Carrey movie--and tried to read with the feeble light in the cabin. It was a looong 7.5 hours. Amsterdam's airport is huge and ultra modern. I slogged through it for awhile carrying my 20-pound backpack until I realized they had very nice small shopping trolleys that were free. So I thankfully put the backpack into the trolley and wandering the airport became much more comfortable. I went in and out of the shops admiring all the lovely things there were to buy. But apart from a bottle of water and a croissant, I didn't buy anything. Instead I treated myself to a facial massage at xPress Spa. Oh, it was wonderful after all that travelling to sit in a comfy massage chair and have someone put warm towels and warm lotion on my face and to also give me a hand and arm massage. Almost as good as a night's sleep :) After another 4 hour layover, I boarded the CityHopper airplane for Bristol and after 55 minutes, I saw the plush green land of southwest England. I was back, I was once again in my second home. I was really tired and quite hungry as all I'd had all day was a cheese bun and oj on the plane and a bottle of water and a croissant at Schiphol. Sheila made her usual wonderful spaghetti bolognese with a meringue and fresh raspberries for dessert. And of course we drank a couple of cups of (mine herbal) tea. Then I fell asleep as she was talking so she sent me to bed. This morning these are my companions while Sheila works:

I've done 45 minutes with my Leslie DVD playing on my laptop, unpacked my bags, had a bath and will shortly walk into the village and find a bank. I can hear the seagulls outside, reminding me that I'm close to the sea. Well, not really the sea, as Sheila points out. It's more an estuary. But there's water and there are seagulls, neither of which are in Santa Fe.