badgers at home

We are at home after long travel!
36 hours, including train trip form Newquay to Manchester.
Poor Mom- I was worried she would pass out from exhaustion, but she is a tough 78 year old.Sleeping in Manchester airport was a bit strange. We thought about getting a hotel, but train got in at midnight and we had to be at airport at 8 am. Plus they had time change that night, so would have gotten hotel for 5 hours and hotel was $200+, equalling minimum $400 for all of us as apparently they wouldn't let us sleep 3 to a room. Met odd man in airport who struck up conversation with me at 6 am. Not sure what he was about.
Anyway, to recap trip...
I liked UK a lot! People were very helpful. I can see why going from there to here, people marvel at the space as there are so many more people there. Theresa thinks this is why everyone is so orderly there, as how else do you get anything done?
It seems that people just automatically queue up, in case of possible wait. And does appear to be true that jumping the queue is height of rudeness. Richard and I were waiting in line to buy train tickets. Man came up and was going to accidently jump queue...nothing was said, but you could see people in queue start to look discretely at one another. Man felt this and said, "Is this a queue?" All nod. He apologizes, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was a queue". All became well with the world.
While waiting for ferry in Holyhead, I stood beside the queue as there was some discrepancy about how many queues there were and what for. there were some others doing the same A woman went apes..t. Started hollering about 'jumping the f...g queue, then she would too, etc. etc. Lines are serious business there.
In airport in Manchester we were all queueing waiting to get on elevator. Another group, (from i think Spain?) Went in front of one of the elevator's not realizing that there was a queue. I could feel quiet disapproval all around me.
Manchester is big! I was happy that there were 3 of us waiting to take train in main terminal at midnight and would have been happy to have all the badgers together then. I felt small and out of place!
People in Dublin are so friendly. we had people come up to us asking if we needed help, as we stood there with a map, or several, trying to figure out a)where we were b) where the map said where we were c) if the 2 were at all similar. plus, all the museums are free! We learned a lot about Irish history, which helped to understand why they were so mad at the British. I think history is interesting, especially when you hear the different takes on it. Having heard things here from a mostly British/Canadian perspective.
Bath is amazing! All the buildings are made of this gold sandstone. it looks so beautiful! It is a World Heritage site...from the UN. They are super strict about what can be built and how, and down to what kind of signs can be posted in front of buildings-not much, and whether you can clean your building or not. Apparently some years ago, people started cleaning some of their buildings of soot from the industrial Revolution, smoke etc. Now, the city has decided that Bath looks too new, so if you want to clean your building of soot, you have to apply and then only of the soot is damaging the building (which apparently it doesn't) We went to the Roman Baths-which were amazing-so old and to think that they all arranged this whole thing, without any modern convenience such as pipes. we went on a Mayor's walking tour (free!) of the city, which was excellent. Guide was so knowledgeable and plus found out gossipy kinds of things too. Like men used chamber pots in the dining room, just went behind a screen. And that prior to Georgian times, the baths were not at all popular, and poor people went there to get healed. The water was filthy and people used to throw things like dead rats etc in it. And full of -ahem- body fluids as the baths were not segregated.And that once they became popular, they were segregated according to sex---you couldn't communicate with a person of the opposite sex in thew baths (even though you were fully clothed in a canvas bathing costume), so women would put on 'beauty spots' which would communicate availability.
Newquay felt a lot like Tofino . Lots of surfers and a resort feel to the town without being pretentious-which Tofino can be.
The family graveyards were so beautiful. I especially liked the one in Camelford. It felt like so peaceful and like what an English wild garden should be. I will post all our pictures when we get them done, on Flicker.
Cream teas are awesome. Clotted cream has a consistency of butter, but the taste of cream. They knew what they were doing when they put the word clot in there.
Food there was good, I didn't have a bad meal. I liked pub food..especially the sausage and mash. Beer was good and the pubs were all that I thought they would be. We did a quiz night in Wales, apparently quiz nights are a big thing there. Some friends of Anne's were there and so we were in teams, which is good as pop culture in wales is not the same. We even won some beer.
wales is very rugged and full of ancient castles! standing and explorable. we even went through one while on the train from Wales to Bath! Northern wales is full of people speaking welsh and not very many tourists, compared to other areas we went to. Bangor feels pleasantly quiet and full of stone buildings with so much green growing things. The train trip from Bangor to Bath was beautiful-went by the crashing ocean, ruins, and then through the countryside, full of sheep, lambs gambolling, old homes, estates, streams and the river Avon (apparently there are 7 altogether in England), with punts and long barges for holidaying.
We found British people to be very helpful and pleasant. though did see some football hooligans roaming the streets of bath. Or what I think football hooligans would be like. Loud, drunk etc.

So, now we are home, appreciating hot water and central heating, which we need as it is snowing!!! In April, in Kelowna!
Travelling is good, but getting home feels even better.