Willem's Planet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a walk late Sunday afternoon and then had to pack since I’m heading out to the ‘salt mine’ in Salt Lake City again in the morning.  I am pressing a new suitcase into service that I have actually had for a long time, bought it at a sale. Part of the reason for the new suitcase is that I had a melt-down in my suitcase last Thursday while the rental car was parked in the sun all day with our luggage.  I tucked a whole slab of chocolate into the side of the suitcase – and of course it was no match for the inferno in the car’s trunk.  It liquefied and stained several items of clothing.  (I got most of the stains out to my surprise. I used club soda to rinse it, scrubbed it as best I could, and then used Tide detergent and my washing machine’s ‘extra hot’ sanitary cycle).

Monday/ Correction re: chalkboard : it’s Montana.  I said Washington State. Thanks to Bryan for pointing that out.  I was not paying attention! There is no jagged Puget Sound coastline in this outline.

The Marriott Courtyard hotel where we will come to and stay in for the next several weeks from Monday to Thursday is comfortable.  I finally got used to the noise of the air-conditioner in the room as well.   I set it at 74°F (23 °C), but even then it turns on and runs frequently.  The day temperatures have come down from Monday’s extreme highs to the low 90s (33 °C).

Monday saw 107°F (42°C) where we work out in the deserty area by the Great Salt Lake, reported my colleagues when I met them at the hotel on Monday night.  A very far cry from the opposite extreme of -8°F (-22°C) when I was here in the dead of winter! Today (Tuesday) was a little less scorching, but the mountains were still shimmering in the heat, not high enough to carry any snow at all at this time of year.

It is mid-morning on Monday and I am sitting in the South Terminal of Seattle airport, with very clean teeth. (Fresh from the dentist at 7.30 am this morning to get my chompers cleaned).  I see it’s going to hit 97°F (36°C) in Salt Lake City today.  I hope I don’t melt or get toasted too badly out there – the weather in Seattle has not been anywhere near that, for the most part this summer.  It starts out most mornings at 55°F (13°C), with a high of 75°F (24°C).

 

We made it!  We had more than three hours at Heathrow’s Termical 5 before the flight back to Seattle -but the experience at Heathrow was a good one.  Everything works well and the security check point was efficient and not nearly as onerous as the ones here in the States.  After arriving at Seattle airport, it took more than an hour to get through passport control at US Customs.  And there was more waiting at the taxi stands : the lines were very long.  So we opted for the light rail train from the airport to Mount Baker station where our friend Steve came to pick us up.  Thanks Steve!

We’ve gone ‘full circle’ and arrived at Southampton this morning.   We left our checked luggage outside the door last night, and all 3,000 (and more) of us will be taken to the airport, or just to London.  Believe it or not, there is a number of people just staying put on the ship – they are going on another cruise, on the same ship !  This ship goes up to Norway as well, so that might be the one that they are on. So there is a busride to the airport, and then our flight will leave Heathrow early afternoon and get us back to Seattle about the same time on Thursday.

 

It was a long day, but interesting to see the Normandy beaches made famous by the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944.  Our tour guide was Amelié (a very French name, and she spoke with a very French accent).  Our first stop was at the village of Arromanche, where the temporary harbour and vehicle landing strips were built.  The British landed there. Then we stopped at the large American Normandy Cemetery and Memorial that overlooks Omaha beach.    It’s actually American property, given to the USA by the French government.   Then we made a stop down at the Omaha beach and one more at Utah beach.  We had one World War II veteran in the group (you have to be  say, 85 or older if you were a young man at the end of the war).

So .. the voyage around the British Isles is coming to an end!  Tonight it’s packing up, and off to Southampton and directly to Heathrow airport from there for the  flight back to Seattle.