May 2, 2018 -- Made it to Salisbury

We made it to London Heathrow Airport. Very long flight on Virgin Atlantic Airlines and my seat didn’t recline. Add the guy across the aisle who spent the entire night filling out a bright white “Leave Request Form” online and using an equally bright white planner with his overhead light on and I didn’t get much sleep. They fed us a pretty bad breakfast and we landed at LHR. Ed’s suitcase arrived but mine didn’t. We finally retreated to Customer Service where a lovely woman walked the conveyor belt and found my red suitcase with a bright green strap that had fallen off the belt behind a wall and no one noticed. I was so grateful. So far she’s the only one at Virgin Atlantic who has impressed me.

We went out to meet the shuttle to Budget Car Hire and had to wait more than thirty minutes. When we got to Budget, the line was long and slow and the woman less than helpful but we finally got the car and were on our way. Google refused to do directions on my French phone so we got out our Garmin GPS and used it. Not perfect, but it worked and we zipped across England in and out of rain that finally stopped.

We had been told the key would be in our apartment door but couldn’t get in because we didn’t have the key code to the outside door. They neglected to mention that little detail. Some other guests showed up and let us in but the keys weren’t in the apartment door. I finally figured out how to use my French phone in England and got the manager. I had been looking at room 5 and the keys were in room 3. I swear she told me 5, but we took 3 and it’s fine. We unpacked and set off to explore . . . and eat. We had skipped lunch in all the excitement of landing, getting our car and escaping the airport in London.

Salisbury is really nice and it's an easy walk from our apartment to downtown. We found Café Rouge right downtown and they had confit de canard so we went in. Great choice. The food was good and the young British server very nice. Afterwards, we walked down past Salisbury Cathedral which is lovely. On the way we passed a fudge shop that had a fudge stone henge set up in the window and titled "Fudge Henge." That was pretty funny but we didn't try the fudge. We walked around the Cathedral and green taking sunset pictures and then headed back up the hill to our apartment and some much-needed sleep. Café Rouge, Old George Mall, 19-21 High St, Salisbury SP1 2AF; tel: +44 (0)1722 330417; email: salisbury@caferouge.co.uk; Web site for Cafe Rouge in Salisbury