Our flight from Phoenix to London was easy and uneventful. Our bags even showed up at the same time as we did. What more can you ask for? Our flight to Croatia leaves out of the Stansted airport outside of London, so we had to take a 2 hour bus ride to get there. I wish we could say we saw a lot of the English countryside, but we both slept for most of the bus ride. From what little he has seen, Jim is struck by how much England resembles New England.
The original plan had been to stay in the airport at Stansted until our flight to Croatia in the afternoon of the following day. However, the more we thought about the 24 hour layover, the more a real bed and a shower sounded irresistible. We found a little guesthouse near the airport that came and picked us up. It's a cute little property with a thatched roof house renovated with individual rooms. When we saw the king size bed and large shower, we knew we had made the right decision.
 |
|
The Willows Guesthouse in Bambers Green, England |
Once we were cleaned up and caught up with the emails, we went for a walk through the countryside to the local pub.
 |
| A little English countryside stroll to the local pub |
 |
| The Lion and Lamb pub (maps.google.com) |
At the pub, Jim was excited to see they had a local IPA on tap. He tried it, but was disappointed that it wasn't very hoppy. He asked if they had anything more bitter and they offered up another beer that was inspired by "American" style IPA's--it was pretty good. It's a little ironic that we crossed an ocean so he could get an American style beer, but at least we weren't drinking bud light. The food was quite good and we walked away happy. It's nice to stroll back home after a meal and work off a few of those calories.
That's all for now. We've got to get ready to head back to the airport and catch our flight to Croatia!
