Adventure of the month

Many years back, I spent a month working in Manchester, England. During that time, I had a Brit Rail pass, meaning that any minute I wasn't working was spent on a train heading somewhere else. I treated Manchester's attractions the way I would those at home. Since I could go anytime, I felt free to ignore them altogether. It is only recently that I realized what a mistake that was. Last week, I was back for a couple of days with no rail pass to speak of. Another key difference- it was not raining. My one prevailing memory from that first visit was how stinking persistent the rain was. We were there for 28 days and got drenched each and every one of those days. The day we just arrived, it wasn't exactly sunny but it wasn't pouring down either so we were off to a good start. We took the train from the airport right into town and commenced exploring.

What do you do when you have just flown across the Atlantic, slept for only 3 out of the last 48 hours and then caught another flight that brings you to Cardiff, Wales. Well, if it is the day of the Wales/ Portugal Eurocup match-up, you simply keep going. Even if you are bit cross-eyed from exhaustion, are continuously reaching into your purse for pounds but pulling out euros and have often stated that soccer is athletic equivalent of Sominex (seriously, if the score is so often a tie, why even bother). You keep going because Cardiff is a place you haven't been and who knows when you will return. So that is what I did, even if it meant risking falling asleep on the bus ride into town and ending up in a place where the language was possibly more unintelligible than Welsh. This turned out to be an unfounded fear because the people of Cardiff are one chatty, friendly people.  The bus driver told me all about his visit to Miami as his one other passenger was narrating the drive a...

1. Try to change your flights. Nobody wants a 9 hour layover, no matter where it is. If your dream was to see London, you would not be on your way somewhere else. 2. Failing #1, if you have not yet been to London, take the train into the city, jump on the double-decker sightseeing bus and have at it, after all, you have a lot of time to kill. If you have already done that, say at least a half dozen times, see #3 3. Get thyself to Terminal 5. Once there, go outside and board either Bus #71 or #77. These are the buses that will take you to nearby Windsor Castle . If you ask at the information counter, they will try to put you in an expensive private car or taxi. Ignore them. Sneer at them. Continue to Terminal 5.

Two generations of Gentoo penguins A small group of King Penguins. This is one of two churches with a whale bone arch, the other is in Yorkshire, England. A comically penguin-shaped tourist posing near the Newspaper offices. A Memorial to those who lost their lives during the Falkland War. Our fourth port of call was in the heavily-disputed British Falkland Islands. Or the heavily-disputed Argentinian Islas Malvinas . It depends who asks. Personally, I can't say that I formed an opinion one way or another. On one hand, they are undoubtedly within Argentina's maritime border. On the other hand, at no time during the islands' history did they belong to Argentina. It is one of those situations where it is easy to be swayed by either side of argument. Luckily, I was not there to choose sides. I was there to see penguins. Lots and lots of glorious penguins. In order to this, I had to do the one thing th...