I don’t do bucket lists or trips of a lifetime. Places are not to be consumed like products; the journey is not an inconvenience. Travel is iterative: each trip is a prototype for the next time I visit an area; there’s no pressure to tick off all the boxes.
Category: Travel
Boxing Day
Posted Boxing Day: A Day for Selling Vacations. When I was growing up in England, the day after Christmas was a day for relaxing and eating leftovers. Television advertising, finally freed from promoting the excesses of Christmas consumption, switched to hawking packaged vacations.
A Day for Selling Vacations
When I was growing up in England, the day after Christmas was a day for relaxing and eating leftovers. Television advertising, finally freed from promoting the excesses of Christmas consumption, switched to hawking packaged vacations.
Early Start
Sunrise from the number 22H, heading for Lake Street.
Thames Path Walk
Next September we’ll walk with two friends along the Thames Path from Oxford ① to its source ⑥ over five days. Today I booked our hotels. Some are quite small (one has just four rooms) and few and far between. One was already booked up, so we had to juggle with dates.
Free Money
Rebooked a Delta itinerary online because the fare had dropped by about 25%. Received a full refund of the fare difference, almost 29K Delta SkyMiles (about $400) and there was no service fee. It costs nothing to check if fares have gone down, so you can claw back some or all of the fare difference.
Decluttering Our Travel Tech
Emptied out our bulging travel tech box, Marie Kondo-style. Discarded half the contents, including earphones dating back to Continental Airlines and a GPS from 2001. Thanked the GPS for its service, but it was time to let it go. Retained the phone as a backup for solo travel.
Homeward Bound
There was a 100% chance of rain as we waited for the train to a Newcastle Airport hotel for the night. Tomorrow morning we fly home, NCL–AMS–MSP.
MSP-LHR
Bulkhead seats, 2-across, in steerage. Life’s good. MSP–LHR (London).
Changing of the Guard
Cycled to REI Co-op to pick up ponchos that also cover our backpacks. The coating on our old ones was disintegrating, and I couldn’t find a good way to remove the old coating then apply a new coating. I thanked the ponchos for their long service then launched them down the chute.