The first weeks
We now see why people become so obsessed by planes; watching those huge machines take off is mesmerising. Looking out the hotel window, directly onto the end of northern runway of Heathrow, gave us a fascinating view of the constant stream of jumbo jets, airbuses and other enormous aircraft, taking off at the rate of about one every two minutes. Incredible.
On Sunday afternoon, we wandered down a local street, and came across a beautiful old stone church, with flint walls, and headstones dating back centuries.
A local church close to LHR, standing for centuries, with flint walls and old stained glass windows.
The local pub looked pretty inviting for a Sunday afternoon, so we sat in the courtyard for a pub meal with ale and cider.
Sunday afternoon at the local. England is looking pretty good so far!
We picked up a car, and headed up the A1 towards Cambridgeshire; The North. We arrived in town on a Monday afternoon, expecting to unpack a few things and look around. We had booked an Airbnb for three weeks, so we could get our bearings and find a rental. However, no host, no key, no accommodation. Airbnb were great, and refunded the payment, but it was not the best arrival in town. So we spent a few days hotel-hopping and burning dollars, until we found another Airbnb. The hosts were lovely and very welcoming. It was very busy home, with a family and about six other guests, plus two dozen chickens and a dozen rabbits in the back yard! We did sign up for adventure!
House hunting in between the beginnings of a new school year was a little stressful. We finally collected keys for our two bedroom flat on the river, and moved in almost 3 weeks after we had landed. It was a great feeling to unpack bags, have our own space, a clean kitchen, and a (fully carpeted) bathroom to ourselves. It's fully furnished, so we only needed to add our own bedding and we were starting to feel settled. The catchphrase "We did sign up for adventure" was wearing a little thin by this time, so great to at least have a home base.
