Hello from the north of England!

It's been a bit of a whirlwind the first few days.

I left Greater Cincinnati Airport Wednesday morning and arrived at Manchester, England, on Thursday morning when my friends Ailsa and Phil collected me at the airport. I spent the rest of Thursday at their home in Wakefield, Yorkshire, attempting to adjust my internal clock to a five-hour time difference.

Friday we visited the city of Wakefield where we toured the cathedral, visited the local outdoor flea market and did a marathon grocery shopping expedition at Sainsbury's (similar to a Kroger store).

Saturday morning, Phil & I were off to Rochdale for an amateur radio rally for low-power ham radio enthusiasts. I'd attended this particular rally several times in the early 1990s and it was fun to surprise many of my friends who did not know of my plan to attend this year.

While Phil & I were in Rochdale, Ailsa was off to the train station to pick up friends Tim from Oxford, England, and Nick & Phyllis visiting from Park Forest, Illinois. The afternoon was spent in a flurry of activity in the kitchen getting things prepped for an evening BBQ.

Another friend, Debbie from Leeds, arrived and we all loaded into the car for another visit to Wakefield Cathedral and a walk around town.

Sunday was an early start to head off for the city of York where we attended one of the morning Eucharist services at Yorkminster Cathedral. After the service, we toured other parts of the Cathedral and rambled through the city itself including The Shambles, an ancient street that is mentioned in the 11th century Domesday Book. We also visited the Jorvik Museum, which recreates the 9th century Viking settlement of Jorvik at current-day York.

These first few days we enjoyed beautiful weather. We awoke Monday to a drizzly overcast morning. But our plans were to visit Castle Howard and we didn't allow the weather to dampen our enthusiasm.

Tuesday morning's weather (as I type this) is a steady rain but, again, we'll not let that interupt our plan to visit Bolton Abbey.

Photographs will be forthcoming.

I'll post another entry later today.