Jul 31 To Cambridge

First night on a real bed since we left. We all slept in a little bit, but we had plenty of time before our train at 11:50. The girls took an exceptionally long time having a shower this morning after breakfast. Also the first real shower since we left Canada, Nanette drove us to Glasgow Central train station at about 11, where we said our goodbyes. It was very nice of her to host us for a day and make sure we made our connections.

We picked up our pre-booked tickets at the machine and only had to wait about 10 minutes before our train came up on the big board. When it did we headed over to platform 2 and boarded our East Coast train headed for Cambridge via Stevenage.

It was a long trip, but we had our lunch packed, courtesy of Nanette, and we had free wireless the whole way on the train, so there was a lot of Facebook chatting happening. However, about ½ hour short of Peterborough we had to stop at a station while some engineers fixed a “track issue”. That took about 55 minutes. So we were late getting to Stevenage, which of course we ended up catching the train to Cambridge about an hour late. This wouldn't have been a big deal for us, but for David and Linda it meant David had to leave a special dinner engagement to pick us up at the train station and drive us to their house, then head back to dinner.

David and Linda had already thought of everything for us, from preparing a Lasagna and having it ready to go in the oven, to showing us how to work the laundry machine, which we were in dire need of after 10 days at camp. David also showed us how to get on their wireless for the iPod and netbook, and even showed us how to use the cable box before he left. After sleeping in Scout houses and tents for almost 3 weeks, we now have our own rooms! It's like a palace in the countryside.

After dinner we cleaned up the dishes, put on a load of laundry and sat down to relax.

A little after midnight David, Linda and Sean came home from the charity dinner event they were attending, at about just the time I was trying to convince the girls to go to bed.