Travel Day 8 Of 14 – English Country Side By Train

Laura and I started our day with a breakfast that we jokingly said cost about $120.00 Canadian.

Well not that much, but London is extremely expensive. During our stay in London, we agreed to eat light and to not needlessly waist money on eating in the more expensive restaurants.

In the mornings, we stopped at the grocers and bought a sandwich wrap and stopped in at the adjoining Starbucks and this still cost about ₤12 for the two of us which is about $26 Canadian.

I’ve read in Chris Barrow’s Blog about Pizza Express and Laura and I ate there a couple of times and it was extremely good at about ₤17 which is about $37 Canadian.

Now that I calculated that, I just took a second look at the cost of the excellent English Breakfast that we had at the hotel and it cost ₤42 and I reckon that is $92 Canadian.

It is a good thing that Laura used her past connections in the hotel business to get us a good rate on the two nights hotel in London. Even still, with ₤15 per day for internet connection, the room was the better part of $850 Canadian.

So with breakfast out of the way, it was time to downsize the luggage once again.

We had already shipped about 40 lbs. of business equipment and files back to home from Toronto.

It’s been some time since I have ridden on British Rail and I forgot that you are somewhat limited to the weight and number of suitcases because you are on your own to pack your luggage and room on the train is limited. We left two bags at the hotel in London and I am happy we did as one cannot leave their luggage in a locker at the train station any longer due to terrorism.

It is a good thing we did as Laura and I had enough to manage with a suitcase and computer bag each.

The softer side of my mother’s voice seemed to speak to me as we rode though the English country side on the 2 ½ hour train ride from London to Exeter.

England is the land of my birth and my parents and I immigrated to Canada when I was 2 years old. I grew up with the stories of England and my mother’s love for England seems to resonate with me now as her references and stories were all about England as I was growing up. Truth be known, I am sure that my mother would have preferred that she had never left England. I believe that we came to Canada to suit my father’s aspirations of fulfilling a generational age old dream to get to the promised land.

Laura just exclaimed its 3 o’clock and I’ve had enough of train tracks, I want to get off.

Back to my thought … it’s kind of odd that I’ve traveled back to England with my wife to attend a Business Retreat to examine my vision, plans and goals. Hip, Hip, Hooray!

A car picked us at the Exeter / St. David’s Station for a 40 minute drive to Buckland House where the Business Retreat is being held with what I believe to be five more couples.

The plan is to get settled and we will be having dinner with the couples that are attending the retreat along with the leader of the band, Chris Barrow.

Sounds a bit spooky. Five couples staying at an English Manor all working for a week on their vision, plans and goals … an experience of a life time … we will soon see.