Steve and Judy's Travels!

It was fun seeing that many new birds in England.

This wasn’t primarily a birding trip, but anytime we were out and about, we could watch for whatever was around us.  When we were out walking, we got to make several trips to wildlife parks, not just city parks, and record what we saw there.  Lots of easy birds like crows, blackbirds, coots, herons, and moorhens.  Easy to recognize, but slightly different from North American species, so all new birds to us.  Those parakeets in the city parks.

Couldn’t count this ruddy shelduck because it didn’t really belong here, but it was fun to see it.

This black swan didn’t count because it was more like a pet.

Got to count the ring-necked pheasant, but it’s the same as what we see at home, when we get lucky enough to spot one.

We saw a great spotted woodpecker.

From a great distance.

Loved that little European robin.

Barnacle geese.

Eurasian magpies.

And a common kingfisher.

Striking coloring.

We added thirty-five species to our life experience.

It’s a Twizy.  A two-seat electric microcar from Renault.

https://www.renaultgroup.com/en/news-on-air/news/twizy-2/

A range of 100 kilometers and a speed of 80 kph.  It plugs into a household wall socket and recharges in 3 hours.

A quiet one for Judy and me.  Home from our trip and dinner just the two of us.  Becky and Brian have the whole family together in Bristol England for their Christmas.  Matt and Lindsay have a big family gathering as well.

Our house.

Matt’s house.

Brian and Becky family all in England.  They all got Christmas Poppers, and all Christmas Poppers include crowns.

Andy and Christie enjoying a Christmas Day walk in the Great Pacific Northwest.

Happy Holidays to all!

The only thing we needed cash for in England was to drop in the collection buckets of street performers.  Everything else, tap a card or tap your phone with Apple Pay (or Google Pay).  Lots of places wouldn’t even accept cash.  No minimum, nobody complaining if you tapped for something that only cost a pound or two.  Oh wait.  Toilets.  The public toilets in the middle of town that were not at a public facility like a train station or Underground, cost 20 pence.  Shortly after we discovered that there was a charge for random restrooms and we had to have a few coins in our pockets, we discovered that there is a tradition of pubs offering their toilets for free to anyone that needs them.  No resistance, just a friendly welcome to anyone wandering in from the street.  There is a pub close by in practically every neighborhood.

Restaurants.  Food carts on the street.  On and off trains, buses, and the Underground.  No cash changes hands.  No throwing money at the turnstile.  No handing cash to an attendant.  Tap at the turnstile on your way into the underground, tap on your way out, and it figures out how much to charge you.  Train tickets away from London you have to buy a ticket, but you can do that on your phone with a click.  It’s like boarding passes at the airport, just show the ticket on your phone to the attendant and you’re good to go.

No converting dollars to pounds when we arrived.  No scrambling to try to get leftover pounds converted back to dollars before we left.  For such an old country, they sure are modern with their payment systems.

The Europeans have eliminated top sheets.  That was our experience in England anyway.

You get a bottom sheet and a comforter.  No blankets.  The comforter is in a duvet cover.  I presume the duvet cover is taken off and washed just like a top sheet.