3 Weeks in the United Kingdom, July 2009

Short Version:
British Airways = awesome.
Customer assistance at London train stations = not so friendly/helpful
Salisbury = quaint, quiet, and wonderful
Old Rectory B&B = off the beaten path, but quaint, quiet, and also wonderful
Coach and Horses Pub = tasty potatoes, nice beer garden, friendly local vibe w/dogs

Long Version:
    We arrived at the London Heathrow airport this morning at about 8am and navigated our way through the border crossing and claimed our luggage fairly quickly.  Sidenote: British Airways is extra awesome and gives you eyemasks and fuzzy socks in addition to the usual pillow/blanket overnight fare.  There was a train information booth in the airport that validated our Brit Rail Passes and we hopped the Heathrow Express to London Paddington Station.  Once at Paddington, we embarked on a breakfast quest and discovered a Krispy Kreeme Doughnuts.  Lots of other tasty looking places in the station too, but the doughnuts called to us.
    After breakfast, I borrowed Cassie’s phone to call Verizon and ask why my phone wasn’t working.  Two dropped calls, too many pre-recorded menus, and straining to hear the quietest customer service rep ever and my phone is now working fine.  Next time I know to use the phone support rather than rely on whatever moron happens to be working in the store to get it set up correctly.
    Our next challenge was to figure out how to get to Salisbury (town near Stonehenge where we are staying the first 2 days).  After asking two not terribly helpful or friendly employees at the station, we learned that we had to take the Underground (London Subway) to Waterloo station to catch the train we needed.  We managed to navigate our way with only a slight bit of initial confusion and found the train we needed once we got to Waterloo.
    The train to Salisbury took approx 90 minutes and we walked about 15 minutes to our hotel, The Old Rectory B&B.  The owner, Patricia, greeted us and showed us to our room.  Each room has a name, and ours is the “Goodall”.  Our guidebook said that Old Rectory had “huge rooms with big beds and baths” but ours seems to be the exception.  It’s a fairly small and cramped twin room on the corner of the house with a stall shower, but it’s big enough for us and has a fantastic view of the backyard garden. 
    After getting settled and a quick shower we headed out for food to the Coach and Horses, Salisbury’s oldest pub.  I had a  “potato jacket” (aka- baked potato) stuffed with brie, bacon and cranberry sauce.  Probably the best baked potato I have ever had… flavorful and not at all dry (compared to most dry, grainy potatoes in US restaurants).  We chatted with some of the locals at the pub and met the two dogs who live at the pub (amazingly well-behaved spaniel and small shar-pei who wander the pub but don’t bother the patrons… except for one local who has a habit of keeping dog treats in his pockets).  Their beer garden out back was fairly large and even had a covered area with couches.  If I had a local pub like this I’d be there every day.
    We left the pub at about 6pm and found most of the city shops had closed for the day (including a couple chocolate and pastry shops we plan to visit tomorrow).  We headed back to The Old Rectory and passed our host on her way into town.  Unfortunately for us, she didn’t have the internet password with her so we had to wait until she returned to the B&B later for internet access.  Instead, we spent some time in the garden downstairs and then headed back to the room to explore British “telly” and discovered the Brit version of Family Feud (called “Family Fortunes” here).  We decided to skip a second pub trip and go to bed early instead to be ready for a big day tomorrow.