Winding down

It was time to visit Peter's brother and his wife in Buckinghamshire. We checked out of The Ibis Hotel, took the train to Leighton Buzzard and and were picked up by Peter's brother, Richard.

I took lots of pictures of the flowers in Richard and Viv's huge garden.

White roses.

Pink rose.

Red roses.

Orange rose.

Clematis.

Anemone.

Butterfly bush.

We sat in the garden and had a drink.

Richard, Peter, Vivienne.

Peter and I.

Peter.

Richard and Viv.

The weather was beautiful, so Richard's wife, Viv, made us a lovely meal which we ate under a tree in the garden. We had sea bass risotto. It was delicious.

Sea bass.

Veggies.

That evening we watched some TV. Viv introduced us to 'Motherland' and 'Amandaland' which we thought were quite funny. We also watched several cookery programmes.

Next day we had a bit of a long lie. It was raining, but still felt really hot.

We went for a drive to a pub called The French Horn in Steppingley. The rain had stopped and we were able to enjoy a drink outside in the beer garden. I noticed there was a beautiful church next to the pub and lots of beautiful flowers in the beer garden.

The French Horn.

The French Horn.

In The French Horn.

Church.

Lilies.

Roses.

Richard drove us across Woburn Abbey Deer Park. We saw lots of lovely deer, but Richard never slows down or stops, so I couldn't take any photos. I'll add one from the web.

Woburn Deer Park.

That evening we sat in the garden again and had a picnic consisting of quiche, tortilla, pork pie, Scotch egg, Wiltshire ham and salad. It was very pleasant to sit outside in the fresh air.

Picnic.

There was a pretty sunset at night.

Sunset.

We were leaving the next day and were taken to Leighton Buzzard to catch our train. We had booked passenger assistance but didn't get it as the station was unmanned on a Sunday. The train was really busy. Peter sat in his wheelchair. I varied between standing and sitting on my case. When we got as far as North Hampton, we were suddenly told there was a line down and we all had to go back to Milton Keynes. This would have been really annoying even if we hadn't had luggage and one of us in a wheelchair. In our current situation it was pretty much unbearable. We couldn't get to the platform fast enough for the train back to Milton Keynes, so we had to take the next one. It departed late. We were starting to get really annoyed. When we did finally arrive at Milton Keynes, the staff there seemed surprised we were being sent back. We had been told our tickets would be valid on Avanti trains, but there were announcements saying they weren't valid. We got on anyway and fortunately nobody checked our ticket.

I was so relieved when we finally reached Birmingham International and checked into The Ibis Hotel at the airport.

Our room.

We were both exhausted and hungry so we went for a meal in the hotel and enjoyed our free drinks. I normally have beer, but this time I went for a large glass of white wine. I felt I needed it. For dinner I had chicken burger and Peter had ham croquettes.

Peter.

Peter's croquettes.

My burger.

Both of us.

We were really really tired, but had to get up early for our flight the next day.