| Got up, as is once again our wont, to the
Big Breakfast (You Beauty), knocked up all the rooms on our floor (ground
level, not the first), and in for breakfast.
Nando's was crawling with English high school types, in for a Shakespeare play (probably ours), so breakfast took longer than usual. Nobody dumped their whole drink on themselves today - a nice change for the better. Geoff is staying elsewhere now (last night and tonight), so we were just guessing at 9 AM for pickup, and we guessed right: up he pulled to se us all there with our stuff, ready to board the coach (a new one to us, a 24 passenger Mercedes coach), and off we went for Epworth. |
| We made great time - Geoff was quite surprised
and pleased - took us only 3 hours, including a 40-minute services stop.
That put us pulling into town right about noon - quicker than I had anticipated.
We followed the signs straight to the Old Rectory.
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| As we had arrived at noon, I told everyone
we'd picnic first, as they're closed 12 - 13. Of course, they headed
straight for the sheep and chickens to potentially share the lunches
they had taken off the coach. Then, up comes the manager saying that
those are winter hours - now we're open straight through. So: back
to the lunches, and in we go for the A/V presentation.
It had been updated since last we were here, but they need a new audio track. After that good introduction to the Old Rectory and the Wesley family, in we went to the house, and split into two groups for our tours. |
| Hey! Look at that! The sign in
the entry has us listed - Welcome to our friends from Grosse Pointe USA!
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| Off we went, Heidi's group with a man guiding
them, and mine with a lady. Sadly, she seemed to be a trainee on
her first solo. She was endlessly referring to her Xeroxed sheet
of notes and answering questions with things like, "I think it's one of
the boys," or things like that.
As we finished up with Samuel's and Susannah's room, she had to leave, and we got the lady from last time again! Just as excellent as ever, she led us through a brilliant trip into the Wesleys' life (even including Old Jeffrey the ghost), with the high point coming, of course, in the kitchen where Susannah cam alive to us all. After buying some souvenirs, it was to the coach for our lunches, me to the refectory for a cuppa, then to the garden for a picnic. |
| Next, a quick drive back along the Wesley
trail to St. Andrew's church. They were very nice to us there, and
we had our devotion next to Samuel's tomb - one of John's sermons preached
from that very spot. It was well done and well received. Then
we went down the hill to the playground to work off some spare energy before
re-coaching.
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| Geoff did another lovely job driving us, and we were home to Nando's at a reasonable time. Kate had told us earlier in the week that she had some trouble with dinner for us on Friday, so we said, "no worries, we'll fend for ourselves, and do Fish & Chips or something." |
| Dave and Mary Ann tried the F&C place (Barnaby's) which Geoff had commended to us, as did Brian and Evan (I'm pretty sure that's who went there) - arriving at completely different opinions. Dave & Mary Ann didn't like it, the boys loved it. The boys really wanted to go back, but the adults really didn't. In the end, we ended up going to a pub - Garrick's Inn by name - which Kate had recommended to us. |
| They were quite gracious, and everyone enjoyed the evening (and the cost was about the same as Nando's would have been.) We even got to see Kate and her husband there as we were leaving - apparently that was their dinner difficulty - they had planned a night out before we had confirmed that we wanted dinners along with our rooms. Nice to see that they actually like the place they recommended to us! |
| Sleep and Morning, another day. |
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