A Day in England

The red-eye from DC brought us to Heathrow this morning. I lifted the plane's window shade at just the right moment, seconds before the sun rose over England.

We only had 1 day in England on this first leg of the trip, so we decided to forgo London and instead hang out in a village near Heathrow. We found a nice one -- Harmondsworth, near West Drayton, just a 15-minute taxi ride from the terminal.
Harmondsworth Hall is a traditional rambling guest house with the essential elements: it's walking distance from the pub (the Five Bells) and has public footpaths that go off into the "countryside" (that's what the sign said) nestled between the M4 and the Heathrow runways. Perfect way to relax and recuperate from the overnight flight before we head on to Sicily tomorrow. 

Harmondsworth Hall

On our walk through the countryside we came upon a man picking sloe berries, the fruit of the hawthorne tree, which are used in the eponymous sloe gin. Learn something new every day!

I also got a lesson in English vocabulary from the copy of the Daily Mail in the guest house's lounge: "shops" are where you buy things, and "stores" are where you store things. No self-respecting Englishwoman, apparently, should ever call the Pennington Market (or any other "shop") a store. Or speak such other Americanisms as "different than," "semester," or "Monday through Friday." What???

Sloe berries