I've been a regular participant in various excursions organized by the tour agency once called Elderhostel, now dubbed Road Scholar. I use my earnings from the Coors Field gig to fund most travel. Since there was a four year period during which most travel was out of the question, I had a tidy little sum, and I booked a trip to the UK, crossing the Atlantic eastbound on the Queen Mary 2, and returning by air.

Road Scholar's study topic was "The Spying Game" Discussions were led by espionage historian Nigel West. We met every morning for about three hours, and had the afternoons free.

For me that meant glorious walks on the deck (three laps was a shade over a mile); trips to get a massage; tea and scones every afternoon; wine with dinner; engrossing conversations with other Road Scholars; and the sinking dismay (which I knew was coming) when I saw the coast of Ireland on our last evening at sea.

My photographs are up on Facebook, and I thought I could post a link here, but it doesn't seem to be working. Rats. If you would like to see them, drop me an email at the address above, and I'll try to send you the link directly. Facebook does say in what seems like plain language that non fb users can see them. I don't know why the link doesn't load.

After we arrived in Southampton, a bus picked us up for the drive to Cambridge and we had four days there. I was surprised to find the streets in the city center VERY crowded with all sorts of tourists and young groups of non English speaking students in England for intensive courses in the use of English.

Our tour guide for the Cambridge campus and the various courts persevered in the rain to give us a very educational two hours; we visited an American WWII cemetery; went to the decryption center at Bletchley Park and learned all about the WWII effort to read the German Enigma cable traffic. My week was topped off with a very enjoyable afternoon with a mystery reading friend who lives north of London and was able to come up to Cambridge to meet me. She was able to make good on her long promised goal to introduce me to a glass of cider and lunch in a pub.