We've enjoyed our breakfast of porridge oats (Reg) and toast and jam in the sunny dining room of Alexander House, our B&B (it's too beautiful and comfortable to call it a hostel). Yumiko, the Japanese American we shared yesterday evening with, is off on her long drive to her next destination, and comes to say goodbye to us. She lives in San Francisco, and has offered to show us around when we get there! We gratefully take up her offer, and I say I'll email or phone her when we arrive.
The other guest in our B&B, Michelle, is here on a sales trip, visiting a local health food store where she will promote a natural brand of skin care products. She gives me some free samples before she leaves and remarks on my "lovely purple pants". (Trousers, for the uninitiated). I tell her they were navy blue but I dyed them, together with a pale mauve pair which came out a more vibrant magenta! What else can a person do when she loves purple has difficulty buying cotton trousers in that colour?!!
We've hired bikes from the B&B, and they are in good condition. We cycle to "downtown Charlottesville" which was described in a magazine as "one of the longest outdoor shopping malls in America". We are therefore very surprised to find it's not even as long as the average English High Street. Our hosts explain later that it is very unusual in the USA to find an outdoor mall - ie rows of shops in the street - nearly all shopping malls in America are indoors.
There are bike racks where we can lock up our bikes, and lots of gift shops. I manage to lure Reg in to one of them by saying that they sell paintings! (Lots of craft items and jewellery too!) We get chatting to an older English lady who works in the shop; like our B&B it is run by a co-operative of worker/owners. We think Charlottesville is a very alternative place.
The English lady, probably in her 70's, is a larger-than- life character who gives us a few tips about travelling, in particular, we must buy tick spray and spray our feet and hair if we are thinking of going into countryfied areas where there is long grass.
I make a couple of gift purchases and we meander on down the pedestrianised shopping area; I nose in the window of a few gift shops, but think I won't push my luck with Reg's patience by going inside. Besides, I'm saving my money for clothes shopping later in the trip.
Reg spots a cyclist sitting outside a coffee bar, with his fully laden bike next to him, and we get chatting. Amazingly he comes from Melksham, near Bath - not many miles away from where we live! Also, he is staying in the hostel part of Alexander House tonight! He is cycling around America - something Reg would have loved to do. However, I wouldn't have been able to undertake such a strenuous trip, and we would've also been away from home too long; so, we are doing the trip by train - the next best thing.
The cyclist tells us that the weather forecast predicts a terrific storm in Charlottesville this afternoon, lasting into tomorrow. The sky does look a bit overcast. We go to a simple diner where you can buy sliced pizza; you choose what you want from various toppings and it gets put in the oven for you - delicious! After calling in at the Visitor Centre, where Reg has a long conversation with a man about whether people should own guns, and where I am looking for an exit plan as the sky is becoming more overcast, we decide to buy some food to eat in tonight, to save us venturing out again tonight in torrential rain. We order paninis and salad from a cafe; it takes forever to be prepared, and meanwhile big splodges of rain are beginning to fall.
Finally our paninis are ready; we don our waterproofs, and as we make our way back to Alexander House, the heavens open. Within minutes we are soaked through to the skin; also I don't feel too safe cycling in this weather, as car drivers might not see us. We take a wrong turning (very unusual for Reg!) and call into a Manpower Employment Agency, where the lovely receptionist prints out directions for us. Eventually we arrive at our B&B, and peel off our dripping wet clothes.
Perhaps we are meant to spend the rest of the day just relaxing, as it has been a very busy time. We sleep, and later in the evening, we really enjoy our delicious paninis, prepared with care in the cafe; the bread is lovely, the chicken filling is fresh and tasty, and the salad is crisp and appetising.
After our meal we try to get our heads around the game of Rummikin, given to us before our last long train trip by Reg's brother Geoff and his wife Rose; to our shame we never got around to playing it then. It seems a bit complicated, so we go online to get help to learn to play it; I'm sure it's very simple when you know how!!! We're just getting the hang of it (we think) when a young couple who've just arrived on the Greyhound bus from New York (they've been travelling for 8 hours) come to join us for a chat. They are staying in the hostel behind us.
We learn that she is American, he is from Wolverhampton, UK. They've travelled a lot, have both spent time in each other's country on temporary visas, and have among other things, taught English in South Korea. We spend a long time exchanging experiences and talking about the media's perception of immigration issues as opposed to the reality. We know from first hand experience with our lovely Polish relative Gosia that it really is NOT easy to get benefits - honestly!!!
We suddenly realise it's midnight - what a good job we slept for a couple of hours earlier this afternoon! The young couple who've shared the evening with us must be absolutely exhausted.
Rummikin will have to wait until another day!
The other guest in our B&B, Michelle, is here on a sales trip, visiting a local health food store where she will promote a natural brand of skin care products. She gives me some free samples before she leaves and remarks on my "lovely purple pants". (Trousers, for the uninitiated). I tell her they were navy blue but I dyed them, together with a pale mauve pair which came out a more vibrant magenta! What else can a person do when she loves purple has difficulty buying cotton trousers in that colour?!!
We've hired bikes from the B&B, and they are in good condition. We cycle to "downtown Charlottesville" which was described in a magazine as "one of the longest outdoor shopping malls in America". We are therefore very surprised to find it's not even as long as the average English High Street. Our hosts explain later that it is very unusual in the USA to find an outdoor mall - ie rows of shops in the street - nearly all shopping malls in America are indoors.
There are bike racks where we can lock up our bikes, and lots of gift shops. I manage to lure Reg in to one of them by saying that they sell paintings! (Lots of craft items and jewellery too!) We get chatting to an older English lady who works in the shop; like our B&B it is run by a co-operative of worker/owners. We think Charlottesville is a very alternative place.
The English lady, probably in her 70's, is a larger-than- life character who gives us a few tips about travelling, in particular, we must buy tick spray and spray our feet and hair if we are thinking of going into countryfied areas where there is long grass.
I make a couple of gift purchases and we meander on down the pedestrianised shopping area; I nose in the window of a few gift shops, but think I won't push my luck with Reg's patience by going inside. Besides, I'm saving my money for clothes shopping later in the trip.
Reg spots a cyclist sitting outside a coffee bar, with his fully laden bike next to him, and we get chatting. Amazingly he comes from Melksham, near Bath - not many miles away from where we live! Also, he is staying in the hostel part of Alexander House tonight! He is cycling around America - something Reg would have loved to do. However, I wouldn't have been able to undertake such a strenuous trip, and we would've also been away from home too long; so, we are doing the trip by train - the next best thing.
The cyclist tells us that the weather forecast predicts a terrific storm in Charlottesville this afternoon, lasting into tomorrow. The sky does look a bit overcast. We go to a simple diner where you can buy sliced pizza; you choose what you want from various toppings and it gets put in the oven for you - delicious! After calling in at the Visitor Centre, where Reg has a long conversation with a man about whether people should own guns, and where I am looking for an exit plan as the sky is becoming more overcast, we decide to buy some food to eat in tonight, to save us venturing out again tonight in torrential rain. We order paninis and salad from a cafe; it takes forever to be prepared, and meanwhile big splodges of rain are beginning to fall.
Finally our paninis are ready; we don our waterproofs, and as we make our way back to Alexander House, the heavens open. Within minutes we are soaked through to the skin; also I don't feel too safe cycling in this weather, as car drivers might not see us. We take a wrong turning (very unusual for Reg!) and call into a Manpower Employment Agency, where the lovely receptionist prints out directions for us. Eventually we arrive at our B&B, and peel off our dripping wet clothes.
Perhaps we are meant to spend the rest of the day just relaxing, as it has been a very busy time. We sleep, and later in the evening, we really enjoy our delicious paninis, prepared with care in the cafe; the bread is lovely, the chicken filling is fresh and tasty, and the salad is crisp and appetising.
After our meal we try to get our heads around the game of Rummikin, given to us before our last long train trip by Reg's brother Geoff and his wife Rose; to our shame we never got around to playing it then. It seems a bit complicated, so we go online to get help to learn to play it; I'm sure it's very simple when you know how!!! We're just getting the hang of it (we think) when a young couple who've just arrived on the Greyhound bus from New York (they've been travelling for 8 hours) come to join us for a chat. They are staying in the hostel behind us.
We learn that she is American, he is from Wolverhampton, UK. They've travelled a lot, have both spent time in each other's country on temporary visas, and have among other things, taught English in South Korea. We spend a long time exchanging experiences and talking about the media's perception of immigration issues as opposed to the reality. We know from first hand experience with our lovely Polish relative Gosia that it really is NOT easy to get benefits - honestly!!!
We suddenly realise it's midnight - what a good job we slept for a couple of hours earlier this afternoon! The young couple who've shared the evening with us must be absolutely exhausted.
Rummikin will have to wait until another day!
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