England!

I went to the Andover Tesco grocery store with Simon. Many familiar products, similar pricing, except the Italian wine, which is less expensive than H-E-B. But-Simon got a handheld scanner at the door, and scanned each product as he put it in the bag.

At the self checkout, the list of purchases transferred instantly into the payment system, and we were gone in seconds. Except that we still had to have a checker verify that he was of age to buy alcohol.

I learned what a henge is in an excellent interpretative center, then walked almost 2 miles on a path to the actual stones. (We could have taken a bus). When this was built, people had been living in the Texas hill country for at least 7,000 years. However, all they left behind were stone tools and points.

Afterward we enjoyed a beer and chips at the May Fly Pub beside the Test River. I’ll be back to England in September with my sister Adele to rediscover our childhoods. I love England.

My hosts here -Simon and Ann Marie-have been fabulous. Ann Marie and I head to Italy tomorrow for the Way of Saint Francis. She is a friend from the trail in France. I hope I’m as enamored of Italy by the end of May as I am of England and France and Portugal.