Uk 2014, Tiring travel and some firsts.

I twisted my ankle coming out of Eve's house so started the trip with a real bang. I got a ride on one of the airport "golf carts" to my boarding gate. A first for me. The first leg of the journey, with KLM, went very well. It was my first time on a "jumbo jet", even though they have been around forever. Of course I didn't get to go upstairs in the really swanky area but the seats were roomy, comfortable, and the service was friendly, food; passable. I was able to get about 4 hours of disturbed sleep by refusing the evening meal (I didn't want to eat at midnight anyway).
Amsterdam was uneventful. My impressions, just from landing and taking off, were of sea and rivers and canals and bays and marinas and ports. Basically lots of water and a very flat landscape. My next leg was again KLM but this time a cityhopper over to Manchester. Another first. I had never flown over the North Sea before and was amazed by the amount of shipping.

The KLM water glasses have bicycles, clogs and tulips on them. There is a kiosk in the Amsterdam
terminal selling tulip bulbs. Of course there's one selling chocolate too.

There was a wheelchair to meet me in Manchester so I didn't have to walk that terminal either. Bus out to the car rental village and another couple of firsts. Rented a car and drove it on the left hand side, by myself, always before George and I have treated it like an adventure to be managed by both of us. The rental company offered me a VW Beetle and I was very tempted but thought I would prefer a bit more car around me so got a Vauxhaul Astra instead. The rental agent said the Beetle would be more fun to drive and I can't really believe that I turned it down.
Straight on to the motorway and after about half an hour, found my hotel, in a service area.

My rental. It would have been much easier to find a Beetle in a crowded parking lot than this.

There are 2 of these in the service centre parking lot and .....

this inside, along with a McDonalds, coffee shop, variety store and a café.

I talked to a gentleman with his car plugged in and he told me he is driving for free. In England, right now, there is no charge for the electricity for the electric cars. So aside from the cost of the vehicle, he's driving for free. He was a big fan and also stated that the electricity comes from wind turbines, fan of those too.

Chris sent me a google map and directions to her place in Pontyberem, Wales but I bought this to help tomorrow and on the rest of the trip.