Tuesday July 18

Today we had to get up super early and catch a two hour train to Birmingham, England to visit Brintons Carpet factory. Once we arrived at the station the kind people at Brintons had a coach waiting to take us another 45 minutes to their location. When we got there we learned about their designs and saw a lot of their work and archives. They are really talented and it was so interesting to see how it all works. Then, the generous people fed us lunch, it was delicious. After lunch we went on a tour of the factory and I was blown away at the amount of tedious work that goes into making such fine carpets. It was so hot in there and the workers were still so happy and kind to us. Rumor is that we hit record temperatures today in London and I wouldn't’t doubt it. The bus ride back to the train station was almost unbearable. When we returned to London we went and ate at a restaurant called The Stock Pot. We were seated by a man that was smoking and in the time of us sitting down until the time our food arrived he had smoked 6 cigarettes! It was horrible! But he left and our food was fabulous! The roasted potatoes were divine! Then we all felt like splurging and got dessert, I got an apple crumble with custard and ice cream. What a meal!!




















Here Katie and I are, happy as can be on our air conditioned train ride!















Here is one of the tour guides at Brintons. They were all such great hosts.