B

We dropped into Darlington and London twice this year. First time was just a week on our return from Japan and on to Brussels. The second time was for five weeks, first three in Darlington and then two planned in London. Much of the news during our stay was about the severe weather and how it distrupted trasportation. We weren't excepted.

Our stay in Darlington was dominated by the cold and snowy weather we encountered. First arriving from Brussels on the Eurostar, we were relieved to have made it given the number of trains having trouble in northern Europe. We also congratulated ourselves on having left a wide margin between the arrival of the Eurostar and the departure of our pre-booked train for Darlington. Our Eurostar train came in an hour late showing the wisdom of our scheduling. The worst, however, was still to come. Our train and its reserved seats were cancelled at the last minute forcing us to wait an extra hour for the next train and to spend that hour wondering if we would get a seat, any seat, without reservations. In fact our fears were groundless and we got good seats with little problem. Jan's sister Sue and husband Phil volunteered to come pick us up and almost regretted their generosity getting stuck in still falling snow just a few yards from our back door.