1,2 Sep 19 – Relaxing in Redcar

 

Picture the seaside setting in any of the BBC productions of an Agatha Christie story and you’ve got Redcar, a seaside town in the north of England. We feel like we’ve taken a step back in time and landed in the 1950’s and we are definitely in Brexit country.  Folks here are very clear that although he was a bit clumsy about it, Boris Johnson did the right thing about asking the queen to dissolve Parliament and stop talking about “all this Brexit junk.” They’ve been talking for a few years and there’s nothing more to talk about and we leave on October 31 and that’s the end of it.  One shopkeeper said, “I only worry about my own shop and my neighborhood.  I don’t care about all this international trade stuff.”  Of course when asked where he might get the goods he needs, he had no doubt that there would be no problem….and definitely there would never be a hard border with Ireland.  That was all just scare tactics.  We are not into debating – just listening.  News from the big cities, however, says that folks are really angry that Boris got the queen involved in his political shenanigans and there have been protests in front of Downing (now referred to as Clowning) Street and some are calling for a vote of no confidence.  Boris says that even if there is such a vote he is not required to resign and he doesn’t plan to.  This really would get the queen involved since he serves at her behest.  Things are getting quite heated.  But in our little seaside town, life goes on unhindered, and we took the opportunity to relax from the frenzy of preparing for the trip and our first few days of touring.

Our room overlooks the North Sea and in addition to watching the changes in the tide which are much more dramatic than anything we’ve ever seen, we can see the Teeside Wind Farm which is quite interesting to watch over the course of a day with changes in wind speed and direction. Although it is windier and cooler than we’d like, we’ve managed to take a nice walk or two on the beach, and catch up on our reading, writing, and relaxing before heading out to York and the remainder of our trip.