Day 16 - Home Again in Haddenham

The rest of our party was not quite up for a 4 mile walk this morning, so I left at sunrise to walk to the town of Haddenham where Christine lived for a year and a half, 15 years ago, when she was working on a company project for McCormick, the spice company. Haddenham is where I first learned about footpaths through the countryside. As I was heading east the sun rose and I was able to get some great photos. Having the footpath go straight through a field of sunflowers raised the walk to a whole different level.

After arriving in Haddenham I revisited the old streets Christine and I walked on years ago. I caught the bus back to Thame and then drove everyone the 3 miles back to Haddenham so Christine could show everyone where she lived, including her house with a thatch roof that was built in 1564.

After returning to Thame, I told everyone I was treating them to lunch at a beautiful pub that was a 2 minute walk from our apartment. That all led to the surprise of the day.

Background: In 2018, when Christine and I were walking the Camino in Spain, we befriended a lovely young lady from Scotland, Mairi Therese. Eventually, Mairi Therese came to visit us in Lancaster. Many of our friends at Willow Valley met her and for a week we took her to all sorts of sites….Philadelphia, DC, etc,

When Mairi Therese found out we were in Portugal and heading to England, she and I started working on potential opportunities to meet up. We worked on the plans for several weeks, but did not tell Christine , Suzanne or Jim. Jim and Suzanne had met Mairi Therese when she visited us in Lancaster.

Today, we met up at a local pub and Christine had a few tears in her eyes when she finally realized the person she saw at the pub was Mairi Therese. The 6 of us had a great lunch learning about her new husband Marceli, of less than a month, and the near completion of their PhDs.

It was a great end to our England adventure.Read more