On High Tea, the Queen and being very English...

My american relatives have been visiting these last two weeks. Auntie Gladys (she of the famous family potato salad recipe), her son and grand-daughter and her cousin. They have tried to fit in the whole british experience in 11 days - no mean feat!! After braving our roads with their hire car - I did try to explain that although places are technically a lot closer together here than in the states - our traffic and road systems can add hours to a journey they still managed to pack in some areas of Scotland, York, Lincolnshire and Stratford before coming back to me in the north.
I tried hard to think of what would be the ultimate English experience and finally settled on taking them for afternoon tea at the Midland Hotel in Manchester. After a few anxious moments - the taxi let us down so I had to drive in Manchester and find somewhere to park (thank heavens for satnav!) and braving downpours of torrential rain which miraculously stopped as we got out of the car, we walked a few 100 yards to the hotel and were shown to our table.
What an experience, beautiful surroundings, dainty sandwiches with the crusts cut off, fantastic selection of cakes - all served on wooden tiered cake stands and with a never ending supply of tea served in china cups and saucers. For a while there I thought I belonged to another era.







Anyway, you'd think that was english enough - but no - the next day the Queen visited - not quite my house - but our town. Now I think they have returned home thinking that we all must rub shoulders with royalty on a daily basis!!