Bath - May 14, 2013

Our last full day in England started out with our last English Breakfast – affectionately known as a heart attack on a plate.  It consists of back bacon, sausage, eggs, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, toast and fried toast – the latter of which is actually toast fried in very hot oil – strangely delicious!  We had to say goodbye to Tree Tops B&B, Liz and Ben (the dog) as we are spending the night in Luton which is where we fly to Lisbon from in the morning.  It was a great place to stay and would recommend it to everyone.  We then hopped on a train to Reading and switched trains to go to Bath for the day.  We arrived around noon and dropped our packs at the Bath Backpackers Hostel who will store your bags for the day for 3 Pounds (there are no lockers at the train station).  We showed up at the hostel and they hand printed and corner of a piece of paper with our numbers (10 and 11) which we taped to our bags and she gave us corresponding hand printed pieces of paper.  Our bags were then put on a shelf in the reception area – completely safe (?)  We toured the ancient Roman Baths dating back to 76AD.  It was fascinating!  Bath (or technically called Bath Spa) is an ancient city and would be great to explore.  At 2 pm, we joined a free walking tour which took us for a 2 hour tour around bath where we saw and were informed about the Roman Baths, Bath Abbey, the Avon River, the Bridge which makes the river disappear, Allen Ralph who owned the Quarry, John Wood the Older and John Wood the Younger who designed many of the buildings, the Assembly, the Circus, the Royal Crescent and many other sights.  It was cold and pouring rain for the entire tour.  Our guide, Christine, was fabulous and is one of 76 guides who provide free tours daily in Bath – they are volunteers and will not accept tips – they are proud of Bath and want to show it off.  We had a quick lunch and picked our up our bags – yup they were still there and hopped on the train to London where we took switched trains to Luton by taking the subway from London Paddington to London St Pancras – we are getting pretty good at this train/subway thing – wonder if it will be same when few people speak English.  We arrived in Luton to find the train station deserted and ne'er do wells everywhere.  We asked for directions to the hotel at the train station but they were not much help.  We ended up stopping at a McDonalds to ask for directions and 2 policeman from Leicester heard us and offered up their GPS phone and eventually drove us to our hotel.  We checked in and the man at reception said he would take us to our room as he put on his jacket!  WTF! (Why The Face).  We walked in the rain up a deserted block where our room was in a building which actually had the name of the hotel on it (some consolation I guess).  Our room was actually very clean and quiet for 46 pounds.  We decided to forego dinner and went straight to bed.

Roman Baths - 76 AD

The Circle

Bath Abbey

Cotswold Hike - May 13, 2013

We took a bus to Stow-on-the-Wold and walked around town a bit.  We then started our cross country hike across Cotswolds country - apparently you are entitled to hike across farmer's fields and this is what we did.  We took an apparently public path (hard to tell there was a path at all) across, up and down the fields until we arrived in Lower Slaughter about one hour later.  We had cream tea (tea, scone, jam and clotted cream - delicious!) at the Mill and then ventured further on through the fields to Burton-on-the-Water - the English call it little Venice because of its canal.  Great day and this is the England I will remember most fondly!

Burton-on-the-Water

A Protective Mother on our Cotswolds Hike

Jan at the Kissing Gate

Mother's Day at Blenheim Palace - May 12, 2013

Jan and I had a lovely breakfast at Tree Tops B&B.  We then set off by train and bus for Blenheim Palace - Britain's Greatest Palace.  It was a gift to John Churchill - the 1st Duke of Marlborough from Queen Anne after his historic battle victory at Blenheim in Bavaria in 1704.  The 11th Duke of Marlborough and his wife currently reside here in the East Wing.  The remainder of the Palace is open for visitors.  The palace sits on 2000 acres and has its own lake (man made) and gardens.  It was quite a site to see.  Winston Churchill was actually born here, but by accident.  His mother was attending a party at the Palace when she went into labour and had Winston prematurely.  They have a great exhibit about Winston - interesting fact - after WWII and his victory (and his hero status), a general election was called and he he lost.  We walked around the gardens in the pouring rain and didn't flinch.  We then hopped the bus and train back to Moreton-in-Marsh and ran to Black Bear Pub so Jan could have Yorkshire Pudding for Mother's Day (the restaurant was closing at 6 and we arrived at 5:50).  Jan actually thought about not venturing out today so she wouldn't miss her yorkshire!  We are now back at the B&B doing some planning for our upcoming days.  We have one more day here in the Cotswolds to do some hiking.  One day in Bath and then we have booked a flight to Lisbon, Portugal for May 15.

The Cotswolds - May 11, 2013

We got up early (I had a better sleep after a couple of gravol and earplugs although Jan said they were pretty noisy again).  We hopped on the train for our 1.5 hour ride to Moreton-in-Marsh.  Although London was pretty amazing, it is a big city and our trip into rural England brought some much needed serenity after being on the go for 4 days.  Moreton-in-Marsh is what one would expect of a rural English town.  Beautiful old buildings and laid back lifestyle.  We arrived about noon and walked about 1 mile to Tree Tops B&B - what a difference from the hostel!  We were greeted warmly by Liz and Ben (Ben is their dog).  As we headed back into town, it started to pour rain but we are now well prepared for English weather and just popped open our umbrellas and continued on.  We ate at the Black Bear Inn - I had fish and chips and Jan had bangers and mash - very good.  We walked around town and then had high tea at Tillys which was also excellent.  We headed back to the B&B for a nap (about 4 hours) and then headed back to town for a pint or two.  Ciao ...

Jan having High Tea

Moreton-in-Marsh

Last Day in London - May 10, 2013

Our last day in London was interesting.  We woke up after only a few hours of sleep as our new roommates (in our 8-bed dorm) came in drunk at 2 am and proceeded to remain up and party for the next 3 hours - I guess this is all part of our Great Adventure.

We stopped at Borough Market for some fresh bread, cheese and sausage for our lunch.  We took the Tube to Westminster Abbey.  What an amazing and historic place which is 1000 years old!  The self-guided tour moves you through the Abbey with ease and although there were a lot of people it was never super congested - it did feel a little bit like a museum than a church (more so than St. Paul's Cathedral which still had a church feel to it.  Nonetheless, the place oozes history with Kings and Queens and many other notables buried here.

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

In was a bit cold out so we settled in at a tour office and ate our bread, cheese and sausage for lunch.  One of the best lunches we have had.  We had decided to take a tour to Harry Potter Studios in Leavesden.  I actually had a nap on the bench waiting for our tour to start (remember we had very little sleep).  Harry Potter studios was great - we are big Harry Potter fans and it did not disappoint.  This is where the movies were actually filmed.

Hagrid and Dobby (you decide who is who)

Great Hall

We saw the Great Hall, numerous props, Diagon Alley, Gryffindor common room and bedroom and many other very cool places and things.  We also learned some interesting facts - one example, is that many of the scenes with Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) actually had a double in them where the double wore an animatronic head which looked exactly the same. They also had a complete model of Hogwarts built with amazing detail.  This was used for numerous outside sweeping shots of Hogwarts in the movies.

Model of Set

 We arrived back in London about 9 pm.  We had dinner at the Slug and Lettuce (they have the best names for things) and then went back to the hostel to pack.  We had a pint at the pub and then went to bed.  Tomorrow we are off to the Cotswolds ...

Blustery Day in London - May 9, 2013

Tower of London

It was a blustery day in London today.  We got up early and arrived at the Tower of London around opening time.  We headed straight for Waterloo Block where the Crown Jewels are kept.  We breezed through the very interesting exhibit which culminated in a viewing of the Queen's Best Hat (thanks to Rick Steves for suggesting to head straight there as about an hour later the line was about 2 hours long) - visitors yesterday would have arrived at the end of the exhibit to see a sign where her Crown usually sits saying simply "In Use".  We then toured White Tower which was the main complex inside the double walled fortress.  We took a free tour by the Beefeaters (real names are Yeoman Warders) which was very interesting.  While the Monarchy lived here at times, it was also very well used as a prison and execution staging area.  Anne Boleyn was beheaded here and rests in the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula on the grounds.  The Tower Bridge (which many refer to wrongly as London Bridge) is right next to the Tower of London.  We had some soup at the cafe and then took the Tube to St. Paul's Cathedral.

Bob with Tower Bridge Behind

St. Paul's Cathedral is majestic.  As you walk in and see the Nave it is awe inspiring.  It was designed by Christopher Wren who designed numerous post fire buildings in London.  You could sit under the dome and look at the paintings 53 metres high forever.  Interesting that paintings were used in the dome instead of mosaics which adorn numerous other areas of the Church because it was too expensive - for a building which cost about $50 Million Dollars (in today's dollars) to build.  We walked up to the Whispering Gallery of the dome up 257 steps about 30 metres up - in this area of the dome you can whisper and be heard 100 feet across the other side of the dome.  We started up the steps to the Stone Gallery (119 steps and 23 metros higher, but I chickened out and came down - that darn heights thing.  We then went down to the Crypt where numerous notable people have tombs and are buried like Lord Nelson and The Duke of Wellington.

St. Paul's Cathedral from the Millenium Bridge

We walked back to the hostel through Borough Market - amazing fresh and different foods.  We had to change rooms to an 8 bed dorm for the next 2 nights.  We had dinner at Thameside Restaurant on the South Bank and returned back to the hostel for an early evening.  Tomorrow is a tour of Westminster Abbey and the Harry Potter Studios Tour.  Ciao for now...

Jan in London ...

Forgot to mention that Jan is extremely surprised that most of the people here have good teeth - she was expecting something else ...