Have a go!

We left Bath at the wee hours of the morning. Three train changes later, we arrived in Chepstow, Wales. What we didn't know when we were planning our trip is that we would arrive at the end of their annual festival. Here we found the Morris men and women in traditional costume roaming the streets and performing. One men's group practices weekly and invites men to come and "have a go."

The leader of the men's group would call out the next pattern that they would do. They were certainly lively!

This man was in a group that performed next to Tinturn Abbey. One of their dances involved waving white handkerchiefs and running around the audience in time to the music.I loved all of their hats! Notice the face paint on the last picture. There were several groups that had the all black face paint.

Bath. In a nutshell. Because I'm running out of time at the internet cafe.

I'm sitting here in an internet cafe listening to some sort of down-tempo jazz and having a very difficult time focusing on the task at hand. The meter has run up to £6.50. Ah,  yes. It's a day for self-indulgence.
As we settled into our room yesterday afternoon and tried to decide what to do during our time in Bath, it became apparent that each of us thought we were coming here because the other wanted to. In our many conversations over Skype about this trip, how did we somehow miss that?!

 I spent 3 weeks in Bath during a study abroad quarter in college, so I was feeling pretty excited to come back and show Stace some of my favorite places.

Things I was most excited to revisit:

• the busker with the rainbow guitar strap
• the Cadbury ice cream shop (with a fresh chocoloate drizzle on every cone)
• the coffeeshop just around the corner from the Abbey, with the internet cafe upstairs

Things that are nowhere to be found:

• the busker with the rainbow guitar strap (He's been replaced and the new guys are definitely not nearly as entertaining.)
• the Cadbury ice cream shop (with a fresh chocolate drizzle on every cone) (It's CLOSED! Sadness!)
• the coffeeshop just around the corner from the Abbey, with the internet cafe upstairs (Now a Starbucks. Grrrr. I'm a little upset with them at the moment. I'm sure it'll pass.)

And yet, we've managed to have a pretty fun time of it. Yesterday we wandered about (looking for the ice cream shop) and ended up having pizza at an Italian restaurant and taking a trip down memory lane. The pizza was perfect. Perfecto! Mmmm...

This morning we strolled (really -- we strolled -- there was no actual walking) down the canal toward the little town of Bathampton and enjoyed the sun and the canal boats and the chance to stretch our legs after all the traveling yesterday. Then to the Roman Baths for a brief tour -- escaping to the Pump Room for afternoon tea just as the crowds descended on the museum below. Though the food was nothing spectacular, we enjoyed the atmosphere and the live music -- a worthwhile splurge.

Now it's off to find some dinner and then early to bed so we can catch our 7:30am train to Wales. Cheerio, England!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Cotswolds

Our second day in the Cotswolds, we decided that the best thing we could do would be to just hike around the area. You can't replace the smells and sights and the feel of simply walking the countryside. We bought a very simply illustrated walking map of the area and decided to do a circular hike that would bring us to several quaint little towns. So packing our bags with our picnic lunch (White Cheshire Cheese, a cucumber, some crusty rolls, and a pear and orange), water, extra clothes, etc. we set out.

Many of the paths we hiked were considered walking routes or public rights of way with a few roads. We read about the English loving their right to free-passage so much that once a year the Rambling Society organizes a "Mass Trespass"-- each of the 50,000 miles of footpaths are walked in the country. As long as each footpath is walked at least once a year, they can stop landlords from putting up fences. I love it!

Of course, this means that we were able to walk through many a sheep pasture. It was a good 8 mile walk from Stow-on-the-Wold to Lower Swell to Upper Swell to Longborough to Donnington to Broadwell and back to Stow. Each gate was different with different locks. One of the best was the "kissing gate."

Along the way one of my favorite things, besides the fact that it was hard not to take a picture of every cottage and garden and landscape, was that each cottage had a name. It made me wonder where each name came from. I think I might want to bring that tradition home. We should make a sign to put outside our condo, "The Loft." What do you think, Steph? Some of the names were: Serendipity, Mosswood Cottage, Old Church Cottage, Little Rosewood Cottage, and our B&B, the Little Broom Cottage.

After our morning walk, we stopped in Stow for some cream tea and enjoyed journaling, reading, sitting in peaceful silence, talking, and sometimes eavesdropping. Some of my favorite English sayings that I've heard so far in my time here (Must be imagined with a British accent!):

• "Put your kit there and don't mind the rubbish." (Our host telling us to put our backpacks in the car and avoid the shovels and garbage)
• "You've had a jolly good walk and run. Now stop tugging me!" (Middle aged English woman talking sternly to her little dog)
• "It's 4:10." "I thought is was 5:10." "No, it's 4:10." "Imagine that. 4:10!" (Two older English ladies having cream tea next to us)
• "Brilliant! Well done!" (The bookshop man to me after I found a 5 pound note to pay with instead of a 20)
• Ta! (for thanks) 
• jumper (for sweater)
  

Stow-on-the-Wold

We took a train from London to Moreton-in-Marsh and then took a bus to Stow-on-the-Wold. We stayed about an 8 minute walk outside of the small village in the most picturesque cottage. The gardens were awesome (I thought of Grandma Roe and Grandpa Laube. You both would have loved it!). They have these decorative "toadstool" stones in gardens and out front that were originally medieval staddle stones. Buildings were set on them so they could keep the rodents out.

In town, we (meaning me mostly!) had fun with the town stocks. Stow was a pre-Roman town where trade routes crossed because it's the high point in the region ot 800 feet. The Cotswolds were wool towns, so we also saw lots of sheep in surrounding fields. They also had town cross in the market area that had stood for 500 years. It was a reminder for all Christian merchants to "trade fairly under the sight of God."

The church in town had two especially interesting points. Notice the variety of kneelers that they had in church. They have a "Kneeler Group" that meet on Tuesday mornings to needlepoint, sip coffee, and chat. Our favorite part of the church was on the back side where there was an old wooden door with two drooping yew trees on each side. Some think that J.R.R. Tolkein might have been inspired by this for the entrance to the mines of Moria. He used to hike the Cotswolds and sketch trees that would catch his eye.

London: Day 2

For our second day in London, Jen and I did quite a bit more walking in order to do and see some new things.

We started by going to the Tate Modern museum. My favorite was a gorgeous water lily painting by Monet and a fascinating Picasso painting that was one of the first he gave away. Jen liked the color and texture of the paintings by Gerhard Richter dedicated to the American composer John Cage. We both reaffirmed that modern art is not our cup of tea!

To get there we walked across the Millenium Bridge and enjoyed a lovely view of St. Paul's Cathedral. We also got to revisit Shakespeare's Globe Theater.

I actually had to use some of my rusty rock climbing skills to get up and down this beast, but it was worth it for a picture with Aslan!

From there we traveled to Leicester Square where we bought some half price tickets for a Shakespeare performance in the outdoor theater at Regent's Park that night. To wet our appetites for the Arts, we stopped in at St. Martin-in-the-Fields lunchtime concert series. They had junior performers that were awesome. A flutist played In Ireland by Hamilton Harty and Sonative by Dutilleux. Then we had Mozart's Piano Quartet K 478, which was beautiful. Jen and I both got tired, but it was still utterly enjoyable with incredible accoustics.

After that, I headed to the Royal Mews (know for the falcons that used to molt or "mew" there originally) to see a few horses and some of the royal carriages. This is the gold coronation coach. It weighs 4 tons and takes 30 ft. to stop. They also have to take the wall and window out of the room to take it out.

That night we got our fish and chips from The Plaice of Rock and Sole and enjoyed "A Comedy of Errors" by Shakespeare. What a great end to our London days!

London: Day One

We're in London and it is HOT! We arrived shortly after noon, dropped off our bags at our hotel, and spent the afternoon...

• eating pasties and nectarines in the park across from Victoria Station
• listening to the passionate speeches and arguments at Speakers' Corner
• wandering through Hyde Park
• watching the roller skaters of mad skill strut their stuff along The Serpentine
• visiting Peter Pan
• cooling off our feet at Princess Diana's Fountain
• sweating in an internet cafe across from Victoria Station

It's almost 9pm and we're still awake, which I consider a success! Stacy is attempting to upload some pictures. Let's hope she's successful.

We're at it again

Three years ago today, I was meeting Stacy in London. She'd gone a few days earlier and was already well over jet-lag by the time I arrived exhausted and cranky on the afternoon of June 26th.

But not this time! This time we'll be in it together. London, baby!

I love flying into London. We've both been there often enough that our lists of "must-sees" are almost empty, which means a few days there will feel like visiting a city we once lived in -- we already know how to get around and what restaurants and shops we want to visit. It should be a good couple of days before we head off to Bath.

We'll keep you posted.