Bath (the town, not the thing you fill up with water and soak in)

After we visited the non-castle and Avebury Stone Circle, we continued to the town of Bath and checked in to our Hostel.  Bath is here ->

 

We found Bath to be beautiful.  It is the site of an old Roman Bath house which is build upon a natural hot spring.   The Bath had several levels that you could visit (basically it was a museum) full of artifacts and pieces of buildings uncovered from that time.  As with most tourist destinations, it had a decent helping of cheese and an indecent amount of tourists to spoil most of your photos.  The cheese was in the form of people dressed up as Romans and videos of people pretending to be Romans doing Roman things, and also the statues that were on the balcony surrounding the main big bath - they had been commissioned for the tourist attraction but made to look original.  Overall the place was fascinating and frankly a little awe-inspiring.  It was just amazing to see things so old intact.  We were impressed with the way the museum displayed bits of buildings which had been uncovered, and then filled in the rest themselves without taking anything at all away from the real artifacts. Here are our pics from it:

We also checked out the Bath Abbey.  Like most old churches in Europe, it was gothic looking, loaded with history and tourists, and was pretty cool.  Here it is: 

The town planners of Bath have done a pretty good job ensuring that all new structures in Bath look similar to the really old ones, so it has a really nice continuity and old worldy feel.  It felt a bit like Prague to us, which is to say we really quite liked it and might return to stay for a bit longer.  Here are some happy snaps of the town in general:

Squirrel hunting

Much to our delight, Hyde Park was lush with squirrels.  Bursting at its seams with them actually.  People were feeding them; they were posing for photos while they nibbled on morsels; frightened children clutching bread were being chased by them. 

Then it poured rain.  We hid under a tree.

Then it was sunny.

We saw Buckingham Palace (it’s boring) and laughed at the guys wearing fuzzy toilet brush hats. 

Then it rained again.  

Then it was sunny again, and we found another branch of the café with the free wifi that we have been abusing, and bought coffee and abused the services some more.

London

After about 15 hours sleep, we decided we had better venture out and face the result of our decisions that had led us to this point.  We went to the nearest café, and got a massive hot breaky each for about 4 pounds (under $7) each which was just what we needed. 

We headed to the city, and went to the first café with wifi and stayed there an unreasonable amount of time.  We left when we felt the staff might be getting angry, and went across the road to the National Gallery.

The Gallery was amazing and massive.  Brett, you would have loved it.  We got to see originals of Van Gogh, Monet, Rembrandt, and so many more.

We went back to the café with free wifi, got lunch, and stayed an embarrassingly long time again.

Then we jumped on the Tube, and went to Kings Cross Station (Harry Potter’s train station) and then walked to Collinge & Clark book shop…or as the fans would know it as, Black Books.  It was awesome! (Dan, don't panic, pics to come)

Then we got on the tube again and went straight to meet Gemma & Chris for drinks & curry on their last night abroad before heading back home.  It was really nice to see a familiar face, thanks guys!

Curry was delicious, but as Gemma pointed out, Europe doesn't really do spicy.  The waiter warned us that everything is very spicy, and to make sure we had lots of rice and bread.  It wasn't, but we loved it anyway.

Gemma and I ordered the only weird thing on the menu for dessert.  It was basically a cup full of salty ice with berries.  Salty ice?  Yes. Two kinds of salt actually.

Tomorrow’s plan – squirrel hunting at Hyde Park.

Gemma & Chris - Dinner @ Dishoom - 16th October 2013

Flying metal tubes

We arrived in Hong Kong and decided to lash out for the first and last time on our trip, and paid to get into a private lounge.  We got a free massage, hot shower, free food and a drink.  And wifi! 

Then we got onto our connecting flight to Heathrow, and the thing happened that you always dream about when you get on a long haul flight but it never happens.  We were seated in the middle, row of 4….and the rest of our row as empty!! Visions of lying down and sleeping filled my mind, and I was so happy I could have passed out. 

And then, just as the fasten seat belt sign turns off and I start to plan my bed for the next 12 hours, some women comes and sits in the end seat to be near her friends on the other side of the aisle.  OMG.  I was so upset that, in typical Kerrie fashion, I said there quietly and did nothing.  So I quickly resigned myself to having to sleep seating up, and did my best to do so.  Isaac got about 4 or so hours sleep (I was so jealous I could have stabbed him with my plastic fork from our midnight dinner).  I think I got maybe 2 hours sleep, intermittently.   Anyway, we both felt better than we did last time we did this trip in 2007 and had zero sleep.

We arrived at Heathrow airport at 5am, and went to the nearest café with free wifi.  We supped on various caffeinated beverages, and then I took a nap like a homeless person on the cushy chairs at the café.

After making our way to our hotel by train (or tube as the londonites call it) we slept. And slept. And slept. 

What are we doing?

Our flight was at 10:30 am Monday 14th October.  Our buddy Dan (he’s pure gold) was coming over at around 6 am to collect us and deliver us to our metal flying escape tube.  

The old us would have packed our bags on Thursday, and finalised packing our remaining belongings and stored them downstairs by Saturday lunch time.

The new us had our first run of packing our bags on Sunday night (sort of during our last going away dinner, sorry everyone) and we were up until almost 3 am Monday morning packing and storing our boxes under the house.  We had way too much stuff to fit in our packs, so we spent hours culling things (like thermals and things that we specifically bought for the trip).  It was occurring to us that we really should have done this earlier.  Panic was starting to settle in.

At around 3am we called it quits, and went to bed for 2 hours.  We got up at 5, finished off trying to stuff everything into our bags, and did the paperwork to sell our car (a guy was coming to maybe buy it that day). We should have done this earlier too, as we were missing some paperwork.  Oh well, sort it out when we get to London we said!

Dan patiently watched us run around stressed and tired for a while.  Then he delivered us to the airport, we shared a moment, and then we blasted off.

Panic and apprehension was increasing slightly. 

What the hell are we doing??

Oh that’s right, living!