Day 40 – F Aug 7 – to Bath
- During the dress/pack/checkout dance, I realized that I needed to reconfigure one bag so it’s less time consuming to pack. It didn’t matter for the first month because we weren’t moving very much, but from hotel-to-hotel, that had become a pain point. It was “morning” stuff, and slowed me down. This time, I made us 11 minutes late getting out of the room.
- We took the Tube to Paddington, grabbed lunch for the train ride, and boarded the train to Bath. On the train, we met a lovely couple who met in Edinburgh. She’s from Lithuania and he’s Spanish and they live near Oxford. She spent a summer in Maine as a child and they traveled to the Grand Canyon in 2016) They were delightful, and their stop came too quickly for us. The scenery was nice. It was a gorgeous day. And instead of being hot, the train car was a little bit chilly.
- The 0.4mile walk to our hotel was less fun. Construction ruined the sidewalks as well as the street and it was mid-day and hot without shade. We saw floral deliveries that looked like they were for a wedding. Once at the hotel, we saw a bride with her entourage, probably for her Hen Party or a shower. (Or maybe the British wear the cute/fun veil for the rehearsal or day of, who knows?) The better news is that we were able to check in early.
- Hotel rant. PLEASE for the Love of Summer, stop putting crap on every flat surface, Marriott. We need places to put our stuff. Even the teensy closet was half full with a full size ironing board, iron, laundry bags, hair dryer, and safe. All the flat surfaces were covered with a phone, a giant tea/coffee tray, and other crap. I spent a decent amount of time moving their things so we had places to put our (necessary) things. We don’t need things like four glasses and two coffee mugs, single-servings of water, a landline phone, a whole kettle tray with teas and coffees, a Bib.le and a Book of Morm.on (but no Qu.ran in a place with more Mu.slims than Morm.ons), and barely any flat space in the ample bathroom because the vanity is “cute”. Function has to come first, then form can follow. Otherwise, we hate your design, no matter how nice it looks. Finally, stop opening the window coverings when there isn’t really good/quick AirCon. We checked in by 2pm (yay for early!), and per “EUsual”, our room was already a sauna at 22⁰C/72⁰F but it felt way hotter. Close the blackout curtains (or leave the AirCon on). Everyone will understand. Besides, they can have that movie-moment of opening the curtains to see their view.
- Since the room was taking forever to cool down. We popped downstairs for overpriced beer and
CokePepsi. - Later, we walked around the very-cute town, I found some nice green glass earrings. They’ll be perfect for football game days. We found a great place to have Thai for dinner.
- And then we had one of those moments that become a catchphrase. Almost back at our hotel, a little girl was having a melt down. Her parents each had her by a hand. One of the parents also had her sibling. She was trying to pull away, threw her head back, and dramatically wailed, “Mommy, I’m so booooorrrrring.” We just LOL’d and thanked each other that we skipped the whole children thing. We didn’t even want to have them in our home, never mind take them on vacations. And I’m sure the town of Bath is very boring to a 4-5 year old who is still learning verb tense.
Day 41 – S Aug 8 – touring Bath
- I woke up a tad bit early and headed downstairs to work for a bit before he awoke and joined me.
- We found a really good breakfast at the Courtyard Cafe. I had Havana Toast. It was like an open-faced breakfast Cuban sandwich. I didn’t care for the chipotle mayo on it (I found it too sweet and Cubans usually have mustard so I was missing that kick of vinegar.), but that was an easy fix.
- Next, we packed a day back, bought tickets for the Hop On Hop Off, and rode the first line. It was a pretty ride, but the commentary was a bit dull. So for the second loop/line, I just didn’t use the headphones. And that driver probably gives people back problems by driving with both feet. When we got back, we saw the recession of a wedding. The guests threw gobs of heart-shaped confetti at the couple. It was really light stuff and blew all over the place.
- We saw yet another Hen Party. One of her maids/friends was pregnant and basically starfished in a chair.
- On our way to lunch, we found a street musician playing something similar to a sitar. There were maybe a dozen strings, and they were turned 90º from the fret, so it was like a sitar and a harp had a baby. And then, on our way back, we found an art installation of the ribbons above like the ones we saw in Denver right before we left. These mimicked a field of green with flowers and bees.
- Our neighbors’ daughter was getting married on this day, so we found a postcard and finally figured out how to mail it to J&K on their wedding day. It was nearly $5 to mail to the US. It was sweet to be sending them a card after seeing so many hen parties and a wedding on their wedding day.
- Next, we ended up (of course) at Flan’s Irish Pub, but it was quite warm, so we moved on and found Sam Wellers. There, we met two lovely couples: Patrick & Deb and Nigel & Christine. They both live in the Bath area and had never met.
- After dinner at Bill’s, we stopped at a store for some drinks. I made it to the hotel bar and got to work editing the Order of the Blue Nose video. It was a busy weekend. The manager even “bought” a glass of wine for the bartender at the end of her shift and then continued to serve several of us. It was so quaint and utterly unAmerican! A couple of Canadians were upset by being mistaken as Americans. We do NOT blame them. We don’t want to be outed as American, either, but our accent is a bigger giveaway than theirs. We do apologize when it comes up. It’s the least we can do about the raci.st ped.ofile that has defiled our country and our world. The music in this hotel is quite similar to Post-modern Jukebox. It’s jazzy versions of pop songs. It’s a lot better than anything from the “easy listening” genre like what you hear at the grocery store. It’s something you can enjoy if you know/like the song, but easy to ignore if you don’t.
Day 42 – U Aug 9 – our first proper Sunday Roast, and resting in Bath
- After a trip across the way to our new favorite bagel shop, I did some work while we waited for our time slot for….
- A proper English Sunday roast. The food was great. I can see why this is a big deal over here. It’s also clear that this weekly tradition is a big reason pubs have separate dining rooms. You don’t want the little ears to hear the drunk talk over the big Sunday meal.
- On the way back, we did a little shopping. He picked out a belt and the guy was happy to punch custom holes in it, but didn’t have the tool to cut the extra end. We did that with basic scissors back at the room.
- He ran an errand to get us some drinks, and I did some work until it was time to eat again. We were not starving, so we just had some pizza. Luckily, we were almost done when a table full of untethered and undisciplined hellions descended on the table right next to ours (in an mostly-empty restaurant).
- Back at the hotel, we rested even “harder” than before. We even went to bed.
Day 43 – M Aug 10 – family call, hot springs
- Our morning started off with a worry: we had a missed call from a Sister in Law. He had been checking in with her youngest daughter more than the rest (by request), so we know it’s not that we are behind on the blog and have them worried about us. But since it was 0130 there, we decided to wait until after our main activity of the day to return the call.
- After breakfast, we packed a bag for the day and then popped down to the lobby bar to “work” on things. I did a little blog work; he rerouted a bit of our September travel to make things easier and cheaper on us.
- Our time slot for the Thermae Bath Spa was lovely. At checkin, we had to lock our phones in pouches that only staff could open. After our last experience with someone who wouldn’t follow the rules, that was a really nice touch. Our wrist bands gave us locker access and allowed us to buy food/drinks in the cafe. We worked top down: rooftop pool, experience rooms (Roman steam, Georgian steam, cool “steam” with an ice trough, celestial relaxation, an infrared sauna), and then to the indoor pool.with a “lazy river* current. It was lovely.
- After our “swim”, we were starving so we went to the good Thai place, again.
- Then, we could finally return the call from 0130….and had to hear the dreaded C word about someone we are close to. It’s still too early to know much, but since that day, surgery has been scheduled.
- During the day, I also dealt with two more pieces of drama from back home. Can we please stop with the junior high drama, already? (A post on that is forthcoming.)
- So, I spent the rest of the evening in the lobby bar working, writing, processing, and dealing. Though the kindness of a woman ordering a drink, I ended up meeting here and her date. They were the only other two down there. (They won’t be together much longer, I fear; I think he’s over her.) We chatted about the US and the UK and all the things. The front desk staff had been kind enough to serve us even after the bar closed, but when the employee cut her off, I grabbed my stuff and got out of there. I didn’t want to be part of whatever scene she was about to cause.
