World's Most Famous Commute

So now that we've moved home, my morning (and evening) commute is now 5kms longer, but comes with a few things to see on the way. It goes like this...

Shortly after leaving home, I head up Notting Hill,

cut through Kensington to pass by Kensington Gardens, and

Hyde Park, going past the Royal Albert Hall,

through the Wellington Arch after giving way to the Palace Horse Guards taking their horses to the exercise track in Hyde Park...

Down Constitution Hill between Green Park and Buckingham Palace,

past the Victoria Memorial and up The Mall (right) with it's view of St Jame's Park...

Through Admiralty Arch to Trafalgar Square,

then up The Strand and Fleet Street,

and continuing past St Paul's Cathederal...

to eventually arrive at Fenchurch St.

With the sun out on both mornings so far, it's been very nice indeed. And it wouldn't take much to take a right turn just before Fenchurch st to head over London Bridge, head up the Thames to cross Tower Bridge and cruise past the Tower of London. If I add that, then I'd be showing you more than the tour buses!

Hmmmm... can I get paid to do this ride each day??

Bath Time

Making the train at Paddington with 2 minutes to spare on the Saturday morning, we settled in to our seats for the hour and a half ride to Bath. It was an all too familiar view from the windows of (eventually) rural England, yet with the picturesque countryside just not getting too much of a chance to show itself off without some man-made item intervening...

Upon arrival it was time to get our bearings and locate our accommodation, which was just off the tourist map available at the train station. With a route roughly put together we set out to take in the city/township of Bath. Within about 200m of walking we were suddenly inundated with all sorts of animals. Bath is very big on its rugby, and for some reason, the students of the local university had marked today to attend the match in animal suits. We considered going to the game, but after a quick look around (and taking a phone call from home) we decided that it would be better to locate our accommodation, check-in and leave our bags instead of lugging them around all afternoon while exploring the town. A bit of a trek around the suburbs of Bath and we eventually found our B&B - not such a bad thing, but we had taken the scenic route to get there.

Not long afterwards, we were back out into the fading light and back into Bath proper for a walk through her vintage streets and basically just finding our own way about. Bath isn’t exactly a young township having been inhabited by the Romans, so there is quite a mix of buildings and streets/lanes that span the centuries - or should that be millennia...
Once the sun had set it was time to find somewhere to have dinner, and this began what became a sort-of pub crawl as we stopped into several venues for a drink and to peruse their menu. Eventually we came across somewhere rather unique, and also quite brilliant at the same time: The River Cottage Canteen.
It’s funny how when Sheryl and I just poke about in search of a place to eat, that we truly tend to land on our feet with regard to the venues we find, and this was no exception. River Cottage is the brainchild of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (quite a famous chef here in the UK) and promotes local produce as well as the integrity of the food itself. The entire restaurant was environmentally “correct” - well... as much as it could be, which is far more than anywhere else I’ve been.
For more on River Cottage go here: http://www.rivercottage.net/Page~39/AboutUs.aspx
But back to the details that really matter - the food. Exquisite is the first word that comes to mind, yet at the same time quite simple. All very good. The staff were friendly and obviously enjoyed their jobs which just made the experience so much better.
The manager even snuck us into the nightclub/dance hall next door for what was a bit of a struggle as we had absolutely stuffed ourselves with three courses and additional samples that the waiters recommended. But great to get a few late night drinks with the music they played to round out the night.

Sunday arrived and while we’d slept through breakfast at the B&B it was good to have a bit of a lie-in. So with the sun shining we checked out and headed back into Bath.
Instead of crossing the river, we decided to stroll along it, and after playing on an ancient maze path nearby we found a small cafe right by the Pulteney Bridge for breakfast. Wonderful to just soak up the sun, the scene of the river with Bath in the background and some ducks in the foreground. (And these ducks like fudge).
We continued on and after poking through one of the shops on Pulteney Bridge, we headed back towards the Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths themselves. We had passed both the evening before, but this time we planned to investigate their insides.
This turned out to be just the Roman Baths after being unceremoniously refused entry to the Abbey. A good thing too as it took us far longer to go through the entire complex of the Roman Baths than we thought it would. Just a hot volcanic spring with a couple of old baths that the Romans built to take advantage of the hot water... Something like that, only a lot more and quite a sizeable complex. Quite interesting to see just how the Romans had done it all, as well as the stages of the place’s evolution throughout the last two thousand years.
Once we had been through here it was time for a late lunch, so again we strolled the streets and lanes of Bath for somewhere to have this. Eventually, we came across an interesting pub that had a very cruisey “loungeroom” where we “lunched” and whiled away the remainder of the afternoon before heading back to the train station for the trip back to London and home...