Bath Day 1

Yo my friends,

Well we did a walking tour of the city of Bath today and it is really a lovely city.   A long time friend of Melissa's live here with her husband and 3 young children.  There are no cars - other than taxis and buses allowed downtown until 6 pm so the whole downtown area is reserved for foot traffic.  There are sooooooo many shops and stores and little restaurants - we just fell in love with the whole area.

Here are some photos of our walking tour.  I might add that Bath is a very hilly area as is the downtown area so when I say we went on a walking tour, I mean WALKING and LOTS of it!!!!

There are quite a few beautiful gardens on the grounds of the hotel we are staying in

And beautiful women!!!!

Some views of our hotel The Bath Spa - Melissa is at the Spa now enjoying a massage!

Front entrance to the hotel

Of course - more splashes of color

I'll bet Mary Poppins took off from a few of these roof tops!!!!   :>)

As we do, we found a nice little coffee shop to start off our walking tour

Mocha grande - I always get whipped cream on mine!! :>) 

Some of the city behind Melissa

Bath Abbey

Side view of the Abbey

We toured the Roman Baths.  These are believed to be about 2,000 years old and a lot of restoration has been done on them.  It is just an amazing place to visit - you can almost hear the voices of the Romans enjoying the hot spring fed baths.

My lovely DW Melissa

One of the many shopping streets

Melissa with her new friends "The Mimes"

Inside the Abbey

Beautiful ceilings

Lots of shoppers downtown

Back to the entrance of our hotel

Well, I hope you enjoyed the tour of Bath - we arrived and felt right at home - so much beauty in this area.

Tonight we go out to dinner with Melissa's friend and her husband.

I was a bit worried about the food here - having heard so many "stories" however the food has been fantastic!!!!!

Tomorrow we are going to Stonehenge which is in Bath and just a short car drive away.

Thus far this has been a wonderful trip - London was just fantastic - lots of hustle and bustle and lots going on there - Bath is somewhat toned down but yet has a sort of countryside charm with a most beautiful downtown area and lots to do.

Later my friends.

JR     :>)      

 

ARRIVED IN BATH

Yo my friends,

We took the train from London this morning and arrived in Bath.  We spent most of the afternoon with Melissa's friend and her family - we have not seen them for over 20 years!!!!

Some photos from out train trip of about 1.5 hours.

A beautiful passenger awaiting the train

We left from Paddington Station in London

Arriving in Bath 1.5 hours later

The train ride was really nice - smooth and fast!~

Later friends - WiFi is not the greatest here so we'll see how it goes!

Tomorrow we explore Bath!!!!

JR      :>)

LONDON DAY 2

Yo my friends,

Well the rain held off today until 1:30 or so and then just a few light showers.  We walked over to Buckingham Palace and stood at the front gates of the Palace for about 1 1/2 hours in order to get a good viewing position for the changing of the guard ceremony.  It was quite impressive with a lot of pomp and circumstance - some of it not understandable as to why they did what they did - but none the less - very impressive!!!  The changing of the guard ceremony took about 1 hours.

We then tried to buy tickets to enter the Palace and view some of the rooms but found that the tickets were all sold out!!!!  Which was OK - so we took another ride on the narrated bus tour.

Some photos:

We started the day with a nice healthy breakfast !!!!  Ya - I know - what about my diet - I'll start it tomorrow!!  :>)

This is one of London's favorite parks - consisting of over 6 acres - it is called  Green Park - does anyone know why???

Statue outside Buckingham Palace

Entrance gates to the Palace grounds

The Palace

Melissa at the gates to the entrance of the Palace

Some of The Queen's guards starting the changing of the guard ceremonies.  She has over 100 guards who live in very nice looking barracks not far from the Palace.  Contingents of them follow her all over the world and provide protection.  All of them carry automatic weapons - which is a very frightful sight as they look mean, never smiling and you can tell they mean business.  If you get too close to them, they will stamp a foot on the ground - which is a warning to MOVE BACK BUCKO!!!!!!!!!

The Palace from a distance 

A splash of color of course - Some of the Queens gardens

Hope you enjoyed the photos of our tour of London today.  Tomorrow we board a train and travel to Bath.  If WiFi is present, I'll put up some postings of our travels in Bath - I think we are there for 3 nights.  We hope to go to Stonehenge while there and of course tour the city itself.  Melissa has a friend who lives there with her husband and 3 children so we will visit with them as well.

I have to say this has been such a wonderful trip thus far.  I have a problem with understanding the British ( the accent. )  I can only understand about 10% of what they are saying!!!  I keep asking Melissa "why can't they speak English???"  :>) 

Well, got to pack up things for our journey tomorrow to Bath.

Take care my friends and cherish life and enjoy the journey.

JR    :>)