Soaked it up in Bath today

A 2.5 hour train from Waterloo this morning dropped us off in Bath a city in the county of Somerset some 100 miles west of London which was made a World Heritage site in 1987

Its main attraction is the Roman Baths which has been dated to 43AD.

 The city centre is a delightful sight with buildings of Bath stone (much like the Oamaru stone though more yellow).

As one walks up the slope of the hill on which Bath lies you come to The Circus, a group of residential buildings in the shape of a circle - unfortunately as I am not a bird I could not get a photo of it.

Close by is another well known feature of the town, The Royal Crescent which is a continuous block in the shape of a crescent.

As we were wandering in that area we stopped and talked to a sculptor who had been commissioned to create a sculpture for the 2012 Paralympics - as at today he had been working 3.5 months on the sculpture and hopes to have it completed by the end of September. It will be interesting to see the completed work on his website www.bendearnley.com. He has also completed a work based on Oscar Pistorius and that will be unveiled in London next week.

Back into the actual city and we visited the Bath Abbey which was originally built in Norman times and has some nice stained glass.

 Right by the Abbey are the Baths which have been been retained as found and which has a very informative audio guide.

The water is so toxic in the main bath that if you stood in it you would get lead poisoning as the bath is lined with the original sheets of lead which are leeching toxic waste into the spa.

Another point of interest was the Sally Lunn shop where the original Sally Lunn was baked and the same recipe is retained to this day - it is nothing like the sally lunn as we know it.

We had lunch at The Bath Bun shop which was a quaint tearoom supplying the Bath bun made as it was in the 1700s - the bun is baked with a cube of sugar in it and the top is sprinkled with both sugar & raisins.

Time had run out as we had to get the 4.07 train back to London which dropped us back here at 6.45pm on time to the second.

If you are up this part of the world then a day trip Bath is highly recommended.

These feet are made for walking...

...and that is what they did today as we set off around London on what was a Bank Holiday

Arrived at Hyde Park Corner which gave an immediate view of the Duke of Wellington monument at the start of Constitution Hill.

Nearby is the New Zealand Memorial which I must say is totally uninspiring.

We strolled down Constitution Hill (which is as flat as) to stand in front of Buckingham Palace where hundreds of tourists had started to gather for the Changing of The Guard even though it was only 9.45am.

Spoke to a fellow Kiwi from Papakura by the Palace - he was easy to recognise as he wore an All Black top.

We then strolled down The Mall stopping of in front of Clarence House which had 2 guards on duty.

The Admiralty Arch at the end of The Mall is an impressive sight opening onto Trafalgar Square dominated by Nelson's Column.

 We then looped around Regent St, Oxford Tce and Charing Cross Road all lined with high class shops, West End Theatres or eating places passing NZ house and arriving back at Trafalgar Square.

Without flagging we ambled down Whitehall, saw the horses on guard outside of the Royal Horse Guards Barracks before stopping in front of Downing Street - they obviously have a high security fear at all government buildings.

At the end of Whitehall, Westminster & Big Ben made an impressive sight more so that the Abbey nearby.

Crossing the Thames we then walked down the Southbank to the London Eye.

Our booking was for 4.00pm but we had access around 3.35pm and had a magnificent view over the surrounding area.

The Palace...

and Westminister from the Eye

Crossing back to the north side using the Hungerford Bridge we made our way to Leicester Square to get the tube & bus back to our accommodation in Shoreditch.

I have to say I have never had a strong desire to come to London but having been here and seen a little of it I have to say it is a very impressive city!

Rule Britannia

The Eurostar took us across the north of France, through the Chunnel & dropped us off at St Pancreas International in London in around 2 & a half hours late this morning and then the fun started.

Our accommodation at Shoreditch called for a trip on the Northern line from Kings Cross Station, adjacent to St Pancreas, a trip of 10 minutes and 2 stops.

Got down into the bowels of Kings Cross Station to the Northern line only to find that it was closed for the weekend.

Clambered back up the escalator and asked a "conductor" how the hell we get to Old St Station and was told to go outside and catch a bus (205).

As we had paid for our tube trip I then stood in line of around 40 or so people for a refund which took ages as there was only one ticket cubicle open.

Then back above ground to get on the double decker not having a clue where we were to get off - you need to imagine 2 older folk with 2 large and 2 smaller suitcases trying to hump them onto a bus and that was after getting them through the two previous stations!

Nevertheless it was achieved and after a walk of around 1km in bright sunshine it must be added, we arrived at our accommodation.

The accommodation is a little quirky being on the second floor of a building known as the Framery which used to be used for some industry going by the large front door in the face of the building on each floor and the old lifting mechanism.

It is however located near what appears to be a housing estate so will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Did the usual on arrival - went to find the supermarket and have a look around the local area to get the lie of the land.

Need to work out our plans for the next 6 days so that we can get done all that we want to do.

Showery Paris

Our luck has started to run out.

After many days of superb weather we have now had 2 days of showers in Paris though still not enough to keep us away from the sights and sounds of this great city.

After breakfast and a Skype conversation back home we used the Metro to get to Montmartre - it seemed that everyone who was up and about in Paris had the same idea from the crowds that were there!

 As you walk up the street lined with souvenir shops the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica comes into view standing majestically atop of the hill.

From the terrace in front of the Basilica one gets a gorgeous view out over the city but the view does not show two of the other famous monuments.

 One needs to move around the hill a little to bring the Eiffel Tower into view and also the Notre Dame.

The tower through the trees

On the walk back down from the basilica we came across a glorious garden that had more colour in it than any other garden I can recall seeing.

Returning to the apartment for a late lunch and to catch up on the ABs performance allowed a load of washing to be put through before we ventured out again to La Fayette department store on Boulevard Haussman.

The crowds in the store were enormous (there was rain about it has to said), a store that is made up of high class, high value products from the famous houses of France.

Not an opera house but a department store

 There was even a gourmet food section with prices on products at least 50% higher than seen around Paris.

 Back on the metro to Trocadero, the area directly across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower and which gives superb views of the tower and the grassed area directly behind the tower for a final look at one of the great monuments of Europe.

Notre Dame as seen from Trocadero

A walk along the banks of the Seine and into the Invalides finished another day in paradise.

Tomorrow it is au revoir to Paris, France & Europe as we catch a mid morning Eurostar to London

Things ain't always easy ...

The easy decision mentioned yesterday did not turn out to be as easy as imagined.

A compendium in the apartment recommended a restaurant in a neighbouring part of the city so after checking on the internet that it would be open, a lot of shops and restaurants close at this time of the year for the summer holidays, and writing down detailed instructions of how to get there we set off on foot.

Numerous turns & around 35 minutes later we arrived at the restaurant only to find that it hadn't reopened as noted on the internet - not to matter we had passed many restaurants on the way so we will just find one on the reverse journey.

We checked them out as we walked back but most were full and those that weren't were bar type establishments serving whatever and fries so we kept walking until we arrived back at a restaurant no more than 50m from where we started out.

So around an hour and a quarter after we left for dinner we sat down which by this time was after 8pm!

Overnight the skies opened up with another thunder & lighting storm and for most of the day it has been showery but not enough to keep us inside.

After speaking to Jill in Australia on Skype this morning (sorry that the connection dropped during the important part Jill) we walked to the Marche des Enfants Rouges said to be the oldest market in Paris - well that was a disappointment as it was not even set up fully so we then took the Metro to Harve-Caumartin which appeared from our research to be a shopping area.

Part of shopping area at Harve-Caumartin

After some time there we set off on foot to Champs Elysees - it was around a 45 min walk through a typical area of Paris with lovely old multi storeyed buildings lining both sides of the street some of which were still in cobbles.

The Champs Elysees despite the inclement & cool weather was crowded and was very much as we remembered from our previous visit.

Numerous stores were looked through and in particular I took more interest in the Mercedes-Benz & Peugeot stores where some of their new/futuristic models were on display.

In one store we saw a gift that we thought would be nice for someone back home but when we saw the price realised that at our age a mortgage would be out of the question! Coincidentally as we walked out of the shop a song was playing with the chorus line being "out of your reach".

Late afternoon we took the Metro back to Oberkampf - the Metro system is easy to use, cheap & efficient.

Need to make one more easy decision to finish off the day but after last night we accept that anything is possible.

Au revoir