Bath 2

Our visit to Bath included seeing some really unique and historic sights. Below are two photos of the famous Pultney Bridge. The only one, if I understand correctly, which has shops on both sides of the street. The photo on the left is the river side of the bridge, the one on the right is the street side. We actually stopped and bought some things in the shop on the far end in this picture - under where you see the dome.

Pulteney Bridge Beauty;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Pulteney Bridge Shops
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Below is Sally Lunn's. This is one of the two "must eat at" places in Bath (the other is the "Pump House" at the Roman Baths - not to be confused with The Town Pump in Yuba City). The story is that Sally was a huguenot who arrived in the 1600's and started baking very tasty rolls. So the legend of Sally Lunn's Buns (it rhymes) got started. This was her restaurant. Imagine that, a nearly 400 year old eatery. That may be even more impressive than McDonald's. Anyway, it was really quite a high-class place to eat, as you can see by the table setting on the right, but set in this really quaint, ancient building. The food was good and yes, the buns were delightful! If you enlarge the picture you can see the table we at through the window.

Sally Lunn's;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Table Setting at Sally's

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This is the Bed & Breakfast we stayed at in Bath. (Thanks Pam, it was PERFECT!) The name of the place is the Athole House, and the name of the guy standing with Melody is Wolfgang, proprietor of the house. He's also the cook, chauffeur, house keeper, etc. Very nice man.

Athole House;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Wolfgang and Melody
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The inside of the house was just a beautiful as the outside. On the left is our room, on the right is the view from our window. I almost added a photo of the really nice flat screen TV in our room, but since I didn't post the photo of the pretty chandelier in the room that Melody was so impressed with, I though it only fair to leave off the TV. : )

Bedroom with fireplace;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;An umbrella tree in the backyard
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If you go to Bath, you HAVE to visit the Jane Austin Center. On the left is Melody standing with Jane in front of the Center. Well, it's not really Jane herself, just a statue. And for those of you who are familiar with, and fans of "Wallace and Grommet", that story was written in the downstairs apartment of the Alfred Street house pictured on the right.

Melody and Jane;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Wallace's birthplace
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Just a couple more nice pic's from around town. On the left is a remarkable building built in a half moon shape called the Bath Crescent. The photo on the right is of river boats on the Avon, which flows through Bath. Next time we're there we will surely ride one of these. There just wasn't time on this trip.

Bath Crescent;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Avon River with boats
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Now for the "coup de gras." One of the museums we visited in Bath was a fashion museum. They has various fashions for women and men through the ages displayed. In one room they had corsets and crinolines you could try on to see how it felt to be dressed in the "old days." The video below is Melody doing her "swish" for the camera. She would have fit right in. . .

Bath

There's a famous quote by Hugh B. Brown in one of his sermons (Father, Are You There?) where he speaks of taking a bath on a Saturday evening. He says he was having a 'bah-th. Which is different than what you might think. He says: "a 'bath' is what Americans take every night. A 'bah-th' is what an Englishman takes once a week. I was taking a 'bah-th'."

In any case, we visited "Bath" in southwestern England. It is the site of the only natural hot springs in all of England. In the 2nd or 3rd century the Romans built a big bathing complex and temple to Minerva on the site. When the empire fell, the place eventually came to ruin. The English rebuilt it in the 18th century and it became a spa for wealthy people. Jane Austin lived in Bath for awhile. We had a great time there, and stayed in the most wonderful B&B with a host by the name of Wolfgang. Yes. he was a great cook, too.

One more thing, the water is green due to algae growth because the pool is not covered (it's open to sunlight). In Roman times the whole facility was covered - so the waters were clear.

The main pool at the Roman Baths;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;The "Sacred Pool" at the Roman Baths
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The brass head of Minerva;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;The Round Pool
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Roman head stones from the ruins;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Mosaic of sea creatures from the original Roman floor
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Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle (west of London) is home away from home for the royal family. We went there to see the castle, St. George's cathedral, the Queen's Doll House, and hoping to be able to get a view of private rooms. Alas, the queen was at home that day, so we didn't get to see her apartments. The rest was pretty cool though. There were three young ladies across the street from the entrance dressed like princesses. I'm not sure what they were there for - maybe just for show - but this one didn't seem overly happy at the moment.

Castle Entrance;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Winsome lass across the way
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The Band (changing the guard);;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Melody in front of the castle
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The Round Tower at Windsor;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;A pond in the garden
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The Royal Guard Band

We weren't allowed to get any closer than this to see the Royal Guard Band, and by the time we got there several people were in front of us. Nevertheless, I held my little camera up and shot this video ove rht e heads of the crowd. It worked out pretty well I thought.

London - Day 3

Day 3 was another busy day seeing lots of fun stuff. The British Museum was the highlight of my time in London. Melody probably liked the Tower of London best, and I'll post pictures of that another time. Below you see some of my favorite exhibits: The Rosetta Stone (yes, THE Rosetta Stone - the same story written in three different languages, Greek, Egyptian Demotic, and Egyptian Hieroglyphics - whereby we finally learned to read the latter in the year 1858). Next to it is some actual Greek architecture. Below those are a Babylonian entrance sculpture and a really cool looking laughing Budda from the Asian wing of the museum.

The Rosetta Stone;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;From the Parthenon
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Another stop took us to the HMS Belfast, a battleship that saw service in both WWII and the Korean conflict. You see, of course, the 6" guns and a huge torpedo, then below are various candy items that were for sale in the ships store. (the Mars Bars are English [basically a Milky Way] no the nougat with almonds that we consider a Mars bar to be). I thought it was cool to see the Kit-Kats and other familiar stuff.

Big guns;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Big Torpedo
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Finally, we have two of the really funny "life-like" displays on board the Belfast. Sick bay with an operation going on, and the dentist's office. We both got a kick out of these rooms.

Sick Bay;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;The Dentist
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Take a minute to click on the photos to enlarge them and look at the detail. Amazing.

London - Day 2

This is the first installment of photos and commentary from Day 2 in London. It was a pretty full day. One of the great sites and sights we visited that day was St. Paul's Cathedral. No photos were allowed inside, so you just get to see the outside. The second picture was taken while I stood on the walk-way just below the dome - looking down at the place I was standing when I took the first picture. Get all that?

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Melody wants to make sure everyone knows that we walked up over 350 stairs to get to that place. But then who's counting?


These two photos are, of course, of the Tower Bridge. The first taken from our tour boat on the Thames, and the second taken while walking across the bridge (which we actually did a number of time over the course of our stay there). The bridge is really just a steel structure cloaked in stone, not a stone structure, in case you were wondering.

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London - Day 1

These photos are from our first day in London. We started in Westminster with Big Ben, the Parliment buildings, Westminster Abby, and the Imperial War Museum (specifically, the underground bunker where Churchill had his War Rooms). This was one of the best days of the trip.

Big Ben;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Westminster Abby North Doors
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The photo below is only one of many photos we took in the War Rooms. This particular one is right next to Churchill's private bedroom (where he rarely stayed during the war). They said that some of the men would often stash candy in envelopes in various places throughout the war rooms to be gotten into when needed. They know this because they found such envelops forty years after the war was over.

The War Room;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Buckingham Palace down The Mall
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Below is a video of one of the strange :amphibious tour buses "they had around town in London. Actually, I don't think they really go int other water any more, nor do I think they have more than one of these - but it was pretty funny to see. There's also a quick look at a modern double-decker bus.

And so it begins. . .

Here we are, watching General Conference on the laptop in San Francisco Airport, and updating our blog. We are deeply grateful to our wonderful children who made this trip possible for us for our 30th Anniversary (which was actually last year - it just takes us a little while to get around to things.

Entering the airport at Sacramento;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Dad sitting by the coffe and beer dispensers

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The end of the first leg of the journey;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Mom eating ice cream
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Here's the first installment of photos from out trip. The one on the left is Mom disembarking from the little "puddle-jumper" airplane from Sacramento to SFO. Mom thought it was like sitting in one of those vibrator chairs - and she didn't much care for the "creaking" sounds it made throughout the flight. The photo on the right is her eating mint chocolate chip ice cream. I think if she were to die with the promise of coming back in another form - she would come back as mint chocolate chip ice cream.

As for future updates, it really depends on the availability of free internet access. (we aren't likely to want to pay for it) I hear that all the McDonald's there have it - but who knows. Check the site daily!