No time for the watery relaxing kind ;) Places and things so far.
Kirby Lonsdale
We stayed here with Beau's BiL's Mum! Kirby Lonsdale is a market town in Cumbria. Mummy Dearest and her hubby showed us around their home town and apologised for the weather. We had a good meal and pint at their local, the Orange Tree. We walked by the river and had bacon butties. Was wonderful. Looking forward to seeing them back in NZ this summer.
Cambridge
Stayed at a BnB and we were shown around by Anna, who is kinda a local guide after living there for almost a year. We went punting twice (once with a tour guide, once on our own). Had dinner cooked for us. Visited the town that almost has my name and went into King's College and it's famous Chapel. Visiting places like that causes me to learn history.
London
The first "London" day was actually spent in Reading at Gen Con UK. Which is not at all like the US Gen Con. Much more low key. We met up with mytholder, delichan, drowninghail, ants and G. Played in one game and resisted buying things. Was cool to hang out with our buddies! Also met up with PCa, who we had previously met in Edinburgh (in March)! Then we drove to Jj and G's house which involved 2 hours in a tunnel due to terrible traffic. After 11pm at night?!
Sunday Jj went to brunch at Brick Lane market with us and then Beau and I hit the British Museum. For over 4 hours! The audio "highlights" tour was definitely worth it. There was no other way that we would have seen all the rooms in such a short time. We grabbed takeout for dinner and moseyed with Jj and G to the flat of Ants, Sproke, drowninghail et al. Special *hugs* for Sproke who got herself a pretty fancy job!
Next day blobbed and were cooked breakfast by Jj before hitting the road once more.
Basingstoke
Not officially family friends, but that's the best description, we stayed with Lalli's (aka PikaMum) brother and his family. On their recommendation we spent a day in Portsmouth and saw many ships! Mary Rose, half a tudor warship currently in the process of being preserved; HMS Victory, Nelson's Flagship; HMS Warrior 1860, restored victorian warship.
We also drove out and saw Stonehenge (and nearby archaeological dig) and we also went to Winchester and saw the Round Table.
They also cooked us dinner twice! Awesome.
Oxford
Hung out with TP and was shown around by DrS, a buddy of Beau's who did her PhD (she is a Dr Dr) there! We had dinner and drinks with a different combination of people each night (3 nights) and saw the inside of St John's and Magdalene College including Magdalene's Deer Park! We went to St Mary's chapel and climbed the spire, the highest place in Oxford. There was someone there practicing organ, very atmospheric. St Mary's is extra cool as it has black and white stained glass! We also managed to meet up and have brunch and punting (again!) with delichan and mytholder.
Bath
We are currently staying with debitha. We've had lunch at Sally Lunn's (where I lost and then later retrieved my phone) dinner at the Raven (TP said we had to go). Also visited the Bath Fashion Museum and took many photos. After dinner we went to an organ recital at the Bath Abbey. This afternoon was a road trip to Avebury. Stone circles for all! Bath has many fine dining places :) We had sushi train for lunch and Thai for dinner. Nom.
Tomorrow we plan to visit the Roman baths, eat a candy apple (I shall be taking a photo) and on to Bristol!
phew.
Point of Fashion: Travel pants
Current Obsession: I caught up!!!! Who actually read this? Any questions?
Oh yeah, I forgot, while driving we also visited Hadrien's Wall and Sherwood Forest. Guess who chose which?
Posted by giffy at September 8, 2008 09:32 AM