Finishing up the Grand Tour

Where did the past two months go?!
-Kells

Finally back where I have internet access and can dish the dirt on my final weeks in Britain. It wasn’t hard to leave, but then again it’s not really hard for me to leave anywhere, a handy psychological byproduct of an extremely mobile lifestyle. Unfortunately for me, this trip represented the last of my traveling for a long time to come, and that was hard to think about, but I have to admit-what a way to go!

My favorite day trip out of London was to Bath, which is a gorgeous little city nestled in forrested hills so prettily it’s a miracle anyone could hate living there, but somehow Austen managed it. There’s no accounting for some people’s behavior (a life lesson re-impressed on this trip: there are in fact people in this world who really do have nothing better to do than be miserable…but I digress).

A millenium of history: Roman, Medieval, Georgian, and Victorian

Bath Abbey is a fascinating building, and it had a motif along the front of Jacob’s Ladder with angels climbing up and down it, a style I’ve never seen before. There were also a million little sights to be seen in the city like the Royal Crescent and even private residences were fun to look at. We finished with a tour of the Roman Baths, and I even decided to “take the waters” a la any fashionable traveler of the last few hundred years. It tasted vile, but remember it’s supposed to be good for you; physicians used to prescribe gallons of the stuff a day. I feel bad for their patients.

Taking the waters, something everyone must try in their life. Once.The old Pump Room, now home to a posh restaurant and the old fountain still in place!

Stylish, traditional, and still tastes disgusting

Hawkshead, a typical village in the Lakes District, of Beatrix Potter fame

The Lakes District was stunning, I could spend many gleeful weeks hiking there, as it was we got one night. Most of our “tasting tour” of England for the last week consisted of us showing up in the new area in the evening, checking into our hostel, wandering around for as long as we could, and then getting up early have given a couple hours to see whatever the major sights in the area were, and then hopping back on the bus to drive to the next destination. Sad if you’re in so many interesting places.