A bath and a meal. Hello, goodbye. (April 21|22)

With Saturday being our last day in the area we decided to head off to see the Roman baths in Bath. The wonderful Roger dropped us off at the train station in Reading and we caught a mid-morning train to Bath after picking up some pain au chocolat for the train ride.

After arriving in Bath we wandered around for a while before making our way to Bath Abbey to do some exploring and did a tour of the bell tower. Climbing the narrow (Jeff could barely square his shoulders) and winding stairs up the tower was a challenge, but the experience and view were definitely worth it.

Our next stop was the excavated Roman baths. The entrance of which was conveniently located just across the square from the Abbey. We spent a couple hours wandering through looking at the baths and displays and following another audio tour on the Romans and the baths.

After making our way out of the baths (and having tasted some of the purified spring water - which Alaina hated but Jeff didn't mind) we decided it was time for lunch. Being a weekend, most places were very busy, but we managed to settle on a place called Revolution that had some good food but was a little lacking on the beer choices (they did have Guinness though, so it was all good). After supper we went for a walk around Bath, walking up through the circus and the Royal crescent (both interesting housing areas) then back through some of the side streets which were full of small shops. After the amount of rain we've seen so far, and having spent the day in London with soaked feet, Alana decided she needed a pair of wellies (rubber boots). She is now the proud owner of a pair of Croc wellies.

We ended the night by heading out to a nice Italian restaurant with Roger and Sheila for a fantastic final supper before we moved on to our next stop.

The next morning Roger made a proper English breakfast for everybody while we packed. After breakfast we headed to the near by cricket pitch in hopes of catching a match. Unfortunately, the matches were cancelled due to impending rain. The beer in the club house was good at any rate.

We had arranged to meet Mairi and Rod at a service station just north of London which was about an hour from both Mairi and Rod's and Roger and Sheila's. Roger drove us out to meet Mairi and Rod and we said our goodbyes and hellos and headed out to Wicken Bonhunt in Essex via a nice scenic route. We made a stop in at the pub where Mairi and Rod's daughter Hollie works for a visit and a pint before heading up to the house for a fantastic sit down supper and copious amounts of beer and wine.