Bath & Stonehenge

Stonehenge and Bath made for a lovely day excursion out of London. I fell madly in love with the Roman Baths! 

So day three of our trip was a wee bit different than London. Mr. and Mrs. Lee (seriously?) checked out of the hotel at an insanely early hour and rushed off to find the tube station our friend Katie was waiting for us at. After four missed phonecalls and a headache we all found each other. Let the games begin!

Roadtripping in England is a very different experience. GPS is a must, and we were lacking in the necessities. There was one point where we made three loops around one roundabout before being sure which direction to go. When I say we, I mean everyone but me, who was happily oblivious in the back seat and living on faith that we'd eventually wind up somewhere in the UK that would be of interest.

After an undetermined number of wrong turns, and junk foods we made it to Stonehenge. You know that moment in a trip when you get somewhere and you're like....Seriously? This is it? That's kinda how Stonehenge went for us. We were like....So....um.....come here often? We were there a grand total of fifteen minutes, snapped a few photos and literally spent more time laughing about a hen that got plastered to the grill of a car. Yes, you read that correctly, road kill took up more time for us than Stonehenge. We are a classy bunch.

clockwise: um, some church, and a fountain, the honest trust: rugby is love, the center of the Beazer Garden Maze, me in Bath, and the Royal Crescent

Bath itself however did rank above roadkill....just slightly (kidding). I fell in LOVE with this adorable little town. It was easy to see how this town, the home of Jane Austen, could have inspired such love stories. It was simply charming, with pretty architecture and a simplistic vibe that has somehow maintained despite the overabundant amount of shopping boutiques that have overrun downtown. It was pleasant and reminded me a fair bit of Georgetown in DC. We spent the better part of the day just walking around and stopping at whatever caught our fancy.

Though I doubt it would ever be on a guided map, there is an adorable little garden maze we randomly found in Bath, (though had we known about the Longleat Hedge Maze I would have made that a high priority). The Beazer Garden Maze, with its Sulis head mozaic in the center, and winding paths designed by Randall Coats was charming. To be fair we didn't notice much of the charm as four adults turn into five year olds and race towards the center as fast as we can (and cheat as much as we can as well). I doubt Brandon and Katie will ever truly agree on who was the first to reach the center of the maze.

the lovely roman baths

My favorite attraction of the day was the Roman Baths. The architecture is amazing, but beyond that: IT'S WARM! That whole day was FREEZING! By the end of the day I was wearing five layers. FIVE. And I was still cold. Walking into the Roman Baths with the heated rooms and warm flowing water steaming up at you was a welcome reprieve. Also a welcome reprieve was Brandon's attempt to run and do a cannonball into the water. I told you already we were classy. You didn't believe me, but I bet you do now. (For the record he wasn't actually trying to jump in the water...just look like he was. I have nearly 20 photos of Brandon flailing around the Baths, each one funnier than the last).

After that we went and attempted to have a nice dinner at Aqua in Bath, rated  as S. Pellegrino's annual "World's 50 Best Restaurants." Our opinion? FAIL. This is easily not in the best 1,000 restaurants in the world. How Aqua ever got on the same list an Daniel I will NEVER understand. 

The best thing I can say for my meal was that I got to try Elderflower Soda, with its unique lightly floral notes. My tagliatelle balognese with ground beef, pork shoulder and wild boar was disgraceful, Brandon went into a hissy fit about proper tomatoes, the Salmon Al Forno was dry and overcooked and topped with the blandest version of a salsa I have ever come across (and I'm including the Mexican Food I ate in Scotland...more to come on that later). As for dessert, it was no better. My cousins who had visited Bath earlier in the year recommended going to Jamie's Italian. After this, I would as well, having not tried the food I am sure it cannot be worse.  

Though our meal was a loss the day was not. I highly recommend a day in Bath. I can easily see why Jane Austen would write that her characters came to Bath for their health. I would prescribe just the same medicine. 

I will finally get around to posting my favorite part of the trip tomorrow I hope. I loved Edinburgh and am so excited to tell you all the story of the old bitty and the chypsies! 

London!

If you love food you have to visit Borough Market and definitely make a pub crawl one evening! London was so fun and so cold but well worth the trip! 

Alright! I am FINALLY able to sit down and blog out my AMAZING trip to London with my friend Brandon!

So, Brandon flew over to the UK a day before me. He went to the London School of Economics and has many friends there. So he callously left me to fly alone and hope that he would come and get me at the airport. Critical because all the hotel reservations are in his name….and for that matter I don’t know to get there.

Okay, first of all let me quote a conversation for you:

“whatever you do, do NOT forget to get me at the airport.  which, btw, when i get off the plane, alone, drowsy, and visibly american....WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND YOU????? this is trouble in the making.”

“Silly goose. Had you seen Love Actually, you would know the answer! I'll meet you in Arrivals Hall! And. I'll still have a phone. An american one.”

“I have seen love actually…actually......and that still means nothing to me. Whatever. See you in.....I don't know how many hours.”

“You exit the plane, you go througn customs, you pick up your bag if you failes at packing at light, one last duty-free shop, and then arrivals hall! I will be there. To meet you. Just you. For you. Wth a diet coke.”

“You are my favorite person in the world, sub category: that I intend to kill.”

Now in case you are thinking, what the devil was that about….I felt like that might help you to understand Brandon and I’s “friendlationship.” We like to quip. It is what we do. Which is merely a polite way of saying we are great friends, who are too sarcastic for our own good.

That literally was the conversation we held via facebook RIGHT BEFORE HE LEFT ME STRANDED AT THE AIRPORT. Yes, that’s right. I was there for an hour. I walked out to that arrivals hall and OH LOOK- NO BRANDON! That right there is why I classify him as the sub category of friends that I intend to kill.

So an hour late he shows up (kill, kill, kill), we grab oyster cards, he makes excuses…none of which I listen to because he is NOT holding his aforementioned diet coke I was promised…thus I am tired, cranky, and ready to go back to sleep because it’s 4 am in DC and I am not very pleasant that early in the morning.

Next stop: the hotel to drop off out bags. “Good morning Mr. and Mrs. Lee. May we take your bags up to your room?”

What the... what?

And thus began a week’s worth of marriage jokes most of which involved planning our divorce. But the jokes went along well with the fact that both of us choose to wear rings when we travel – he believes he’s less likely to be mugged if they think he’s married – I just don’t want to be hit on. Which did not work out because as Brandon says “I don’t hit anyone, except my wife.” Week. Long. Abuse.  PLUS SNORING. Worst fake marriage ever!!!! (love you Brandon, I think we can work it out).

So finally it’s time to get out and see some sights. Westminster Abby? It’s cute.  Big Ben? Yep, Ben is the bell, not the clock. Just an FYI. Parliament. Yep. And this is just on the walk to go and ride on the London Eye! ….now if you want a fun experience go ride the London Eye with a guy who is afraid of heights and water.  I’ll just assume you are mocking him and saying he’s a wuss, because I did. But as his fake wife I feel inclined to say “Be nice! That’s my fake husband you are talking about!” But at least the Eye does give you some nice views of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, and lots of other lovely buildings that are far less interesting for tourists who have only been in the country for three hours and are suffering from jet lag.

Next up a long cold walk to the Guard House where I have my picture taken with some poor guards who are being tormented by a mob of tourists! And then on to Trafalgar Square! Lots of walking in the cold.

And though I do find this beautiful ship in a bottle sculpture in the corner of Trafalgar square to be pretty, by this point in the day I pretty well stopped caring. The jet lag was kicking right in. I was fairly certain it was nine pm…but no, we have to keep going.

Brandon and I are not the typical tourists…..that’s a lie. We’re corny. Absolutely dorky really. So, it should come as no surprise that one of my check list items for London was a walk down Drury Lane.  Yep.  I’m a dork.

So, then we spent time at the London School of Economics. Which was a nice trip down memory lane for Brandon…which was not, in my opinion, as interesting as Drury Lane, but we did manage to take a few fun pictures before heading off to Fleet Street (Demon Barber!) and onward to eating at the one of the oldest pubs in London.

Ye Olde Chesire Cheese was built in 1538, and then again in 1666, ya know, after the fire.  But look at the patrons: Mark Twain, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, and Jana.  Ha. I so don’t deserve to be on that list. You do have to admit that’s a pretty impressive list of thinking men….not necessarily a great list of eating men however. I mean, my steak and ale pie was okay….but well, let’s face it, not the best thing I’ve ever eating.  But you really can’t beat the experience of eating a steak and ale pie, and lemon sponge with raspberry jam (that tastes like the love child of corn bread and a pancake. YUCK) in a dark, gloomy, and rather smelly, pub frequented by some of arguably greatest writers of their times.

By this point, it’s only 4:30. I’M SO TIRED.  Probably just as tired as you are of reading…and we’re not even done with day one yet!

Next up: a pasty because Brandon is ALWAYS hungry. It became a habit to have first dinner, second dinner, and then a midnight take out delivery. So,  we walked over to the Cornish Bakehouse  and got some vegetarian pasties and hot chocolate to wait for out bus back to the hotel.

I was beat. I think we might have done some night photography, but if we did. I’m sure all I did was complain about being cold and tired. So….we’ll skip over that.

DAY 2:

BRANDON SNORES! My fake husband is not an ideal roommate. But, if you hit him really really really hard….he stops. Apparently we’re both rather abusive.

So we finally wake up, leave the hotel and see the changing of the guard.

Okay, here’s the thing about the changing of the guard. They lost me when they started playing stand tunes like a high school marching band. I am somewhat  put off by the idea of the Buckinham Palace guards playing Celebration by Kool and the Gang.  Not Kool. Not Kool at all. Brandon tells me that the guard is made up of first years who are basically being embarrassed, somewhat like organized hazing.  I’d believe that.

After that we did a horribly touristy thing and had tea at the Ritz. Whatever you do in London do NOT have tea at the Ritz. It was not good. The service was actually rather rude, Brandon’s tea tasted like death, the sandwiches were bland, the scones were pathetic, and do not get me started on the desert plate. I will admit that my passion fruit and orange tea was lovely.  That’s really the best thing I can say for the experience. Brandon and I were both rather put off by the experience. 

After that we simply had to go to Harrods because I need quality treats to make up for the horrid tea.  We went to Laduree and I got myself a lovely box of macarons that I loved (except the currant and violet…too pungent).  The macarons were so lovely that I ate them all before taking a photo. Sorry!...that’s a lie. I’m not sorry. Not sorry at all.

Okay, so then we went to Stonehenge and Bath and then we went to Edinburgh, but I’m going to write those in a different post, and skip right over to when we got back because I LOVE the next part!

Day 6: Borough Market!

I can’t stop expressing just how much I LOVE Borough Market. It was wonderful! I had tons of hot apple cider to keep me warm, delicious paella as I walked around, and the food stalls were really something. I love the salt venders, cheese shops, and the thirty types of Turkish delight. 

I walked over to one of the butcher booths that was filled with hens, and pigs, and what looked like half a dear hanging on a board, and large turkeys etc, when one of them MOVED!  So, I screamed, I jumped, I laughed, my eyes bugged out and I got closer…AND IT DID IT AGAIN!......yep. I fell for the oldest market joke there is. The butcher though I was a good mark and was poking the chicken from behind a screen! I can’t believe I fell for it! Ugh!

Next up? Shocker! Another pub!  We headed over to the Wheat Scheaf, a CAMRA bar (that’s Campaign for Real Ale for anyone like me who had no clue).  Brandon and I went over with a few of his friends, who were very enthralled with the South Africa Rugby game. It was rather nice to be in an English pub for a rugby game.  What was interesting was their definition of a lemonade….which basically was a lemon soda. Um. That was a surprise.

Next up? Another shocker: MORE FOOD!  I had my first experience with a Wagamama. Um. It’s an interesting experience. Fast food ramen and a dining room that looks like a cafeteria was interesting, and the food was tolerable, and I’m sure that DC will go berserk when the one actually opens because it’s foreign. DC has really bad taste when it comes to foreign establishements moving in. Like Paul Bakery. Ugh.

Day 7: Ultra Tourism

So you’ll notice that we didn’t do a whole lot of tourism in the last few days. So that meant we had to pack it all into that last day. We went to the British Museum (overrated), the V and A museum (AMAZING, and the Cameraless photography exhibit was fantastic), off the the Coal Hole for Sunday roast, Kings Cross (where we could not find platform 9 3/4 sadly), Monument, Tower of London, Tower bridge, London bridge, St. Pauls (where William and Kate will be married next year), and Millennium bridge. It was a lot of walking, thus we began a game, I got points for every Starbucks we saw and he got points for Pizza Express. I totally won. Starbucks is everywhere, and thankfully near the Tower because I really needed a third hot chocolate for the day.

The short of it is a ton of walking in the cold to see places where one of my ancestors, Henry VIII's last wife, who outlived him would have spent her days. That part's kinda fun for me. :)

The last bit? Tube strike the day we fly out. Are you kidding me? Yep. That's the luck. took us a good long while to make it to the airport. Bleah. But on we go!

Also, if you're still reading, you are are a trooper! Go you! I'll do MUCH SHORTER posts about Bath and Edinburgh soon!

Cheers!

New England Road Trip: Boston and Pumpkin Regattas!

New England in the Fall! Could anything be more lovely? Two friends and I took a three day road trip around big cities and small town festivals! We did a taste test on Cannoli in Boston, a pie eating contest in New Hampshire, bought maple candy in Vermont and tried all sorts of local restaurants along the way! 

ROADTRIP! I know already you have to be jealous. If you aren't you should be! This was an amazing trip! I'm still not sure how we fit in as much as we did! We had three jam packed days of travel and fun....and driving sure, but more fun than driving! 

We started out driving overnight to Boston. Good times! Since we'd all been to Boston before we skipped the more touristy items and went straight to what really matters: cannoli! We tried out the two well known, and arguably best Cannoli shops in Boston: Mike's Pastry and Modern Pastry! So where did we weigh in on the holy cannoli wars? Well, that was too easy. 

We love Mike's Pastry! Not that we didn't love the cramped shop and slowest moving line ever at Modern Pastry, but, as it were the cannoli was no where near as good either. But beyond that, here's what I love about Mike's: I went there two years ago, and a woman who clearly had no business being there asks the guy at the counter "So, what's good here?" The guy looks at her and sarcastically says "The customah sahvice." Everyone in the store, and the line around the corner starts laughing at this. Of course they did! You are in the home of cannoli kings! Are you kidding?!?! And then there's this last time. I ordered and dropped my change purse, and when the same guy came back from getting me my change said "Hey, should I throw this down there too?" And I laughed again. I love that guy! Not to mention how much we LOVED the florentine cannoli and the perfect crisp of the chocolate dipped cannoli. Fantastic. True, true love. 

Next stop: lunch with some friends in Boston! We headed over to Trident Booksellers & Cafe which is one of the 2010 Boston Best Neighborhood Restaurants! And it was worth it! None of us had a meal we didn't like! I had the Morning Monte Cristo! So yummy!  Two fried eggs, Canadian bacon, raspberry preserves & cheddar cheese between two slices of challah bread French toast. Needless to say I'll be making that for breakfast at home a lot more often! 


Next up we took a nice drive up to Salem for some witch hunting! Halloween is simply crazy in Salem. Tons of ghost tours, haunted houses, graveyards, and the like! If you are looking for some good Halloween spirit, this is the place to go! We weren't so much so we took a drive up to the cute little seaport town of Newburyport, MA! We really enjoyed walking down the cute town squares and had a lovely dinner at The Grog before continuing on to New Hampshire!


Next up: The Goffstown Pumpkin Regatta! 


Goffstown, New Hampshire is an adorable little town that for the past seven years has held a pumpkin regatta! They hallow out giant pumpkins and build boats onto them, dress in costumes and race them across a river having a water fight along the way and a ton of fun! 


The festivities start with the dropping of the giant pumpkin! Take that Big Apple! They got a five hundred pound pumpkin to drop! You aint' got nuttin' on that! 

After watching the three failed attempts at dropping the pumpkin, and the final success we moved on to pumpkin games! They had mini pumpkin golf! Pumpkin toss! Ring toss onto a pumpkin stem! and of course: the pie eating contest! My friend Tristan and I competed! We got slaughtered of course, but had a hilarious time trying to win. All I can say about that is, it was not an award winning banana creme pie! But I tried my best! I was the only woman competing in the adult age category. I just couldn't hack it against the big boys. Wow, could some of those guys eat pie! 

After that we went to watch the kids compete in the wagon relay races, and the mini pumpkin races down the river! It was such a fun day with all the lovely pumpkin themed activities! I wish there were a festival like this here in DC! 

Next up was the actual event: The Pumpkin Regatta! My personal favorite was the the pumpkin boat the fire department built in the shape of a dragon! It breathed fire! So creative and wonderful! I also really loved the pirate and his forethought to use an umbrella to block out all the water being shot at him with water cannons! So awesome! And I really loved when a little kid yelled at Noah that he was losing the race. I couldn't stop myself, I just turned to the kid and said "The arc was built to float. Noah wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere." Okay, so it sounds dumb now, but I swear the people I was standing with thought it was hilarious. 

And last but not least was a happy drive over to Vermont, and all through New York seeing the pretty fall colors and walking through beautiful and peaceful groves. It was a lovely and peaceful day. I especially loved stopping in Vermont for maple candy and maple fudge. I loved the maple fudge so much and can't wait to make some for myself!

If you live in New England or get the chance to visit next year I'd highly recommend the Goffstown Pumpkin Regatta. It was a really fun day, and well worth the drive!

Cheers!