Blogs from Somerset, England, United Kingdom, Europe

I've just begun another adventure, but this time with a different companion. Nathan has been left at home to walk the dog and Leanne is earning money. That leaves me to travel with Mum. We flew into Heathrow this morning but straight away parted ways. Mum went to visit her friend Carol for 6 days and that gives me 6 days to check out the South of England before we meet up again and continue our trip through England, Italy and Croatia. So day one has been in Bath, a place I've wanted to see for a long time. I'm glad to say that it is as charming as I had hoped. The town was originally a Roman resort. You know how they liked a bath! Well, some Roman found a stinky, muddy marsh and decided ... read more

April 6 – Say Cheese Please For breakfast this morning Kirsten suggest we split an English breakfast. I’m all in. We have eaten our way across the Atlantic and throughout Cornwall. I’m still full of the Fish & Chips and beers from last night. We loaded the car and said our goodbyes to the pub owners. I think they were ready to offer Kirsten a job! I stepped in and said, “wow look at the time Kisty, we need to get on the road”. Our journey is coming to an end. We are heading northeast toward Heathrow Airport. Last night, the pub owner suggested we visit Cheddar. Yes, that’s the name of the village. However, before we get there, we’ll be stopping at Burrow Mump, there is an unfinished church sitting on top of this truly ... read more

Sitting in sunny Simonsbath in Somerset. No walking planned today and probably none wanted! Almost 600 km over the last month or so is about enough or according to Julie probably a few days too many! So today is washing, reflecting, blackberry picking, writing and catching up with emails and travel stuff before I collect a car and head off to Stratford for some ‘real’ tourist stuff and some Shakespeare. Lee is still asleep but after a long flight and train trip that’s no surprise. Hopefully having me around to sort of look after her will help her and she’ll be OK. I think the Queen is to be buried today so the mood even among guests here is a little somber. If it’s not today it’s tomorrow which has been declared a public holiday here. ... read more

Wow, thought that Simonsbath would be too small to register but it has come up in the location finder and it also made an appearance in Facebook in their ‘places’ section. Admittedly Facebook had some ridiculous comment like ‘within city limits’ attached but I was still impressed. I have dropped a heap of photos in the blog here but you will need to access them via photos. Really they are the same as those broadcast through Facebook but there’s a little description that accompanies each here. We walked about 22 km today which sounds like the real thing but ‘false start’ we were not actually at the starting line. More precicely we we’re almost at the finishing line but doesn’t matter. We walked to Withypool and back but our return route was a little too circuitous ... read more

Departed Windsor on schedule in the am with stops in Winchester to view the cathedral (I'm sure everyone recalls the snappy tune Winchester Cathedral where the singer complains of the Cathedral letting him down). A right amazing place is the Cathedral. Ditto the one in Salisbury, which is a full twenty-five miles away. Two massive and beautiful medieval cathedrals this close. Amazing! However, some airhead deleted the outside picture of Winchester. Sorry bout that. By the way William began Winchester in 1079 with completion occurring fourteen years later, I think. At any rate we arrived in Bath about 4pm on 4 June after circling around the area several times where our apartment is located. Followed a similar lost tourist procedure in procuring a few articles from the grocery store as we remain here a week. Finally ... read more