Blogs from Somerset, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 5

As my flight prepared for landing at Heathrow Airport in London, the pilot's announcement rang through the cabin - 'one degree and foggy outside with visibility of 400 metres'. Welcome to winter in England! Long haul flights can be trying and I was feeling sleep deprived and headachy by the time I passed through immigration and made my way through the airport, following the signs to the bus station. My journey wasn't quite over, I had a two hour bus trip from London to Bristol yet. I was pleased to be able to change my booked ticket (an extra £8) for an earlier service once I'd found the National Express desk, and was able to hop on a coach leaving in five minutes. Bonus! How wonderful it was to see my daughter Petra, her husband Ben, ... read more

Geo: 51.3814, -2.35745We left Cardiff and headed out on the M4 having successfully escaped the parking building with no damage. Target destination - Stonehenge which we achieved with only minor deviations from our course. Stonehenge and the museum are pretty jolly impressive and well worth a visit but I do have to do a rant about British traffic management.About 2 miles from Stonehenge, traffic goes from two lanes to one and grinds to a halt. Yes, I get that they have to preserve the heritage site but really? Can't they do better? But wait, then you get to the lovely new visitor centre and I cannot begin to describe the chaos of the cafe. A million visitors a year and they could sure learn a thing or two from Macdonalds. They have buses that take you ... read more

One day to go until our visit to Japan and either my suitcase has shrunk or (more likely) I am trying to fit the usual four seasons worth of clothing into one medium sized case! Let's hope I have an iron in the room at the other end as my clothes now look vacuum packed! So why are we going to Japan? Tricia (medical director) and I (executive clinical lead - community services) have been invited to lead a two day conference in Tokyo and visit numerous palliative centres in and around the area. How lucky are we? The first thing I should say is thank you to my colleagues who will be covering my absence and for doing it without any grumbling (well when I was in the room at least) - silk kimonos will ... read more

Wczoraj Renata zadzwoniła z propozycją byśmy gdzieś pojechały. Nawet miała w planach bym to ja była kierowcą, ale się okazało że ubezpieczenie na 1 dzień kosztuje ponad £30!!! W tej sytuacji postanowiła, że przekona Tomka, aby to on jechał z nam. Pewnie nie było to łatwe bo chciał sobie pograć na xboksie, który właśnie sobie kupił. Decyzja zapadła by pojechać do Cheddar Gorge. Była to moja propozycja jako że Renata nie miała żadnego pomysłu i było jej obojętne gdzie pojedziemy. Znam to uczucie, gdy nie chce mi się myśleć i jestem zadowolona gdy ktoś inny podejmie decyzję. W tym wypadku było to bardzo proste. I wszyscy są zadowoleni. Po telefonie od Renaty kupiłam 4 bilety wstępu po promocyjnej cenie £16.11. Tylko dlatego że kupione online. Normalna cena to £19.85. W cenę biletu jest wliczony przejazd autobusem ... read more

I finally got an appointment at the Thermae Spa for a massage and a chance to bob around in their version of the Roman Baths. This was a cold, but thankfully, dry day. My good old #1 bus got me to within a couple blocks of the spa - only which blocks? Sunday mornings in Bath are pretty quite. I wandered around the same neighborhood nearly all by myself for twenty minutes ("Alone, I'm all alone. . ." I can't get Spamalot out of my head) until I stumbled on the nondescript square that housed the spa. I really expected them to give me a prize for finding the place, instead I got a rubber bracelet that was to be my only form of identification while at the spa. The first thing you lose are your ... read more