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Published: September 13th 2010
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Westbury
We were sad to leave the Crown Inn and the friendly locals ****** Bath and the Midlands ****
We woke refreshed and ready for exploration the next day and traveled up the road for about an hour until we came to Bath. This town is famous for its ancient Roman baths, basically hot springs that come up through the ground that the Romans built walls and buildings around. We paid about 15 pounds to get in and received a headset that gave us a running commentary of the history as we passed through each section, much like the London Tower a few days earlier. The Romans first discovered and started building around the baths in the year 40 AD. Over the next 3 centuries they built walls and temples around the baths and bathed not only for their relaxing effects but they also believed the hot baths were a gift from the gods and had healing properties. The water was a pleasant 46 degrees. We were a bit naive in that we packed our togs but unfortunately it was strictly forbidden to swim or even dip your toe in the hot waters. Only parts and pieces of the original structure were still standing but it made you wonder to walk on the
Bath
The Roman baths, 46 degrees all day. same stone paths as people 2000 years ago.
The town of Bath itself was old and picturesque, the church next to the roman baths was massive with intricate details. We enjoyed our half day visit and it was probably good that we didn't stay as we'd heard it was quite expensive.
After Bath, we drove out of the south west into the middle of England. The motorways allowed you to do 80 mile an hour, (about 130 km/h) They do have strange signs, circles with diagonal slashes or crosses through them which I still havent worked out. We keep asking people what they mean after a few drinks and then forgetting the next day. But as long as we stuck to the speed of the surrounding traffic I thought we'd be okay.
Somehow we missed the Cotswalds (a picturesque area above London), which Net wanted to see. We drove through Stratford on Avon that was meant to be at the top of the Cotswalds but this town didn't appeal to us much. We tried heading back south into Cotswalds but could only find tiny villages with nothing in them. We ignored most of what the Mole
Lakes District
Johnny and Rosie, the wee Scots was telling us.
Finally, we found a nice motel in Stafford so we bunked there for the night. It had a nice pub next door where we had a meal and retired early to bed. For the 2nd time in 3 days I banged my head on a sloping wall (I clocked myself a beauty on a low door frame in the Crown where I literally saw stars). “You're so lucky to be little hon” I said to Lynette that night.
*** Liverpool & The Lake District - Northern England ****
Another brekky deal in the morning that came with the night's accommodation. I was surprised to see Lynette once again have fruit. This made me feel guilty because I was having bacon and eggs each time breakfast came with the accommodation, figuring we've paid for it so why not? We'll see how big my belly is when we get back.
Our first stop was Speke, on the outskirts of Liverpool. We found the house where Lynette's mum Ann (hi Ann!) lived when she was a girl. We took lots of photos and some video footage of the surrounding neighborhood (but cant show any photos as
Lakes District - Kenswick
Nice lake, we then went through the Cockshot Forrest on the left. Netty wants to be with her mum when she sees the photos). The fella that lived in the house now got a bit suspicious and came out to see why we were taking photos of his house so we had to explain why. He didn't let us in though which would have been nice. We then went to the local superstore and purchased an adaptor for our electrical goods. My whiskers were starting to get out of hand and we needed to recharge cameras, laptops etc. We spent an hour in the Speke library on the internet catching up on news and e-mails.
After lunch, we set off on the motorways again, me listening to pommy radio and Net with her headphones on listening to a book. The rain was extremely heavy as we got into the north but we figured we'd been lucky so far with the weather. When we turned off the main motorway the landscape changed immediately into rolling hills and nice lakes, as the name suggests. We had booked a night at the Castle Inn, which is in the northern part of the Lakes District, part of Cumbria I think. The Mole once again led us up the garden path, literally. We drove down a narrow road with hedges almost brushing the car on each side and found a tiny old fashioned village where we stopped and had a drink at the local Sun Inn. Once again there were dogs in the pub much to Netty's delight but the locals weren't as friendly here so we left after one drink. I asked one of the locals what happens on the surrounding roads if a car is coming in the opposite direction. “We're very good at using reverse”, he replied.
After asking a local by the side of the road where the Castle Inn was, we eventually arrived to a beautiful, grand building with gardens, grass tennis court, golf green, indoor pool and an elegant and warm interior. Our room overlooked the gardens and we had free wi-fi which up until then had been common but hard to access on our little lap top. After a brief walk around the grounds we went inside to the bar for a pint and guinness with black current. Standing outside having a smoke, we met a great couple from Scotland, Johnny and Rosie, who were there for their 3rd anniversary. We bonded immediately and spent the next 5 hours drinking and eating (and smoking out in the rain). We made fun of each others accents and learnt a lot about each others country which was handy for us considering we were heading into Scotland the next day. We both thought Johnny looked a little like Pete, Net's brother in-law.
We woke up the next morning a little bleary eyed and had brekky with Johnny and Rosie. It was here that we tried black pudding (first time for me and years since Net had it). I thought it was okay but I could tell by Net's face straight away that she didn't like it. Yep, spat out into the serviette the first mouthful went. After that, Net had a swim and I did a bit of travel blogging. We met Johnny and Rosie in the foyer and said our goodbyes, exchaging e-mails and them promising to visit us in Australia one day. We took off in the car, bipping and waving good bye only to pass them again 5 minutes later after traveling in the wrong direction. Bloody Mole!
We drove into a little township by the name of Kenswick where we parked the car and found ourselves amongst a thriving Saturday market with little stalls selling all sorts of things. Netty found a walking tour that we ventured out on immediately. We walked along a stunning lake and trekked through little woods, making sure we closed the gates behind us so the sheep (which were everywhere) would not escape. Half way through it started raining so we quickened our pace a bit, also racing the 2 hour time limit of our car park ticket. It was a nice walk which we both enjoyed. We had take away curry from the market when we got back (delicious) which was served in a brown cardboard box which we munched down. We got into the car at about 2pm and set off for our next stop...... Scotland!
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