London … 29th May 2007

We got up and just walked around London …. Not much more to say really …

Stonehenge / Bath – 28th May 2007

We went off to Bath the on 28th May (yes, I know it was a few weeks ago) from London after a good nights sleep in the orange cupboard (aka easyhotel). The weather wasn’t the best we would have to admit when leaving London and the really funny thing was that the Tube @ Victoria Station was flooded. Thankfully it was a public holiday and that we didn’t have to fight with commuters on their way to work. How, in a country renowned for its rain, does a place that is critical to transport links in London get flooded? Yes if it was massive down poor in a short period of time I could understand it but hey it was just light drizzle.

Not to worry, we got another tube train to a station a few stops along and then got one from there to … damn I can’t remember now … Oh well. Anyway we got there and then found the bus that we had to get on for the trip after I made a quick dash to the local cafe to get some breakfast for Estee and I as easyhotel don’t do breakfast.

On the way down, our guide gave us her views about Stonehenge and how it was created and this that and the other. God she could prattle on. And her voice wasn’t one that you could enjoy either! But that is not something that I should probable comment on too much as mine isn’t that much better most likely.

Stonehenge is one of those places that you have this image in your mind as to how it is and how it will feel as far as the atmosphere goes. Now it could have been the light rain, the strong biting wind, but for me it wasn’t that great a place. this could also be because you aren’t allowed to get neat the stones themselves. It is all roped off. But that aside, it is still impressive to move these stones to this location from hundreds of miles away – apparently – and then place them in the formation that they are in with none of the machinery that we have available to us today and with such accuracy.

After an hour here at Stonehenge we made our way to Bath .. No .. Not to the bath. The place called Bath. This is where it was discovered that the Romans had made a bath house. This was only discovered when an architect started to create his dream for a Roman bath style place at Bath. Unbeknown to him at the time – so it is said – that Bath had been used for that purpose previously.

The Bathhouse itself was an interesting place to visit. The strange things is that as you enter the place, they suggest that you do not touch the water as it is not treated. So this raises the questions about the health of the Romans when they were about the place. Did they treat the water before bathing in it? And then of course, you see some people touching the water and worse still putting the hand of their baby into the water. Apparently in the 1980’s a child caught maningacockle after visiting Bath. It was not proven but it was suspected.

After walking around Bath, we made our way back up to London. But we took the tourist route. Now back home, that could imply that you got lost, but no we didn’t. It just means that we took the tourist route along some roads that were … well … a little narrow for bus in my opinion and in some ways a little hard for the bus .. ie steep hills and the like. But then again … we did worse in Turkey so maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.

 

As we approached London, the traffic started to build and the rain started to fall … appears we missed most of it on our trip ….

2007-05-27 – London Calling ….

We made our way up to London on Sunday to check out a few things up there and to go to a briefing for the Tour de France that will be in town in early July which we were thinking about assisting with.

We got to London mid afternoon on the train and made our way to the easyhotel in Belgrave Rd, Victoria. Now, we weren’t expecting much and that is about what we got. How to explain it …. I can’t so look at this picture from the easyhotel website …. Basically there is enough room for the double bed and about 1 foot of space at the end of the bed. From there you have about 1.5metres of space to a wall which is the length of the bathroom and into which the main door opens into. The ‘couldn’t swing a cat’ statement has never been more accurate.

Not too worry … it wasn’t too bad though especially considering the price. The two things I would suggest to them is

1. Put in at least 1 shelf to store stuff up off the floor

2. Do a breakfast. Having to go out and get breakfast and all that jazz is a pain in the backside and frankly expensive. It kind of defeats the purpose of the cheap accommodation.

Anyway … We dumped our stuff, got our rain jackets and headed off for a walk down to Westminster to see the Abbey and the Houses of Parliament before walking across Westminster Bridge to the London Aquarium. This wasn’t too bad as we got in for Free using the London Pass. Although the pass did cost 45GBP it was worth it as it got us into several places for free which meant we didn’t have to worry about carrying cash with us. Not that you are likely to get robbed it is just that you need that for your breakfast!

After going throught the London Aquarium, we made our way over to the London Eye which is just next door. Now, I know it was raining and I thought it wouldn’t be that good. But, it wasn’t that bad up there at all. You got to see a lot of London from there dispite the rain.

 

After our ‘flight’, we went for a little walk around and down past Downing Street. Not sure why you would want to live there. I mean, you have to get through the gates every day and all that jazz. I am sure the police like it too … standing around in the rain all day waiting for someone to ask to come through the gates.