From Bath to York

We had a wonderful time in Bath!  We saw Jane Austen country, such as the Circle:

Sandi was in heaven when we went to the fashion museum but I liked the architecture.  We had been blessed with good weather for most of our stay - the only rain had fallen at night in London and had very nicely held off during the day, so I was wondering where this horrible weather stuff came from!  We ran into that in Stonehenge when the (it seemed like) there were gale force winds and torrential downpours of rain.  Here is a picture of Sandi when we looked at the incredible stones:

The wind was so strong it broke my!umbrella  They had a very good museum that we highly recommend to anyone visiting Stonehenge; it's well worth your time.

After the inundation, we got back on the tour bus and went through some really charming little English villages.  The last one, Castle Coombs, was really impressive with the old church and buildings.

 We were really fortunate in that our guide, Chris, was actually retired but had been brought back for a short time to train a new driver/guide.  So, we had Chris' undivided attention and the knowledge he has of the area (Kevin was driving).  Since he was born there the knowledge was considerable.  Here's Chris in the back yard of his friend, Pat.  She had very nicely asked us all in and we got to see the memorial she has placed there in honor of those lost in 9/11.

That's the memorial beside Chris.  Sometimes I forget that other countries lost people on that awful day, too.  Pat had a dear friend killed.

After Bath, we got on the train to go to York.  That was an experience.  Of course, we chose to travel on a holiday weekend (bank holiday here in the UK on Monday) so, as one young man put it as we were standing from one town to another, "You'd think we were in India!" A lady responded, "At least we're not hanging off the outside yet!" The British sense of humor reigns supreme! We did eventually get to sit in our reserved seats and enjoyed the rest of the trip immensely.

Last night the true British weather again presented itself.  It had been raining off and on while we were on the train, but the sun came out again when we got to York.  Then back came the clouds.  We were looking for a restaurant that had been recommended when it started to downpour, so we ducked into an East Indian restaurant and decided to eat there.  One of those serendipitous moments.  The food was wonderful! We decided to that again today for lunch and again had a very happy experience.

We went to the Castle Museum today and were treated to a really fine display of life since the 17th century.  When they got up the 20th century it was a little bit daunting to see things behind glass that were a part of my life! Such as:

I have one just like it except in Orange! And then there was this, which is a lot like one I used back in the day:

After we did the walking around and then talked to a young lady who worked at the museum and was from Chicago, we went to the cafe and had a scone and (probably blasphemous) a diet Pepsi.  While there, we were treated to the sight of some goose families:

But, to end today's blog and to put a smile on your face, we were reminded of the simple joys in life...where there is a puddle, there is a child:.