Bath

D: london, whiteley's mall internet sight

we had such a lovely day in bath on saturday (14 july). will (one of the wonderful people on our journey...jaeda's favorite, he's hilarious!) (have you ever seen sense and sensibility? mr. palmer as played by hugh laurie? totally him!) was kind enough to drive us into bath. we hired a car (someone else will fill you in on THAT fun stuff). the car wasn't there yet, so we walked to a bakery for brunch. bacon is one of those things that i never think to eat. i don't ever buy it, but WOW it is so good. we had some bacon at johnathan & eileen's on mann, it is so thick and delicious. this bakery had a bacon and cheese baguette, i figured i must have one, it was as delicious as i thought it would be. they serve ketchup and brown sauce with everything. the brown sauce is kinda like a steak sauce. i think i might be getting hungry, since i have written so much about the food. don't worry, i'll tell you all about lunch as well. anyway, we picked up the car and drove straight to the park & ride. i think i did very well, if i do say so myself -- the drive was only 2 minutes. i think it helped that we spent a week in ireland so i could get used to seeing the way the roadways worked.

anyway, once downtown, we headed to bath abbey. GORGEOUS! the original building is from the 8th century, but the building as it is now was finished in 1499. they had a sign out front announcing their evensong service at 5, so we decided to go back for that. there are so many little streets with charming shops. we found a shop called sharps and flats (a music store) we wanted to buy everything in there, but didn't. we went into all the bookshops, jaeda was DYING for a new book to read. i found a great book for my friend's collection, and a different store had paperbacks for £2 each. we bought jane austen's 'persuasion' (seeing as we were in jane austen territory)-- it was a must.

the afternoon train carried with it my friend pat (we were roommates on my thailand adventure last year) and we found our way to the jane austen center tea rooms, where we enjoyed a spot of tea. i had lady catherine's proper cream tea. i really hoped that it would make me proper, but it didn't work... i got jam all over the tablecloth and my fingers were sticky for an hour afterward. in my defense -- the scones were warm and crumbly while the clotted cream was cold and firm. HAVE YOU EVER TRIED CLOTTED CREAM??????? i think it sounds disgusting, but it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a currant scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam. delish! pat had the same as i while casey had mrs. bennet's lemon drizzle cake and jaeda had cousin collin's crumpets. HA! i really wanted tea with mr. darcy, but that was only the name of the tea, mr. darcy didn't actually come out and join you. i have to say that is a bit disappointing to this fragile heart. a moment please... ok enough about that.

we planned on staying for the entire evensong service, but about 20 minutes into it, casey asked if we could leave. she was falling asleep. i was sad to go. the music was beautiful and resounded through the abbey so sweetly. worship music such as we heard is fortifying to the soul.

the evening took j to a bench in front of the roman baths to enjoy her book, as she no longer enjoyed walking. c, pat and i went to see the royal crescent (see pics below). the largest open area in bath is a park in front of the crescent, the grass was the perfect length and color. so green, not too short, nor too long, it was perfect. we lie on our backs looking for shapes in the clouds, but the clouds were one giant mass and not puffy cotton candy animal shaped clouds. it was nice to rest a while. there were some beautiful gardens close by, really, there were beautiful gardens all over town. WOW!