Morys Musing

Hello everyone! I am sorry for the lack of posts on the blog-travel has been hectic and we just arrived today in Victoria Falls-which has internet- from the wilds of Botswana which does not. I will attempt to bring you up to speed with several posts while we are here.

When I left you Teresa and I were going to go out to Hampton Court via a boat cruise. We were all prepared to depart only to find out the water conditions were poor and the cruise that day had to be canceled. Bloody shame as the Brits would say! We had to scramble and quickly made our way to the tube to get to Paddington station so we could catch a train to Bath which was our original plan. It was nice to sit on a high-speed train after all of the walking we had done. We could learn a lot from London regarding public transportation.

We arrived in Bath and were greeted by showers and a shopping mecca if you like that sort of thing. I was shocked at the number of stores and it seemed to be designed for extracting cash. I began to wonder if the Roman baths were really in this town.

Bath...a retail outlet?

We had a nice walk about town after some pub food that was really well priced (one of the few things that was). One of my favourite things about England were the pubs. Great beer and reasonably priced food-great combination. Teresa had been to Bath before so she ventured off to shop and I visited the Roman baths and yes, they really do exist!

Beautiful Bath

Emerald Green Bath Pool

I am glad I looked past the commercialism of Bath as the tour of the Roman baths was fascinating. They have done a great job of presenting and preserving the archaeological site and relating what Roman life was like to visitors.  The architecture was beautiful and the baths certainly looked inviting (no I did not take a plunge).

Beautiful Bath Architecture

Bath Cathedral

We only had the afternoon to tour so we hopped back on the train to return to London and had a nice relaxing dinner at Paddington before we ventured back to our hotel as we were leaving for Johannesburg the next day. As we got back to our hotel, the rain started and as Teresa went off to her room I elected to have a final walk around St. James Park. What a great walk. The crowds disappeared and I allowed myself to get soaked as I walked through the park and tried to absorb as much of the London experience as I could before my departure. I ventured past a misty Big Ben and settled into my bed after a hot shower ready to dream of our upcoming Africa adventure.

Ornate Facade

Tomorrow we will join up with Richard Berry, our professional photographer guide, and start our Africa adventure with an overnight flight to Johannesburg (oh joy) before we venture into the wilds of Botswana. Stay tuned.