Where I've been.

I have spent most of the last week in the city of Bath. I started out there for a conference for work, and then Mark came up and met me for a day of playing in the city. The best part of my conference was the view from the hotel (first picture!) That tells you how much I enjoyed the conference!! During most of the sessions I sat there feeling the urge to leap up, toss my papers in the air and run screaming out of the room. I just couldn't summon up the enthusiasm and energy that all of the 'lifers' seemed to have. I just didn't care about any of the things that they were talking about!

With the conference over, Mark came and met me and we moved to an even nicer hotel. We walked around Bath in the evening, stopping for dinner at my favorite restaurant!! We both really love it there - freshly cooked noodle dishes with lots of vegetables and spicy sauces. Sigh... MmmmmmMmmm. Being in a city was good!

The next day we braved the scattered showers and wandered around Bath. I bought chocolate chip cookies (bliss!! It's difficult to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie here.) And we bought yummy wine in Waitrose, had coffee, shopped in all of the unusual shops, drooled over many things, and enjoyed being together and dreaming of living in one of the stunning townhouses. Bath is beautiful and charming and absolutely teeming with history and stories and things to see and do. I am afraid we rather fell in love with it.

This picture is of the Abbey. It's set in a funny area with lots of expensive shops. (Olives for £8.50???) We didn't have time to go in this time because we spent the next hour going through the actual baths. Sometimes I can be a bit of a nightmare in these places because I get so bored of the commentary but this time they had groovy headsets that you wore and in several places there was commentary by Bill Bryson! It was neat to hear a different sort of thought on things.

I love the next picture of Mark looking at the Great Bath. It's overwhelming to look up from here and see the Abbey in the background. It's one of those places in the UK where you can really see the layers of history. How could these ancient ruins have been lost for hundreds of years when they lay so close to the church? The baths were originally a temple to the goddess Minerva. What was it about that spot that prompted generations of people to want to worship there? Standing on the stones where Roman feet once walked and looking up at such beautiful architecture made me feel very very small. It also makes you wonder what other treasures are still buried under the modern cities and houses that exist today.

We spent the last part of the afternoon with a good friend of Mark's family. He lives very near a huge safari park. Unfortunately we got there too late to go in and see any of the animals, so we will have to go another time closer to the summer season. I am completely charmed by animals. I get a bit sparkley-eyed and giddy when I even think I am going to get to see something exotic. We snuck into a back entrance and saw a few Wallabies but nobody else was around.

Coming from Canada I am used to having birds outside of our kitchen window. In the summer we have hummingbirds and in the winter there are chickadees. But just look what was sitting outside of the kitchen window when we were visiting yesterday!! It was a perfect end to my week!


P.S. I had a lot to say today so I will save the detox foot patch stories for Monday!!