Bath Time!!

My friend Jamie said, "Why would you want to spend a whole weekend in the bath?"  Well, first and foremost, she is a big huge DIP.  :o)  Second, who wouldn't?  I love getting in the tub with my bubbles and a good book and relaxing my worried muscles.  But no, I fear my pruney fingers and toes would never recover if we spent the whole weekend in the bath, so instead we went to the CITY of Bath.  And it was WONDERFUL.

This was our view from the apartment we stayed in for the weekend.

But let's start at the beginning, shall we?
We packed on Friday night, so that all we needed to do on Saturday morning was eat breakfast and head to the train. I LOVE TRAINS! It was so easy to walk around the corner and hop on for our hour long ride to Bath. No car, no carSEATS. Me likey. The kids are free, so it's a great way to travel!! And of course, Maxwell loved it!

After we walked to our apartment and relaxed for a few, we had a nice pub lunch by the river (Avon). Mommy was feeling incredibly spontaneous, so as we walked down by the water after lunch, we all hopped on a boat and took a nice, two mile ride down the river. There was some nice scenery to see and it was a lovely, warm sunny day.

Darian, showing us her money and "ticket"

After our boat ride we were all pretty tired, and David, Brenda and Dewey were still a bit jet lagged from their trip from the US. We went back to the apartment and all had a nice nap.
That evening, David and I helped get the kids in bed, and left the kids with Brenda and Dewey and went out alone for the first time in MONTHS! We walked hand in hand down by the river and headed to town to take a walking tour of Bath. It was called Bizarre Bath and there was no historical or factual information relayed. It was, in fact, a comedy show. Just our style! It was a nice way to see the city, and instead of sitting in a dark room with a two drink minimum, we were able to get in a nice evening stroll along with quite a few laughs. It was a really funny show! After the show we stopped at a Moroccan restaurant for some hummus and pita and dessert. All in all, it was a great "first date" in the UK.

On Sunday we toured the Roman Baths and walked around town, taking in all the sites. Bath is a beautiful city and we were so glad that we stayed for several days to be able to take it all in.

We had another yummy pub lunch and then headed back to the rooms for naps. I was disappointed to learn when we woke up that the champagne hot-air balloon ride that David and I were going to take over the city was cancelled due to high winds. We were really bummed, and we still don't know what we are going to do to reschedule. Instead, we went to a movie and out for ice cream for our second date night.



Monday was our last full day in Bath before heading back to Oxford. It was the summer bank holiday here in the UK, so David was off work. We went for a nice walk to see more of the city and checked out some of the amazing architectural masterpieces.

We then ended up at Royal Victoria Park, which is the biggest playground that I have ever seen. I would never venture there on my own with the kids; it was huge! And of course Maxwell immediately ran in one direction and Darian in the opposite. They did reunite on the carousel, though!

Ladybug!!

David enjoyed the playground, too!

We walked back to town and ended up going through a really cool market.  We saw lots of food stalls; rugs made out of alpaca hair, candy bins, giant tubs of paella, every kind of stuffed olive you could imagine.  Papa Dewey like the one with the chili pepper inside!

We made it back to the apartment, where our exhausted family chilled out and took naps.  Then Brenda, David and I went to town to have our first offical tea.  We went to Sally Lunn's for a famous Sally Lunn bun and tea.  I had scones with clotted cream and jam.  I'm hooked! YUM!  It was a wonderful teatime!

That night we were all too exhausted to do much else, so we hung out at the apartment, packed our things and ordered a pizza.  The next morning we got up early to be on our train by 6:45.  (David had to get home and changed for work!)  All in all it was a wonderful holiday weekend and I am SO glad we went.  And I highly recommend a trip to Bath.   

I even took a bath there.