The British Coast...

So Friday night in Bath after the lovely thai dinner Jen and I headed out with the comedy walk around Bath. It was actually pretty funny and worth the £5. After that we went to the pub below the hotel where I tried a "Buttcomb blond bitter" or something, a light but bitter beer which was actually pretty good. Then I tried a bottled drink of vodka with some berries of some kind which they called an otter pop and it tasted pretty much exactly like the blue raspberry otter pops, kind of funny. Then we headed up to our room and they let us bring some Bailey's with us, which was just slightly different from Bailey's that you'd get in the US but I think better.

On to Saturday...

We started out the day in Bath, planning on taking the train down to Weymouth after breakfast. We were hoping to go to Cornwall but apparently that was still several hours away by train, and the hotel guy in Bath recommended Weymouth as it was only about 2 hours away. We walked over to the train station before breakfast and got our tickets, then headed back to the hotel for a "real English breakfast", whatever that is. We had already checked out of our room so were waiting in the lounge, and said hello to the older gentleman sitting there. He mentioned he was from Cornwall and so we starting chatting a bit. Turns out he was born in Loucaster (?), which is the next town over from where Jen's family is from. Penaxel (?) or something. He said it's a pretty small town with about 500 people or so and only a few shops, so probably not worth a visit, but still fun to find out about it from him.

We talked some more about London and Bath, as he commutes between London, Cornwall, and was buying some property in Bath. A very nice man, very proper British gentleman with the name of John Foster. Told us a little about real estate in London and England and if you buy a place that is "leasehold", you may live there only until the current lease runs out, and the maximum lease sounds like it's 99 years. His daughter was wanting to buy a place in London for about £500,000 with the lease to expire in 10 years, at which point she would have to renew the lease for anywhere from 1-1.5million £. Very interesting. He's a headhunter as it turns out so Jen and him talked a bit about that and we also talked a little politics and his comments about Bush & Clinton were funny - apparently they're used to "naughty boys" over here in London and think nothing of it, so had no problem with Clinton.

Anyway, we talked with John until shortly before 9 where we left for the train to Weymouth. Very pretty English countryside for 2 hours or so and then arrived. The train station put us out almost right in downtown, and we walked just a block or so before reaching the water. Apparently cool weather doesn't bother the Brits as it was about 65 or so and the beach was packed. It was a really nice beach, actually, incredibly soft fine sand, beach chairs available for rent for the day, shops everywhere. Reminded me a little of Seaside, OR, as it was pretty touristy with arcades and so on, but probably a smaller beach and calmer water. We walked around a bit, looked at some of the shops, then took a paddleboat out for half an hour or so. The water was actually not too cold seeming, probably just a bit warmer than Puget Sound. A few people swimming and it looked like the beach was a very gradual slant as there were people standing up in the water but out pretty far from the beach. Probably not quite as quaint and cute as a place in Cornwall might be but at least we got to see the coast, and it was pretty nice.

Back on the train, this time for a 3 hour trip back to London. Followed the coast for a bit passing through some neat looking towns (Poole, can't remember the other places), finally getting into London about 5 or so. Back to our lovely hovel (did I mention it looks like an old hospital, smells mildewy right outside our room, and floors 1-3 have signs that say "protective overalls and respiratory mask required"? very interesting place.) Then out for Indian food as London's supposed to have really good Indian food. Just around the corner from the hostel is Indian restaurant central but those looked a bit sketchy and had too many empty seats so we kept going. Ended up at a place a few minutes walk away and sat down. Ordered our food and were having some wine and in walked an older couple who almost took our bottle of wine with them. They sat down next to us and with their map & camera were very obvious tourists. So we started talking to them and found out they just arrived today from Sarasota, FL, here for their 19th anniversary. Really great couple, "Jack & Jo _____", can't remember their last name right now but really fun to talk to and really cool people.

After dinner back to the hostel but had to stop at Starbucks to buy my London and England giant coffee mugs first. I don't know where they're going to fit in my suitcase that I'm going to pack after this, but I'm sure they'll fit somewhere.

Well that's enough for now! Tomorrow it's one more 1/2 day or so of London and then it's off to Italy tomorrow evening, where hopefully we'll catch the night train to Venice so long as our flight is on time!