Home

I catch the 13:20 Virgin Atlantic flight home and Cathie picks me up at the airport.  We're sitting around last night, while I try to stay awake until 9:00, and I say I have three more posts to do. Cathie says I only have two. But, then I remind her, there is always the I'm home post.

I'm home.

I am tired of travelling and I am sore from walking.  I looked at my fitbit and I averaged 16,000 steps a day; a total of almost 130 miles for the trip.  For my friends that golf, that's not a big number, but, it is for me.

More evident to me was the constant nature of the walking.  When I'm on my own, (while I spent 6 nights with my family, I was only with them 4 whole days), I have a tendency to explore.  Without my family, I don't sit as much as I probably should.

It's good to be home.  It's good to recover.

Now it's time to figure out what's next.

Day 17 - London

It's easier to go back to London, spend half a day, then get up and go to Heathrow in the morning.  Bath is only two hours from Heathrow, but, if something goes wrong, there are a lot more options to get there from London than Bath.

I stayed near Paddington.  This was the neighborhood I walked to on my way to Kensington Park.

The Round Pond in Kensington Park.

The Prince Albert Memorial

Royal Albert Hall.

 I stopped at the Natural Science Museum.  This is a full scale model of a blue whale.

Dinosaurs!

Dodos!

On the recommendation of Gary Pickles, I went to Maitre Choux for pastries.

I went to the Tate Modern and sat on the steps to eat my pastries.

There were a number of large scale installations on the main floor.  The most interesting one was a 40 person choral performance that was played through 40 separate speakers.  This meant you could walk around the circle and hear the different parts. However, as a photo, it didn't really work. This is large cement balls connected by ropes.

Upstairs, paintings.  Matisse.

Kandinsky

Mondrian

Miro

The touring part of my trip ended with a visit to Euston Tap, which is a couple of small buildings outside the Euston Station.  You have to go to both, because the taps are different in each building.

For dinner, I had calamari and pepperoni pizza in a bowing alley.  It was pretty good.

Day 16 - Stratford-Upon-Avon

I go from one overly touristy site to another.  It's Stratford-Upon-Avon, home to Shakespeare.

To get from Warwick to Stratford-Upon-Avon, you take the train.  When you make the transfer, you get onto a very crowded commuter style train.  If you needed to take one of the two stops before the end, it was very important that you stay near the doors. If you got shuffled into the middle of the train, there was no way to work your way out during a stop.

It's a half mile walk into town, then you start to see the crowds.

On the very left edge is the Shakespeare Center where you buy tickets to all things Shakespeare, except the plays.

This is the back side of the house where Shakespeare might have been born.

This is the front of the same house. As you can guess, I opted out of the ticket.

I walked through town, down to the river.  This is part of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Theatre.  I was seeing a matinee of Titus Andronicus. 

I walked along the river (Avon) towards Trinity Cathedral.  This took me away from the crowds.

Trinity Cathedral.  It's free, but 3£ to see his grave in the chapel.

When I paid for the entrance, the nice ladies taking my money directed me to a window paid for by Americans.

I didn't include the blurry photo of the stone in the floor (I know what you're thinking, at this point in the trip, why stop now?). Here's the memorial on the wall.

There are no photos in the RSC.  It was the first time I had seen Titus Andronicus.  It is horribly bloody, and, great.  It is at least twice as bloody as MacBeth.

This is the view from the walkway outside the theater looking at the riverside park.

And when I got out, it was a bright sunny day.

Day 15 - Warwick

I got up in Leeds, packed, and walked out the back of the hotel to catch my train.  I didn't have to put on a coat.

I got off the train in Warwick. Google directions said to walk through the park to get to the hotel.

After I left my bag at the hotel, I went out. This is St. Mary's Collegiate College. They were getting ready for an organ recital. I took a quick look around, then, stayed for the recital. When you go to services in European churches, they always play the organ as an accompaniment to the choir/singing. No one was singing, so the organist really opened it up. It was kind of metal.

If you put your trash in the bin it's garbage. Litter is what is strewn about.

St, Mary's looking back.

I had read about this before going, but, I went anyway. This is Warwick Castle.  The problem is the Disneyfication of history.  It's expensive to get in. There are all sorts of mannequins and drama throughout the castle. I tried to stick to the castle bits.

There has been a castle on these grounds since 940 AD. This version of the castle has been around since 1350, or so. It was last restored around 1895.

There is a lovely pond/canal alongside some gardens behind the castle.

When you get up on walls and towers, there are nice views of the countryside.

This is the courtyard. It doesn't come close to showing the number of people who were there.

For some reason, as you go through the rooms of the main part of the castle, the have created scenes depicting a society party around the late 1890s. The only reason I can think they would do that was to include a young Winston Churchill in the story. When you went to the second floor, the story was all about the help gossiping???????



The best part was a birds of prey show where the photos didn't capture the action. They had five kites circling while the trainer would throw food in the air. The kites would adjust their flight and grab it midair. It was very cool.

Bottom line, am I glad I went? Yes, now I know. Am I glad my family wasn't with me? Yes, because it would have been expensive and no one would want to listen to me talk about how stupid it was.

Day 14 - Leeds

If you want to see a city, have someone who is from there, who loves where they're  from, show it to you.  Gary Pickles is showing me Leeds.

This is the square outside my hotel. The figure on the horse is the Black Prince.

This is the Corn Exchange.

The inside of the Corn Exchange. It's a cool building, but, they need to figure out how to utilize the second floor.

This is the Leeds Market. It is a large indoor market.

The original Marks and Spencer's.

I didn't know there was a market for this.

This is a shopping arcade that is full of modern stores, but, they have kept the old architecture.

 The inside of the arcade.

This was the point where we stopped at the oldest pub in Leeds. Unfortunately, I didn't recognize the significance and I missed the picture. I did have an amazing maple pecan stout.

 This is the Leeds Cathedral.

The mayor's office.

From here we went to Bundobust for really good vegetarian, Indian food.  You can see Instagram for that photo.

We walked through the tunnels that run underneath the train station. There are also canals that you walk over down there, but it was too dark for a photo.

Monk's Brewery. Excellent.

From there, we caught a train out to the town where Gary lives, Pontefracht. This is the main street.

And this is the reason we came out here; Gary's family.

I met Gary four years ago, he was on holiday. About October, after he left, he went to Tbilisi, to work as a restaurant consultant. From there, his Facebook friends got to watch a great love story develop where he met Nino, got married, went through the steps to move back to the U.K., and started their family.  I'd never met Nino. their daughter, or even Meg (the dog), so it was very exciting (and lovely).

From here it was someone's bed time. Gary and I went to a pub to watch Leeds play.   Finally, someone who can explain to me what is going on during a rugby match. The match ended, Leeds won, we finished our pints, and, Gary put me in a cab with the instructions to have 3£ ready when I got to the train station because it was going to be close and that was the last train.  I made it easily with a minute and a half to spare.

Day 13 - Off To Leeds

My walking holiday was over, so it was time to head to Leeds. I ate breakfast, grabbed my pack and walked to the bus.

The view down the road in front of the house.

This is where I stayed, Alltshellach.  It is part of HF Holidays.

HF Holidays is a co-op. Here is more information on the property and the company.

HF Holidays

While I wait, I finally get a sunny photo. Don't worry, the wind was still howling.

This is a photo from the moving bus. We're out of the mountains and heading back to Glasgow.

The rest of the day was a travel grind. I caught the train that was supposed to go straight to Leeds. Unfortunately, it broke something and had to return to Edinburgh. A bit of a scramble, but I made it to Leeds about an hour and a half late. Not bad.

Why Leeds? Four years ago, my buddy Jeff Huffman, had a Facebook friend, who also happened to be a chef, staying at his house. His name is Gary Pickles and he is from Leeds. The Huffmans stopped by last year, and, I had time this trip.

He met me at the train station. Showed me where my hotel was (it's attached to the train station and it's nice). Then I went out for beers/dinner with him and his brother, Ian. It was a super fun evening. He's going to show me the city tomorrow.