As I was explaining this blog to Larry and Gail last night, I told them that the purpose of this wasn’t to give you a guide to each location we were visiting, but rather to give you my overall impressions and random thoughts I may have about a place.  So for those of you who may have been expecting this to be more of a guide book, I apologize; I suggest you visit the travel section of your local bookstore.

Mind the gap.

On our second day in London, we decided to travel to Bath, which is about a 90-minute train ride from London.  The only thing I knew about this city was that it had the only natural thermal spas in England, and was the site of the original Roman baths, which turned out to be one of the only things we didn’t end up seeing. I guess Larry and Gail didn’t want to see Kevin and me in our skivvies.

Getting to Bath was quite interesting.  We took the train out of Paddington station, and the process of getting on that train was an adventure.  This station functions as one of the main commuting hubs going in and out of London.  People are buzzing around, walking briskly or running to their departure platform, trying not to miss their train, which leave punctually, not waiting for any stragglers.  We were advised to get there early, which we did.  Thankfully this allowed us to orient ourselves and make sure we knew where we were going.  We were in place to get on the train right after it pulled up to the platform, only to zip off again a couple of minutes after arrival.

Herd of turtles.

Bath is an incredibly charming city.  Most of the architecture is constructed in the Georgian style, and is made out of Bath stone, which is a type of limestone.  This uniformity creates a storybook appearance, and makes it feel like you were sent back in time; that is until you see Gap and other modern stores lining the streets.

We decided to utilize the Hop-on Hop-off buses to get an overview of the city.  The city itself is fairly small and is surrounded by beautiful, rolling green hills, dotted with charming neighborhoods in which Larry tried to convince Kevin and me to purchase a vacation home (I told him we would buy two).  After riding the buses, we spent the afternoon wandering through the city.

I feel I should warn anyone that I travel with that I walk fast…really fast.  I try to slow down to match the group’s pace, but this usually doesn’t last very long.  Kevin says I’m like a hummingbird, always zipping from here to there, rarely taking a moment to stop.  He’s learned that he just needs to let me go and burn off some of the energy I’ve stored as I’ve downshifted to his pace.  I think that Larry and Gail are quickly learning this about me; I told them yesterday that they (including Kevin) were slow-moving beasts.  Gail states that she normally moves at a brisk pace when she’s by herself, so I guess the big offenders are Larry and Kevin.  Step it up, boys!  Let’s be less Sit and Be Fit, and more Jane Fonda Workout.

Housekeeping must think we’re dirty.

When housekeeping comes every day to tidy up your room, one thing they typically do is replenish your supply of toiletries.  After our first day here, we had only used a small amount out of each bottle of body wash, shampoo and conditioner, so I wasn’t really expecting there to be new bottles in their place.  I was surprised to see that not only did they replenish the supplies, but that some of the bottles they left were triple the size of the original ones.  On the second night, I came back to another two big bottles of body wash, so now I have three big bottles of body wash, four bottles of shampoo and conditioner and the original smaller bottle of body wash.

As I was arranging all of these bottles into the corner of the shower, wondering why in the heck they would think we would need so much, I noticed that my toiletries bag was unzipped and open, which I thought I had closed before we left.  Me being my cynical self, the first thought that came to my mind was “I hope they didn’t take any of my Ambien.”  I imagined the cleaning person thinking, “Well, he won’t notice his missing pills if he’s distracted with all these lovely cleansers…..two extra bottles of body wash for you, two Ambien for me.”  My rational mind quickly convinced myself that I was being silly, but not before I thought that I could label one of the bottles Oxycodone 5 mg, and fill that bottle with laxatives.  Have fun with that, you thief!  I can just see it: “Were sorry for the inconvenience, but several of our staff have called out sick today with a curious case of explosive diarrhea.”