Sep 19 -- London & Bat

We landed at London Gatwick at 9:30 a.m. morning, on time, but it was after 1pm by the time we were at our hotel what with an hour at customs and travel etc. After checking in we walked back towards the tube station and had some lunch then back to the hotel to get some sleep.

Once up and alive again Sandy reminded me that we should collect our tickets to Leeds from the front desk but there was a bit of a mixu[. Allan Kavenaugh had sent these to us and the front desk knew nothing about them. I called Allen who gave me the Royal Mail ticket number so I called them and verified that the letter had indeed been delivered and got the date and time. The lady at the front desk then took this more seriously and contacted the "accountant" who had put them in the safe in the companion hotel next door that is owned by the same company. I then called Allen back and put his mind at ease and we headed out for dinner.

Oh -- before dinner I called Phil Burfitt to let him know that we had indeed landed in London and to confirm arrangements for lunch the next day.

We wandered around in the area and finally settled on an Indian restaurant that was packed almost to overflowing (always a good sign) and had a wonderful meal. So good in fact, that Sandy wanted to eat there the next day too ... we'll see.

By then it was late and we retired to the hotel. Originally we were going to go up to Picadilly Circus to check on the theatre board but it was well after 9pm -- my bedtime you know. Of course our bodies were still on EDT not GDT so we watched a movie on broadcast TV.

The next day we go up early ... early for Sandy ... and went out for breakfast. We found a likely spot and Sandy ordered orange juice -- she cannot do without orange juice or grapefruit juice in the a.m. Well ... the waitress came back and said that they had no orange juice ... so we left and found a store nearby, bought a bottle of OJ and went back to the restaurant. The waitress was all apologetic, saying that they really did have OJ, but not freshly squeezed and only accompanying meals. She is French and thus the misunderstanding ?? -- oh well, we had a good breakfast and laughed about the mixup.

We went back to the hotel, cleaned up, then off to the Underground station to go to London Paddington station to catch the train to Bath. We got to Bath around noon and wandered around -- tons of high end shopping in the area -- and met Phil and Maria at 1pm. They treated us to lunch at an excellent restaurent in the area then we wandered around Bath, taking in the Golden Crescent as I think it's called and the other sights. Prior to lunch it had been rainy but after lunch the sun came out and it was glorious. Late afternoon Phil and Maria headed off and Sandy and I toured the ancient Roman baths -- semi restored so that it was hard to tell the difference in places which was original stone and which restored. That actually subtracted from the experience in my view -- I enjoy more the excavated but not restored sights in Rome -- still tourist traps, but less manufactured in a way.

Train back to London (1.5 hours) and after it was time to eat again. We walked back to the Indian place and this time there was only one person in the restaurant ... and the Polish place that was mostly empty the night before was full -- so we had Polish and an excellent meal accompanied by a so-so bottle of Rhone wine.

that's it ... onward and upward.