Travel In Our Own Country: Bath

My dad, step-mom and sister visited last weekend.  The last time they were in the UK to see us, my daughter was about 8 weeks old and had recently been let out of the hospital following a 10-day stint with the chickenpox (yes, seriously) that included 3 times daily IV drugs.  We weren't up for much that visit!  The visit before, we had driven to Belgium to stop in Leuven and Bastogne en route to Luxembourg City for the night and then back home through Bruges.  Not wanting to do that much this time, my dad suggested we stay in the UK.

Planning was...interesting.  Brighton was the lead contender as a place to visit.  When my husband and I sat down to try and book hotels we were shocked to see 2 rooms for 2 nights going for upwards of £1000 total, until we discovered some sort of technology trade show going on.  So change of plans!  We suggested the Cotswolds and that seemed to go over well.

I'll get to the Cotswolds in my next entry.

On the Friday we drove from Folkestone to Bath, taking a bit longer than the 2 hours 56 minutes our GPS's said it would take given road works on the m25, plus a lorry caught fire after the Gatwick exit.  We own a 7 seater car, but this time had 8 people to fit so my dad rented a second car.  He drove my sister, one of my boys, himself and I, while my husband drove our car with the baby, our other boy and my step-mom.  They reached Bath first and managed to easily find the parking garage we had both inputed on our GPS's.  Us...not so much.  At one point we were about to turn onto a taxi and bus only road but were waved over by a white van, and a police officer who calmly told us that if we made that right turn we would receive "a lovely traffic offence ticket."  The van let us into the other lane and found our way to the nearest parking garage at the Hilton hotel.

Because Josh et al were already in Bath, I had texted and asked them to find a restaurant for lunch.  My dad, sister and I are, sadly, BIG Nando's fans so when we heard that was option we all jumped.  I plugged Nando's into Google maps and we set off.  Yeah, Nando's moved.  We got to where Google said it was, called Josh and he told us how far off we were.  We kept on walking and wound up meeting everyone outside of Giraffe and decided that that was the better option for everyone.

Roman Baths

After lunch, we walked to the Roman Baths.  We were met at the door by an employee who told that the Baths were closing in 60min and they recommend 90min for the visit so we'd have to move quickly.  We were headed to the Cotswold right after and not returning to Bath so it was now or never. We went through the site faster than we'd like but it was still beautiful.  The boys listened to their audio guides, I admired the floor mosaics and column bases, we drank the water, took some photos and were ushered out right at 6pm.  Actually, Josh and I went to the gift shop before everyone else to get a new mug and a magnet for the boys.  

Bath Abbey

We walked around the outside of Bath Abbey, and then walked back in the direction of our car.  My dad and I had no clue where we were so we used the small map from Lonely Map England seeing as my mobile had died earlier.  Somehow we found our way back, stopping at Waitrose to grab some essentials for our cottage rental, and made our way to the Cotswolds.

A Day In Bruges, Belgium

One of the fantastic things about living a mere 10 minutes from the Euro Tunnel is that it's very easy to go to the continent and come back in the same day.  Last Sunday, my husband and I sat on the couch planning a variety of upcoming things (visits from family, our younger sons birthday) when we came up with the idea of going to Bruges for the day.  We've never crossed and come back in the same day because we've always gone further afield (Brussels, Paris, Luxembourg, etc).  Google maps says that Bruges is an hour and fifteen minutes from Calais - so challenged accepted, right?

We chose not to tell our boys what we had planned.  Instead we packed up the things we needed (mostly baby items!) as they slept Friday night.  We woke them up just before 5am Saturday morning.  Out the door, in the car and out of the driveway by 5:15am.  Checked in and waiting to be called through customs by 5:30.  We boarded, hung out in the car and were in Calais getting petrol before 8am (France is an hour ahead of the UK).  We passed the Belgian border and made it to Bruges around 9am, relying on memory and not GPS for once!

We had from about 9am until max 5pm given that we had to get back to Calais for our 19:50 train home.  The day started with a search for Belgian waffles, which we had promised the boys.  We wound up the same restaurant we went to 2 years earlier with my dad, step-mom and sister.  Everyone indulged - our table was full of chocolate sauce, whipped cream, ice cream, cherries, coffee, juices.  It gave us all a bit of a kick that we needed after waking up so early.

Spencer looking down the canal.

From breakfast we decided to find a boat tour by wandering through the streets and knowing that we'd find it eventually.  Getting a bit lost and wandering is always worth doing, especially in smaller cities.  We ended up wandering along the water for awhile before choosing one of the "Canal Tour" operators.  Cash only, which meant we set off to find a cash machine.

From the boat.

The boat tour was wonderful.  Bruges has 4 locations where you can get onto a boat tour, and each is licensed to own 5 boats so up to 20 are moving about the canal at the same time, all filled with tourists...but still lovely and worthwhile.  It gave us a different perspective of the city, while the boys just loved being a boat (our daughter happily ate rice cakes for the half hour).

The bell tower comes into view.

The view from the bell tower.

After the boat tour, as we were walking back toward the main square, the bell tower came into view.  I asked the boys if they'd like to climb to the top.  Of course they did, these same two boys climbed the Eiffel Tower 2 years ago and that's twice the steps!  We waited in the queue for about half an hour - we should have done it when we arrived as it opened at 9:30am but oh well, now we know for the future.  The climb was interesting - windy, steep steps, occasionally with nothing to hold onto.  The view was stunning.  My new "thing" of going up as high as possible has been so worth it (my recent trip to Slovenia and Italy will be posts in the coming weeks!) and I love that the boys feel so accomplished and proud of themselves when they come back to the ground, look up and go "I climbed that!"

Inside the Friet Museum.

Next up we walked out to The Friet Museum.  It smelled amazing as soon as we walked in so walking around it just worked up our appetite.  I was holding the baby, who was a tad grouchy, so I didn't get to read as much as I would have liked but I did learn a few things.  We made our way down to the cafe that boasts wonderful chips...and they sure were.  4 orders of chips were eaten pretty quick!

Chocolate Museum!

We followed lunch at the Friet Museum with the Chocolate Museum.  Baby finally fell asleep.  The boys were hunting for clues to a puzzle they had to solve for a prize.  Josh and I got to read a bit more than we were able to at the chip museum.  We chose not to wait 15min to watch a demonstration because we were running out of time!  We stopped in the gift shop for the boys to pass over their completed puzzles (they got a chocolate lollipop) and I bought a mug.*

We made our way back to the main square, stopped in a few shops (chocolate and beer) and then decided that even though we had about 30-40min before we had to leave, we may as well go.  Sometimes the Eurotunnel will offer to bump you up to an earlier train if there's space so we were banking on that.  Instead, we wound up stuck in traffic, which added about 30min to our travel time so good move on our part to leave early.  We were not offered an earlier train, yet by the time we changed the baby, bought some water/milk and hit up duty free (cheap wine!), it was time to go.  Back on the train, home a few minutes after arriving.

As I initially said, we had never gone and come back in the same day.  Now we know how much we can and can't get done (Bruges has so much more to do!).  We could leave earlier, come back later.  We have options, and this won't be the last time we hit 3 countries in one day.

* I collect mugs when I travel.  They don't have to say the city name.  I'll post about that some other time