July 13

I've found I have completely lost track of what day it is. Both the day of the week and the date have become inconsequential. All I know is where we are (sometimes) and how long we'll be here. On the one hand it's quite nice as it doesn't matter that there are x days left or we're going to be in Barcelona on this day. On the other hand, knowing it's a Friday night sure explains the pub situation.

We had called Colleen and Victor (parents of our close friend James) the previous day and talked to Victor, but he said we'd best try to call back to make arrangements with Colleen. We tried to call from a booth outside our B&B, but only left a message. Time to head south toward Bath.

When we got to Bath we found it was quite a bit bigger than we had expected. We figured in Washington it would have been a four or five Starbucks town, but in England it managed only a single Starbucks. Still, big enough to have a cybercafe and big enough to disorient me. (Of course I get lost in the woods so it's no big accomplishment to lose me in a city.)

We headed straight to the Roman baths. Before the Romans it was a spot worshipped by the locals as the home of Minerva. The Romans, being the tolerant tyrants they were decided they could deal with a new goddess name Minerva and they built a temple/bathhouse surrounding the springs.

After the Romans split the whole affair fell into disrepair and wasn't rediscovered until the Victorians were digging around. They built it into what it is now and used it to try to heal themselves with the hot spring water. When the tourists' money started looking appealing a museum was built on the site with a great audio tour. Again, it's uber cheesy, but the audio tour was well worth the couple of dollars or pounds or whatever.

After exhausting ourselves wandering around the museum for a couple of hours we headed out, found lunch, and tried calling the Grays again. We failed to get in touch with them, but decided it was time to see the vaunted Costume Museum.

I know, I know. How can I possibly admit to having entered a fashion museum let alone enjoyed it. Whoops, did I actually say I enjoyed it? Crud. Well, now that it's in the open I can talk about it. It was pretty good. Perhaps it'd be more accurate to say the audio guide that went along with it was good. The commentary linked the exhibits to history which I'm a sucker for. Even with great commentary we were pretty burned out by the time we got up to the 1960s. Amy was even so done with fashion we didn't shop at all!

We tried calling the Grays again, but no answer so we continued around town, getting just a tad nervous. After all, we had no reservations for our last two nights in England. Being paranoid fools we started assuming something bad had happened around 4pm and looked for any word from stateside via email relating the news. All was quiet in email and at the B&B we had left that morning so we got onto the expressway headed south on the last leg of the day to Poole.

Poole apparently has two very distinct sections. One is the rich waterfront housing area and the other is the nasty dirty industrial district. Guess where we wound up? We walked around the closed shops which was more depressing than entertaining. Burger King provided some nourishment while we read in the car. Finally we resolved to call before we tried to find their place based solely on an address.

Thankfully, our last call was successful. Colleen was relieved to hear from us and embarrassed that we had wound up in the "dreadful" part of Poole. She appeared several moments later and after about a dozen spins around a roundybout we were following her back to her condo. Colleen and Victor's condo was right on the beach and absolutely gorgeous.

We chatted a bit about our adventures so far before her granddaughter (James' niece) showed up with her boyfriend and we headed to the apartment Colleen and Victor maintained for their relatives. To say the very least, the "flat" had the wildest decorating scheme I've ever seen. We wound up in the white room which as normal as possible. Niccola and her boyfriend, Matt, were assigned the red room which was complete with a red lightbulb which made it appear as a place in the red-light district or perhaps a room in Hell. Wherever it was, I'm glad we were in the white room.

So after all that it was almost like we were at home a little bit. The Grays might be James' parents but they are more like our grandparents in age and having spent time with them back home allowed us to relax just a bit.

July 14

We got up late for once which was nice. Ok, perhaps not late, but not until 8:30. We were promised a breakfast at a beachfront cafe so we began girding for another English breakfast. This one came complete with baked beans. Hmph. After breakfast the youngsters went one way, we dropped Victor at the condo with a sandwich, and Colleen set off with us in tow to see the south of England.

You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. She was disappointed when we admitted we had only a couple of days in the south and not a full six weeks. We started by taking a chain-driven ferry across to the peninsula on the other side. This isolated bit of land was mostly rural and uncrowded. Colleen stopped frequently to point out views or foxes or rabbits, often in the middle of the road. (She stopped in the middle of the road. The sights weren't usually in the middle of the road.)

After a short bit we arrived at Corfe Castle which is less of a castle and more of a pile of really cool looking rock that just barely hints at what it must have once been. What's left claws at the sky as the brutal wind tries to bring it down. For only two pounds you can tromp around with the other tourists, but Colleen showed us the backdoor to this backdoor site. We saw a tiny graveyard and an English garden with a model of the town including the model within the model.

There were far more places than we had time to see, so we hopped back in the car and headed off. We detoured through some rather questionable roads and saw T.E. Lawrence's grave and a church with etched, rather than stained-glass windows. From there we headed north to Stonehenge. Sadly, we didn't even stop at "Monkeyworld." I must admit, I've no idea what it could possibly have been about, but with a name like that I'm sure it would have been splendid.

Stonehenge was amazingly crowded, amazingly controlled, but above all else it was just amazing. We were kept at a safe distance from the stones themselves, but you could see that the stones were just massive. Amy and I stood in wonder as we gazed at the first rocks and then had to chase after Colleen as she motored around the circuit cut into the grass.

Following Stonehenge we headed back to Bournemouth and Poole so I could do a bit of a dry run for our trip to the airport in London the next morning. To end the day the six of us (us, the Grays, and Niccola and Matt) went back into the "dreadful" part of Poole to a Chinese restaurant. The food was great, but the when the lights suddenly went out and loud music began I was sure I had been tricked into some sort of wacky karaoke night.

A flicker could be seen in the kitchen and out popped a collection of waiters with a tiny birthday cake. Lights illuminated a single table and it quickly became clear that this was a celebration with canned music. Shortly after the first blackout we experienced another, though this one was for an anniversary. Wow. I almost wished it was my birthday.

We stayed at the restaurant drinking and eating until after midnight when Amy and I realized we'd be getting up in a minute. We said our goodbyes and got back to the flat to pack up our meager collection of gear. We even lay down for a few hours before getting up, but that'd be getting ahead of myself. You'll have to click here to see what happens when we head for the Continent.