Bath - 12th to 13th of September 2009

With Warren's sister Janine arriving the previous weekend for a few months holiday in Europe, we jumped on a train early Saturday morning for an hour and a half west to Bath. The city was established as a spa resort by the romans in 43AD. They built baths and a temple on the surrounding hills of Bath in the valley of the River Avon around hot springs, the only ones naturally occuring in the UK. After arriving in Bath and dropping off our bags at our hostel, we were in need of a snack, so we went to Sally Lunn's house, the original bakery of the famous buns, and had a light tea of original recipe buns. Rearing to go, it was time to visit the main attraction in Bath, its Roman baths. Very well preserved and in the shadow of Bath Abbey, with plenty of infom they are actually pretty impressive. A roman version of the Polynesian Pools in Rotorua perhaps.

A quick bite to eat and a short wander up the main shopping street to the circus (i..e a roundabout surrounded by Georgian terraced housing), and a chill out in the sun in the Royal Victoria Park.
Turns out Bath is a bit of a university town, so we partied a little bit with some youngies on Saturday night. Not huge though, Warren wasn't feeling 100%.

Sunday morning the girls wanted to go through the fashion museum. The highlght being the interactive display below:
Time for a a quick lunch next to the Avon.
After a quick pitstop for the Italian grand prix, we got a cab up to the Prior Park landscape gardens, created by Ralph Allen (Bath Mayor) from 1734 to 1764 to basically show off his wealth to the district. It's a great spot on a rise overlooking Bath, and we spent a few hours there before dinner and a late train back to London.

August bank holiday weekend - 28th to 31st of August 2009

The last bank holiday of the year, and for the first time in a long time, Ange and I did our own thing.

My bank holiday started a bit early, at about 6am on Friday. My mate Conor picked me up and we jumped on the Eurotunnel to France, and then cruised along the Belgian motorways for about 3.5 hours past Brussels and deep into the Ardenne forest to the circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Its the longest race on the F1 calendar at just over 7kms, and if any racetrack can be beautiful, this is surely it. We spent all weekend at the track, eating frites and drinking beers, and made it back to London mid afternoon on the bank holiday Monday.

Not too sure what Ange got up to. May have had something to do with a bunch of girls and some funky looking drinks...? When I got home on Monday she was still out, apparently at the Notting Hill Carnival.