From Ancient Bath to Tate Modern

Yesterday was as full as our previous day had been disappointing (by travelling in England standards, that is).  When we returned from our Christmas Day tour, I did some investigating based on something about a walking street art tour that Pepe said.  Sure enough I discovered what is easily the definitive way to take a tour in ANY city (and certainly this one), and that is "London Walks."  For anyone who intends to travel to this wonderful country, I highly recommend that your first stop be their website.

The premise - they will offer a variety of two hour walking tours of the city.  They change day by day, and are offered throughout the day and evening.  Each one has a meeting spot.  If your schedule works out, show up at the meeting spot and join the walk.  No pre-booking, no phone calls, nothing.  Just show up, pay the reasonable fee (9 pounds per adult, 7 for a student, and children under 25 are free), and enjoy the tour.  The guides "own" the company (think almost of a Wikepedia kind of arrangement), and, therefore, are all the picture of professionalism.  Since Pepe clearly loved his "day" job more than the Christmas gig he had agreed to take, I was curious about the whole arrangement.

In addition to London day tours, they offer periodic Saturday day trips.  For the holiday season, their schedule changed a bit more, so yesterday, Friday, December 27th (not 28th - as I thought it was all day, eager to get back to the room in time to wish Alex a Happy Birthday! ;) was their one tour to Bath.  Whoever intended to go was simply to show up at Paddington Station, platform 1, at 9:00 AM, and the day would begin.  

Well, for some unknown reason (the holidays? the wind? "misplaced" workers, as we heard several times?) the trains, famous for running on time, were behind schedule.  This gave Simon, our wonderful, gregarious, witty guide for the day, a chance to give us a bit of history about the station, while we all watched the big board of departures and arrivals to see if our train to Bath would ever be ready to go.  Simon said that if we couldn't get an early enough start, it was probably not worth going (as the London Walks day trip promise is a full experience in the city to which you are traveling and then back to London in time for dinner and a show); however, when everyone who had showed up for the tour (about 20 or so) agreed to come back an hour later, we decided to hop on the 10:30 train (as the 9:30 train was STILL delayed).   Long story short, the train continued to run slowly for the first hour of the trip but picked up time as we went through the gorgeous Cotswolds and was running perfectly well when we returned to London on the 6:00 PM train (arriving in time for our planned trip to the Tate Modern, which is open until 10PM on Friday and Saturday nights and a late dinner).

Paddington station - a nice environment in which to be delayed

Lots of images like this one appeared outside our train window once we finally got rolling.

We made it - BATH!

Bath is beautiful.  Maddie saw Charlie McDonnell's face in every Bath resident who passed, and Simon was a brilliant guide, telling each story with verve and wit, delivering all of the specific and idiosyncratic details that the company promises for all of its tours.

This hotel welcomes all of the classes, by featuring three distinct architectural styles - the corner closest to the camera is the castle for the upperclass clients, to the right is the traditional middle class house structure, and on the end is the typical artisan, or working class, home.   Whether each class could actually afford to stay in this hotel is another matter, entirely, of course!

All the shops look just like this, in the land of Jane Austen :)

When you walk over one of the bridges, you can only see the water by looking through the shops that line either side of the road.

Bath's equivalenf ot our "malls' (rhymes with pals, when Simon says it)

The glorious Bath Abbey, with its fanned cathedral ceiling

One of the "assembly halls" where Austen's Northanger Abbey is set.  Today it was going to host a wedding.

The famous crescent buildings, created by John Wood the Younger; he features all three column types (Ionic, Corinthian and Doric, one on each level).  Dana kept taking photos, wanting Young Circle in Hollywood to follow this model ;)

During our free time, Maddie and I went to the Jane Austen Centre (and shopping), while the boys visited the Roman Baths.  Then it was back on the train and "home" to London.  On the train, Simon spoke to us about Liverpool and Manchester, Cardiff and Kent, giving us all sorts of wonderful suggestions and insight.

When we returned, we got on the tube at Paddington, which took us right to the Mansion House exit, where we could cross the Millenium bridge, this time at night, and take our quick but delightful tour of the Tate Modern (since all museums here are FREE, you don't mind popping in for only an hour or so). We concluded our day with dinner on the 6th floor of the Tate, with its spectacular views of the city.  What they have done with this building - transforming an old warehouse into a state of the art museum - is every bit as impressive as the art contained within.  While I'm not a huge fan of modern art, I always enjoy seeing the odd Dali, Picasso, or Pollock strewn among the strange art istallations that look like an exploding potato, or some other far too brilliant for me to understand piece of art work.

Maddie with water lillies 

Exiting from what was likely once a loading dock.  Such an amazing space!!

Bath at night

London at night - reflected in the window of the wonderful Tate Modern restaurant.

Daniel and Maddie head over the Southwark Bridge, as we head back to the hotel from the Tate.  Final step count for the day - 15,106!

Today we head off to Kent and Darwin's home.  Pepe joked the other day that he was delightfully surprised that Americans were eager to explore the home of Darwin, since so many of us don't want to believe in evolution.  Meanwhile, this stop has been high on Maddie's list since we arrived.  Once again, having a daughter who has studied art history and is currently taking an entire course in Evolution is shaping our trip in wonderful ways.