The Watts family in Wells

Apparently its a miracle to find 3 Watts's in the one place at the same time- so for Kyle, Bridie and Daniel to be here, at Bridie and Kris' farewell its a big thing. These pictures were taken pretty late in the night, after many beers had been drunk.

I went home about 1 oclock but Daniel and Kyle partied on to the nightclub in town... which didn;t impress Daniel so he left. Problem was, Daniel turned the wrong way when he left and ended up walking out of town before he realised he was lost- and to make matters worse his phone lost signal and he had to find his way home by himself. Luckily Wells only has about 2000 people so he didn't have too far to walk.

Wells is known as being the smallest city in England. For a place in England to be a city it has to have A Cathedral, and Wells does. The next day Daniel had a pretty sore head (thus the death scowl in this poctue) so I did the first bit of driving- but I only lasted about 20 minutes before I accidently sped through a speed camera and gave up.

Bath

We finally had a night out of London, to go to Daniel's cousin, Bridie's farewell in Wells, Somerset in south west england. On the way, we took a short detour to Bath. The drive was amazing in itself- so many shades of green and quaint little villages every ten minutes or so apart.

Bath too was impressive- it is set in a valley and so green too. But what it is most famous for is that it is the site for some very well preserved ancient Roman Baths, whereby they made bathing pools using natural hot mineral springs thousands of years ago. Problem was, once the Romans left, the next lot of people (the Normans i think??) Built on top of it.. and so it stayed hidden for centuries an was only discovered in full a few hundred years ago. Apparently there is still so much more they are yet to discover hiden underneath the city. It is a really well set up tourist attraction- and even though Bath was really busy on a saturday afternoon when we were there, the Baths themselves weren't too busy. It gives you such a great impression on everything they could achieve!!

The Romans were so clever! These bricks were used to hold up a floor, and underneath the floor they'd have heat from the hot springs going through- creating floor heating- all in the BC.

You cant actually swim in the Baths, theyre untreated and they dont even recommend you touch the water. There is a small stream of water and we had a touch. It was pretty warm.

Bath also has a really nice looking cathedral. We didn't spend the time looking at it.

Basically, if you come to the UK and can have some mobility and get out of London, Id recommend going to Bath. It is well worth the drive and those Romans sure were clever!

Leeds Castle

Mum and I were so impressed with Leeds castle in 2006, that we took the rest there again this time. Once again it was amazing. Although not the oldest castle in England, it has been well kept and furnished decadently by an American in the past fifty or so years. It is not only a castle, it has falcons and owls that put on a show, a golf course, a hedge maze (I was first to the finish) and other interesting things. The weather was great too, nice and sunny! Would recommend it to anyone in London for an extended time.

London happenings in May

First, here are some pictures from our night out a TGI Fridays (a restaurant introduced to us by Phelan and Nic- who make very good ribs I'm told by Daniel) Yes mum and I each had a massive frozen margarita.. deeeelicious!

We caught a boat down the Thames to Grenwich. It was a nice day, though the travellers were a bit tired to climb the hill and go into the observatory. We watched the orange ball drop at 1pm to mark the start of grenwich time (usually 12, but due to summer daylight savings, it does it at 1).. it was so exciting.. blink and oh.. you missed it.

I intend to go back there with Daniel one weekend when the weather is nice again. The boat ride is really enjoyable and the commentary tells you a heap about the buildings on either side of the Thames.