The #1 Reason why blogs die...

You get busy and the thing dies of loneliness. That said, I promised I'd write about the UK. How about we take this approach: I'll write about the details in quick fashion and leave comments/judgments to the end? Deal! (To save time, I won't bother with links - you can use Wikipedia/Google as well as I can.)

After London we went to Bath for a few days. We stayed primarily at the Parkside B&B. (Good heavens, the main page of their website features a picture of our room!) Lovely establishment and equally charming owner. High recommendations from us. It's in a quiet end of the city yet only about a 10min (max) walk to the centre of things.

We'd taken a train from Paddington Station to Bath and, at one of the stops, we'd seen a GIANT poster for the Bath Theatre Royal. Oscar Wilde's "Importance of Being Earnest" was playing that night and Penelope Keith (CBE) was starring. If you don't know her, it's your loss I'm afraid. She's a talented British actress who's worked on both stage and screen but my fondest memories of her are from television comedies (thank you, PBS). Of course we got tickets.

Bath itself is both old and new. The Romans arrived shortly after they invaded in 43AD! It's an amazing place to wander through - warning, though, weekends are very crowded.

We explored Bath thoroughly over the next few days and, as well, took a quick trip to Stonehenge. It was jaw-dropping to see something you'd only seen in pictures most of your life. The sheer size of the stones are overwhelming. Yes, yes, there are many theories about how they were maneuvered into place but the idea that they did it is what makes it important, I feel.

During our vacation, we used "Rick Steves' Britain" as our guide. Our train passes gave us unlimited travel for our time in the UK, so we tried not to stress about where we were going next. Rick's book was the perfect answer to "Where should we go next? What's close and what can we do when we get there."

His book recommends people coming to the UK from North America fly into one of the London airports and immediately leave for Bath. He says, and I'm only paraphrasing, Bath is the perfect place to start a UK vacation. I have to agree - if you're the type who'll arrive stressed, Bath would be an excellent place to recharge your batteries before hitting the road.

Next post - we're off to Cardiff for World Cup Rugby - and an unexpected side trip that's a highlight of the vacation.