Paris Goes to London
A Travel Diary.I’m keeping this diary to record the places we went and the things we did with the hope that it will help me remember the finer details of the wonderful time we’re having on this trip. Please understand that these pages may —or rather will— include some inconsequential minutiae.
Day Two: Windsor to Bath
We started the day with breakfast at The Brasserie in the Hotel Christopher Wren. Anna had a nice fruit and yogurt combination and I had a little bit of everything. I had the English Breakfast which includes black pudding. Black pudding is a type of sausage that's made with blood, usually from a pig, as well as other ingredients like onions, pork fat, oatmeal, herbs, and spices. You’d think they could come up with a better name, but no, that IS the better name. Black pudding is also known as blood sausage. It was delicious.Next we meandered around Windsor Castle and then sat and we both did a quick sketch of the castle. We’re hoping to make sketch time a part of the daily routine on the trip. Stay tuned to see how this goes. You may or may not see the outcome on here.We then ambled over to the train station and bought two one way tickets to Bath. There were two connections to make along the way and the young man who sold us the tickets was extremely clear and concise with the instructions: Go to Staine, then Reading, then Bath. Nothing to it.As soon as we sit down on the train, an attendant comes by and Mrs. Paris attempts to confirm that we’re on the right train? “Does this train go to Staine?” The attendant is aghast. “Staine? You missed Staine.” Us: “But we need to transfer at Staine.” Attendant: “There is no Staine.” He then proceeds to give extremely elaborate instructions that involve going “back to London” and making many transfers in order to get to Bath. After several minutes of this, he begins to understand that we’re coming from Windsor, and when you’re coming from Windsor, there is a Staine. He then protocol give us the exact same clear, concise instructions that the first guy gave us.Arriving in Bath, we discovered that Mrs. Paris had lost her ticket. She charmed her way out of the train station, and then we checked into our hotel, The Hotel Indigo, Bath. The hotel is located in an amazing, old stone building that has been brought up to date with modern conveniences and whimsical artwork.Next we went to grab a bite at a nearby pub, The Huntsman. There we shared a Ploughman’s Lunch, a classic pub dish that the pubs don’t seem to have anymore.We brought Mrs. Paris back to the hotel for some much needed rest. In the meantime, I wandered the streets of Bath taking in the city’s seemingly endless supply of oolitic limestone.Later, Mrs. Paris joined me and we had dinner at The Crystal Palace
Day Three: Bath
We started the day with breakfast at the restaurant in our whimsical hotel. We then explored Bath, starting with the historic Pulteney Bridge. Next we explored some shopping areas; however, most of the central city is one big shopping area. It started to rain so we ducked into a pub and had a pint, and did our drawing for the day. Then it was time for high tea at the Pump Room, which has been “the heart of Bath society for more than two centuries.” It was frequented by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, and is a big part of Austen’s Northanger Abbey. We had the sweet and the savory plates, and it was all delicious. Next we explored the Roman baths, which are connected to the Pump Room. In the early evening, I hunted down a USB adapter, visited Topping & Company bookshop, and had a pint at Pig & Whistle. We’re both wiped out, and expecting a solid night of sleep.
Day One: SBA to LHR to Windsor
We departed the Santa Barbara Airport on Monday, connected in Salt Lake City, and arrived at London Heathrow on Tuesday. We then took a taxi to Windsor. Though this was over the course of two days, to us, it was really just one long day.The flights were pleasantly uneventful. The London flight was only about half full and Mrs. Paris had hopes of stretching out on a middle row, but that was not to be. Mrs. Paris watched Nightswim and gives it a rating of “meh”. Spoiler Alert:
About
Mrs. Paris and I have lived in Santa Barbara, California, for about twenty-five years. We have several adult children who each have their own name and a dog who calls himself Siegfried.Mrs. Paris is actually doctor Paris, but doesn’t go by Dr., or Mrs., or even Paris. She has a Ph.D in Dramatic Art, and is the Director of an arts program at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Day Four: Bath Skyline
For breakfast today, we again went to Beau in our whimsical hotel. I had the English breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, roasted tomato, roasted mushroom, bacon, butte bacon, black pudding, and baked beans. Mrs. Paris had two pieces of fruit and a handful of granola.We started the day with a tour of the Bath skyline. This is a bus ride that circles the greater surrounding area of Bath along the route. We stopped at Prior Park, a garden designed in the 17th century and typical to the 17 century. We had a nice walk through the garden grounds which included the millennium bridge, a beautiful and somewhat elaborate bridge kind of in the middle of nowhere not really going anywhere. It’s just their decoration, but it’s pretty incredible. We sat on the grass and did our daily drawing ritual while we were surrounded by some extremely menacing looking ducks.Arriving back in central Bath, we had our obligatory visit to the pub. Next week took another bus tour of the city tour. We stopped off at the Crescent an amazing huge Crescent shaped hotel that you really have to see to believe.After that, Mrs. Paris enjoyed her afternoon rest while I wandered Bath. I dropped into to Persephone books, a publisher focusing on out of print books by women authors.I visited Bath Brewing Company where I tried a few of their selection of beers. I started with the West Coast style pale ale, which was definitely the most malty pale ale I’ve ever encountered. The beers here tend to be very malty. I didn’t love that one and switched to your basic English bitter that’s supposed to be a little bit malty. Spoiler Alert:
Day Five: Bath to London, Much Ado About Nothing
We started the day with our usual breakfast at the Hotel Indigo in Bath, then made our way to the Bath Spa train station where we hopped onto the Great Western Railway train to London. I watched in awe as Mrs. Paris completed an activity she calls “Wordle.”Arriving at Paddington Station, London, we took a cab to our hotel in the lovely St. John Wood/Primrose Hill area. We briefly settled into our room, and then zipped over to the Swiss Chalet pub nearby.The Swiss Chalet is a strange and charming place that’s giving tourist trap. It’s a Swiss chalet and it’s an English pub at the same time. We had a little food and Mrs. Paris did her drawing for the day. Outside it started pouring rain.Between rain showers, we made our way back to the hotel, regrouped a bit, and then rode the Jubilee line to the London Bridge tube station, where we made our way towards Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Along the way, we stopped at the Anchor Pub and waited out another rain shower until it was about time for the play to begin.Tonight‘s show was the closing performance of Shakespeare’s much ado about nothing. Anna and I have both seen this play a number of times but for me this was the most fun and over the top performance of it I’d ever seen.So in short, today we came to London, we went to pubs, we went to a play. We also went to a pub along the way to the play, so the day was 50% going to pubs 25% attending theatre, and 25% riding transportation.
Day Six: London, All Points East
Today I ventured out on my own to attend the All Points East concert at Victoria Park in East London. I took the Jubilee line to Bond St, switched to the Center line and then got off at Bethnal Park. From there it´s about a 15 minute walk. I made it in an easy 25, having only gotten slightly lost along the way.I had purchased a VIP Garden and Pit ticket, and I managed to see nearly all of the bands on my list. There were two main stages that were quite a long walk from each other. Most of the bands I wanted to see were on the East Stage where the VIP Pit/Garden were located, and a couple were on the West Stage. Once the bands started playing, they came one after the other with no delay between them and sometimes even overlapping, so at times it was a challenge to get to where I wanted to be. I found myself having to choose between seeing all of Yo La Tengo or all of Teenage Fanclub, which I think is the plot of Sophie’s Choice.There were other stages but they were mostly DJ and what I’ll call hip hop which isn’t really my thing.The event appeared to be heavily financed by corporate UK. The whole thing was the Uber One All Points East festival, and other corporate sponsors or whatever were highly visible.It all seemed incredibly well planned and organized. I haven’t been to a festival in quite a while, and maybe this is just how they do it now.Bands I saw:
Wednesday
Yo La Tengo
Teenage Fanclub
Sleater-Kinney
The Decemberists
Death Cab For Cutie
The Postal ServiceWednesday includes someone who alternates between pedal steel and lap steel, but nearly always with much distortion and crunch, which is Wednesday´s sound. They were very good.Yo La Tengo, as always, was excellent. They only had about 30 minutes, of which easily half was the free form psychedelic outburst they do so well. This sentence is my obligatory comment as to what a phenomenal band they are and the profound influence they´ve had on new music of the past 20 or so years.Teenage Fanclub overlapped with Yo La Tengo, so I had to make a difficult decision. Having seen Yo La Tengo several times in the past, I decided to go see Teenage Fanclub, whom I had never seen and always wished I had, back in the day, as they say. I’m glad to have seen them, but unfortunately, they were pretty lifeless. It definitely seemed like a “let’s get the old band back together”situation. It was interesting to have just watched Yo La Tengo, who have been around just as long and still burn through their songs like teenagers rocking in the basement, and then see Teenage Fanclub, placidly enjoying their golden years rocking in their easy chairs.Sleater-Kinney sounded great, and I was very pleased to see in person the wonderful Carrie Browstein. It turns out she’s a little tiny person, and she was in danger of being crushed by her microphone.The Decemberists were excellent. There are a lot of people in that band and the seem to all be multi-instrumentalists, in addition to being seriously good musicians. They know how to sound big and really bring a show. They made fun of JD Vance, which was a highlight.Deathcab/Postal Service played for a solid two and a half hours and were so good. This is another band where they seem to be switching up instruments all of the time. I had just seen them about six months ago at the Santa Barbara Bowl, and this show was somehow even better. Deathcab came out wearing all black clothing and played the Transatlanticism album from start to finish. After a short break, they came out in their Postal Service incarnation wearing all white. Postal Service also includes the amazing Jenny Lewis and the San Marcos HS alum Jimmy Tamborello.
Day Seven: London, Jessica and Emily
After a leisurely morning of sleeping in and recovering from yesterday's activities, I took the underground to central London and wandered Trafalgar Square, SoHo, and Covent Gardens. Today is a bank holiday in the UK and London is alive with activity.Mrs. Paris and I then took a taxi to Summerhouse and lunched with our friends, Jessica and Emily. The restaurant is located on the Regents Canal and we watched the longboats go by as we dined. The food was great and the restaurant was beautiful. It was great catching up with Jessica whom we hadn’t seen in quite some time, and getting to know Emily. It was an unexpected surprise and wonderful treat to be able to visit with them on our trip.After lunch, Mrs. Paris and I walked along the Regents Canal back to Regents Park and then took the underground back to the hotel. By the time we got back, it was early evening. We rested a while and still weren’t hungry so we decided to stay in an order room service.
Day Eight: London, British Museum
I went for a little walk out to Primrose Hill, overlooking London. After breakfast, we made our way to the British museum and took in the medieval exhibit the Greek exhibit, the Anglo-Saxon, Sutton, who exhibit and the Islam exhibit. Then we took a bus to the British postal museum they offered a train ride through the actual mail trains that are Under London.Back of the hotel, I ate at the hotel restaurant and brought back food back up to Anna
Day Nine: London to Stratford-on-Avon, The School for Scandal
We had our breakfast and then checked out of the hotel and took a taxi to the marleybone train station. we purchased tickets to Stratford on Avon with a transfer in but somehow when we got to storage, we missed that Connection and ended up going to Birmingham more. We got off there and got back on in the opposite direction back to Hatton and made that connection to Stratford on Avon. We checked into our hotel, the hotel, indigo Stratford upon Avon, and then walked down to the river Avon, and had dinner at the boathouse restaurant. Very nice place overlooking the river Avon.After that, we walked over to the royal Shakespeare company’s, swan theater and watched the performance of Richard Sheridan’s The School for Scandal. We then made our way back to the hotel had a little cocktail in the lounge and then called it a day.
Day Ten
Coming soon
Day Eleven
Coming soon
Day Twelve
Coming soon
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