Long week, I'm tired

7/4/09 1:34 AM

 

Good morning to everyone. Why am I writing this at 1:34 AM? Because I was cleaning my room, getting it ready for packing. Tomorrow (today, actually), my friend Tom is coming up for a visit, so that should be fun.

 

It’s been a while since my last update, but that was because my family was here, so I actually had things to do. They flew in two weeks ago Thursday, and they left last Friday. Before I go any further, I’m going to apologize for a lack of pictures. Somehow, I ended up with 200+ on my camera, and they’re taking a while to transfer and resize. I will include pictures later.

 

For the first few days, we hung around Salisbury. The family (my mom and younger siblings) stayed with Mother Ann, while I went out to visit them. Seth was immediately embraced by the dogs, and Mary and I attempted to put a puzzle together. My mom had tried to bring me burrito seasonings, but it was confiscated, she learned, when she couldn’t find it.

 

On Saturday, we headed out for Farnham Castle… or so we thought. Several people said “Fareham?” and we said, “Sure, probably!” Turns out that no, it was Farnham. Fareham was in a different direction, and there was nothing of interest there. We ended up having lunch at Ken’s Fried Chicken (blatant KFC ripoffs, but nowhere near as good) and hopping back on the train to head to Portsmouth instead, which was at the end of that line. Portsmouth is a naval town on the coast of England, and there was an outlet mall there (yummy Cadbury’s Misshapes!), a very tall tower (Spinnaker Tower), and a historic dock. We ended up looking in several museums, taking a tour of the H.M.S. Victory (Lord Nelson’s ship in the battle of Trafalgar), and shopping. Mary and I bought some candy floss (cotton candy) while my mom and Seth went to Spinnaker Tower. On the train rides, we taught my mom how to play Euchre, and we all played Rummy.

 

Saturday morning, though, before we left, we went to the market, and I introduced my family to Mr. Donutman. He said I was his favorite customer. :) I converted them to loving his donuts, and he gave me 5 for £1 (when you think that the normal price is £0.35 for one, I’m getting good discounts!). Seth bought Dr. McNinja’s father for Mihir, and we saw a live owl.

 

On Sunday, they went to church with Mother Ann, while I went to the Cathedral. They showed up right at the end of the service, and my mom got to talk with John, a man who has given many pilgrim walks for us. After church, we went to a yummy Italian restaurant called Prezzo for lunch, then we went to Poundland and I gave them a tour of the Cathedral. My mom and I went to Evensong, but Mary and Seth went off shopping.

 

For dinner on Sunday, Sally invited them over and made a roast chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, potato wedges, bread pudding, gravy, and leeks supper. Linda Cooper came as well. I made chocolate chip cookies for dessert, but Sally also provided two flavors of ice cream (vanilla and chocolate dream), fresh berries, Flake bars (ribbony chocolate), and Gu puddings. Mary was in chocolate heaven.

 

Monday was a day to putz around Salisbury. Seth went to model shops, we all went to look at the Odeon movie theatre, then we went to the Cathedral for a tour of the vestry at 1. I gave Amanda cookies for the vergers and for Justin, and she showed us all around. We got to hold verges (the staff of a verger, the mark of their office), and she told us how even today, vergers can beat up people threatening the clergy on church property and not be allowed to get in trouble for it, because that’s their original job. That’s also why verges have a heavy end. :) She also showed off lots of the vestments and the music room, and my mom took pictures of everything, including me and Amanda, so you’ll get to see her.

 

Tuesday morning, we went off to London, dragging one of my big duffle bags packed to the brim. The family was going to take it home for me. In London, we ended up at a very nice hotel, the nicest I’ve ever been in in London, and we went to many places: the British Library (the one room you can really go in is fascinating), the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, Leeds Castle, Westminster Cathedral and Abbey… we took a ghost walk around St. Paul’s Cathedral and went to see The Phantom of the Opera (very nice). By the end, though, we were all tired. I left Thursday late afternoon, early evening, and returned to Salisbury, while the family flew out on Friday.

 

I spent Friday sleeping late and doing nothing, but I was up and about again on Saturday. Saturday, you see, was the last day my BritRail ticket was eligible (unlimited travel on trains on 4 out of 8 consecutive days), and I wanted to go to Bath. So I did.

 

Bath, England, has the only hot spring in all of England, and the Romans knew it. They had a very extensive bath complex in Bath, and a lot of it has been excavated and restored. The baths still work, but there’s no bathing in them: due to the lack of a roof (the Romans had one, but the British don’t), nasty algae and amoebas and stuff grow in them, turning the water green. They were still fascinating to see, though. I tried some of the water from a clean source, and it was warm (comes out of the ground around 46 degrees C) and metallicky (everything it has run over for a long time is red from rust), but I found it quite yummy and drank my whole glass.

 

I did get an audio tour of the complex, which I both liked and didn’t like. On the whole, I hate audio tours. They are slow and try to be all dramatic, giving you bits of music and stuff when really, you just want the information. They cause log jams as tourists gather in front of the number, staring blankly ahead with sheep-like expressions on their faces as they listen, and they make people less aware of what and who is around them, so they lean against the cards with information (if you don’t have an audio tour, that’s your only source of information) or step into pictures or block the view for everyone else until the guide is done talking. The Bath audio tours had all those problems, but still, it was more informative than just the info cards. It did have one thing I liked, though.

 

Remember Bill Bryson, the author whose books I’ve been reading? He had been invited to give his thoughts on Bath in the audio tour. Every now and then, beneath the number for the audio tour would be another number for Bryson’s thoughts. His was an interesting tour, because he kept his blurbs short and to the point and thought-provoking. I liked that part. He also did the comments on a warm, sunny spring day, just like the day I had been there, which made me smile. He kept talking about how the sun looked on the water and so on and so forth.

 

In addition to the Roman baths, there was also Bath Abbey. It looked lovely on the outside, but when I went in, I was disappointed. It was small and jam-packed with memorials (sorry, Amanda, I know you worked there and liked it). It didn’t have anything near the same grandeur as Salisbury, and all those memorials made it feel crowded and full. I’d take a soaring spire any day.

 

And so now I’m back here, in Salisbury, waiting for my internet to work again so I can post this. Good night!