Bath, United Kingdom

Choo-choo Thomas coming, as Brady would say!  We set out on another weekend train adventure to Bath in our pursuit to ensure that we get out of London and see various parts of the United Kingdom.  Bath is known as a visiting spot for the who’s who of the UK, home to the Roman Bath Spas, residence of Jane Austen for many years and is known for excellent Christmas markets. 

We of course selected Bath for the Jane Austen bit.  Quote from Cory, “I’ve never heard of Jane Austen.”   I say, “She’s an author.”  Cory, “Oh yeah, she had something to do with Pride and Prejudice right?”  I really shouldn’t give Cory too hard of a time as although I have read a couple of her books, I certainly can’t tell you anything meaningful about the books.  Despite the lack of literary knowledge on our parts, we did make sure to get our picture taken with her outside of the museum. (Yes, I do have a black eye in the photo if anyone notices.  Going on 2 weeks of a black eye due to a Brady head collision.)   However, we couldn’t fit the tour into our busy schedules.   I will tell you that Miss Austen was quite the productive young lady.  She actually wrote 6 full novels, had 2 unfinished novels and countless other short pieces and most of them were written when she was in her teens, 20s.  Her life was cut very short due to what they believe to be Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 41.

In all seriousness, the primary place we wanted to visit was the Roman Baths.  Very cool to think that hundreds and hundreds of years ago the Roman’s worked out a sophisticated spa setup.  Despite living in a time full of hard manual labor and lack of modern conveniences, the people still made time for relaxation and spa treatments.  Brady was not too interested in learning about the Romans and keep insisting we go see the “BIG, HOT Swimming pool.”   We raced through the 2 hour self guided tour in a record 45 minutes.  Brady keep saying “Brady get in.  Let’s go swimming Mommy, Daddy.”  You are actually not allowed to touch the water, I think it’s a bit on the toxic side.  Fortunately we were able to keep Brady out of the water.

After the Roman Baths we visited the Bath Abbey.  Something pretty cool that they do during the Christmas season is have hourly 20 minute Christmas services.  We decided to attend and about 5 minutes before the service started Brady informed us that he needed to go poo-poo and proceeded to do so standing in the aisle.  The good news is he is still in diapers, the bad news is there were no restrooms in the Abbey and they were closing the huge doors to get in the church making it difficult to get out.  Brady and I snuck out, and managed to get back about 5 minutes into the service.  He then decided to announce very loudly that he needed his BANANA and needed to go get it out of the stroller.   Lesson learned, do not attempt to go to a church service without being properly prepared.  I guess what was I to expect from the little guy since he had nothing to read, play with or eat during the service.

We may get some boos from the crowd for this one, but Saturday night we opted for TGI Fridays for dinner.  Cory and I both enjoy our chain restaurants and are really missing US food.  The only US places that we have been since arriving in London have been Subway & McDonalds which don’t really count and Chipotle which of course is awesome.  When we saw the TGI Fridays we couldn’t resist.  It was AMAZING.  I think the amazingness partially goes back to us missing US food, but in all seriousness we had really good food and some of the best service we have had since arriving in the UK.  In general the people in Bath were quite friendly and helpful in comparison to London.  We had a 15 minute chat with a security guard who apparently is a huge Obama fan.  He was so excited for us to have Obama in office and is thinking that it will be really great for the US.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him I didn’t fully agree so we just played along and then chatted about the weather and the high cost of living in the UK.  (weather and cost of living are always good conversation bits).

Hotel fun after dinner.

On Sunday we enjoyed a few historical sites and then set back for home.  We had a nice weekend and crossed another UK city off the list!

ABCs

Finally caught the full alphabet on video.  Not sure if everyone can understand it as well as we can, but he said his full abcs with no mistakes.  We think he's pretty smart.  :-)

Brady 'isms'

I was looking through my posts and realized I had a post from back in December that I never published.  Even though it's eight months old I want to have this in case I decide to make the blog into a book so I'm back dating this.

Brady is growing up so fast.  Thought I would share some of our recent favorite Brady'isms'.

• Wanting me to leave the kitchen table, "Good bye Mommy.  See you Later.  Go to Target."
• Brady burps or makes other inappropriate noises, "What's that noise".  Followed by "Good one" if someone else makes a 'noise'.
• Any monument, big clock or historical looking building, "Look, Big Ben".
• This has been going on for a long time now, but anything with a tag, "Cut it please".   We have fruits and vegetables to cut now which will hopefully be a distraction to real cutting.
• Brady, how old are you?  "Two"  How old are Mommy and Daddy?  "Six"
• Bedtime process can be a bit difficult these days.  He is a great negotiator.  "More kisses please", "Brady thirsty, need water", "Bunny not sleepy", "Watch Gray's", "Sleep Futon", "Watch baby TV", "Hurting, need cream" (this is in reference to his dry cheeks, but he in reality HATES having cream put on his face), the list goes on and on.
• Brady keeps a few coins in his coat pocket, we will be at the store, "Brady pay" and he gets his coins out of his pocket.

Chocolate, Waffles & Beer

We set out on a Eurostar journey to Bruges, Belgium to find chocolate, waffles & beer last weekend to celebrate Cory's birthday. Luck would have it, we were successful in all three categories and had a wonderful weekend!

We did a little bit of research before our trip, but mainly focused on things to do in Bruges rather than learning anything about Belgium. I mean I could point to Belgium on a map and Cory could tell you that Hoegaarden beer comes from Belgium, what else did we possibly need to know. On our train ride over we were talking and neither of us even knew the official language of Belgium. We both thought Dutch, but learned a little history lesson that in fact Belgium has three official languages - French, Dutch & German. Depending on the region that you are in one language will be more predominant. Bruges is in fact the capital of the Flemish region and Dutch is the first language for most people. Neither Cory or I speak one word of Dutch so thank goodness everyone there also speaks English.

One of the things that Cory and I both thought was cool about Bruges is the architecture is all super old. Not 1800 old, we're talking some of the buildings dating back to the 1200s. Our hotel was right off of the City Market which is in the center of the city. There were tons of restaurants, shops and beautiful architecture everywhere we looked.

Highlights of the Trip:

• Delicious Waffles served with ice cream & chocolate syrup.  Not kidding you these things are AMAZING! 

• Brady pointing at the Belfry clock tower and saying "Look, Big Ben".  He amazes us every day at what he picks up on.  Even if it wasn't actually Big Ben, I was impressed.

• Wonderful meals - Everything we ate was fabulous!  Cory even tried Mussels which is the local specialty. When we started the bowl was overflowing.

• James greeting us at the Hotel entrance.

• Seeing the Holy Blood at the Basilica of the Holy Blood.

• Visit to the De Halve Maan Brewary- Brady had impeccable timing and slept for two hours in his stroller while Cory and I sampled the local brews.

• Walking through more than a dozen chocolate shops and seeing all of the different things chocolate can be molded into - Probably not appropriate for the blog, but can't resist posting.

• Watching Brady get so excited by the horse drawn carriages and listening to him say over and over "Another one coming" as the horses went by.  We took a horse ride Sunday morning and he was so excited!

• Seeing one of the only Michelangelo Statues outside of Italy - the Madonna.

• Random restaurant that wanted to charge 3 Euros to see the owners train collection.  We watched the trains for 20 minutes without paying - Shush!

Here are some more pictures of our weekend.  Enjoy!