May 4-8th Final post Antibes, France & Home!

May 4-8th

Our last stop on this trip was to visit our beloved friends David and Anna in Antibes, France (aka heaven). Although we did not do all that much for the 3.5 days we were there it was delightful. We ate very well, enjoyed the stunning view from their flat, walked along the coast and had loads of good natters ;) Our first few days were overcast and blowy but the sun co-operated so that on our last full day Anna and I were able to spend a blissful hour on the beach soaking up the late afternoon sun and wading in the chilly Mediterranean. The ultimate relaxing end to a fantastic voyage.
The trip home was uneventful but long. Stops in London and Seattle made for a pretty extended and exhausting journey.
Jetlag has been having it's way with me and I've been up at 5:30, 4:30 and 3:30....it seems to be going in the wrong direction for me...oh well it's a self correcting problem...I think.. if I get tired enough I will sleep in eventually.
I am back to work, but starting up slow. I did my first two massages yesterday, and have 2 to do today. I am looking forward to this weekend as well, since it is my birthday and we have plans to go dancing as well as to the Pin-A-Go-Go pinball show.

Thanks everyone for following along! I will leave your inboxes alone for at least a few months while we get back to our normal schedule of massage, dancing, board games, socializing, running, cycling, housework etc..etc...speaking of... Time to get ready for the Tuesday night dance! 

Overdue visits! April 26-29

We figured it out and it has been over two and a half years since we were last here in the UK. In one sense it feels like last month and in another (when I see how much the kids have grown) seems too long!
After realizing that I had my driving license where Kim had left his home in his wallet, we picked up the rental car with me as the driver. At least it was a cute Fiat 500 verses the  behemoth we once had while touring Scotland! So I got to drive on the 'wrong' side with the stick shift on the left and steering wheel on the right. Even after 10 days I still walked to the wrong door to get in the car. It was a  challenge and never got relaxing, but there were no mishaps and only a couple of times did I miss the proper exit and twice I had to do a second circuit of a roundabout to get off at the right place. Of course I made Kim terribly tense at times but he behaved and was a fantastic co-pilot/navigator for about 800 miles worth of UK roads.
Our first stop in the family visits was luckily very close to Gatwick. Google said that our trip to Nicky and Steve's house should take 14 minutes and a half hour later we pulled up in Crawley Down. This disparity of time became a humorous and familiar sensation throughout the next 9 days. I'm fairly certain that I just don't drive as fast as the local British.
It was delightful to get to visit with them, see their lovely home and get caught up after such a long time. We even got to facetime with Ronny and Michael as they would be off caravaning (motorhome) about during our time in the UK.
Kim and I both felt like our visit there was too short and yet we knew we had quite a long drive and wanted to visit with Trevellyan before he'd have to leave for his workweek in London. With promises from Nicky and Steve to start planning a US trip in the next few years we headed out to Cornwall in the very South.

Anthea, Trevellyan, Talana and Taryn live in a fantastic spot in Mawla not far from St Ives. We were delighted by the beauty and charm of Cornwall. The landscape was so similar to home we imagined the Cornish must have felt right at home when they transplanted to Northern California. We hiked about the ruins of the tin mines, despite the cold North wind. We were lucky that  Trevellyan was able to work from home that Monday so he met us for lunch in Porth Towan. The next day had much a mellower weather day in St Ives at the Barbara Hepworth museum. Then had a lovely lunch of fish and chips overlooking the bay out to the Atlantic Ocean. It was a  great visit and although Talana said she liked having us there 'because we get to have pudding' we really had a blast. We played lots of games,  taught the whole family Citadels and left the Star Realms for them after the kids got the hang of it. We are glad we got to see them before they are all grown up. Although at 9 and 12 I can see it's already happening quite quickly.

On Wednesday morning we hit the road again to retrace part of the 300+miles from Sunday's drive and headed to Bath.

How they have grown!

May 1-4
Our last stop in the UK was to visit our God-daughters in Puckeridge, north of London. So Friday morning we left Bath and took the small roads by telling Google maps to avoid the highways. This took us through many quaint villages and across the pretty awesomely green, and yellow with rapeseed, countryside. I'd have been happy to continue driving that way, despite the longer drive time as there was hardly anyone else on those roads. However, we were turned back after about an hour and a half due to a road closure for construction. That meant getting on the motorway... Much less interesting but also faster.

We arrived in the little village of Puckeridge and had to reintroduce ourselves to Tegan who was two and a half when we saw her last. At five she had much more to say.... Well... pretty much constantly... about everything ;)  Chloe, who is now 10, got home from school and music lessons and hasn't changed that much other than almost being as tall as I am!
We spent the next few days with the girls and Shannan and Stuart. It was great to catch up and after a few minutes it's always as if no time has passed. They took us out to yummy Thai food Friday night, which I unfortunately spilled all over the table in a moment of pure clutzy(luckily only half my curry).
We tagged along for the runs to dance lessons on Saturday. Then they let me cook dinner for everyone which was a treat.  Sunday we all took an afternoon trip to Cambridge for some sightseeing and 'Sunday Roast'. Unfortunately, the service was super slow so it turned into a 2.5hour meal... Just a bit too long for the girls who had behaved really well up until the end of the second hour. With a spazzy ice cream induced meltdown impending we headed back to the house for an early bedtime. I felt honored that Chloe let me help with her homework. As a reward for our hard work Shannan let us decorate the cupcakes for the next day's bake sale at the 'May Day Fete' in the village.
After breakfast Monday morning we took off for Stansted to return the car and check in for our Easyjet hopper back to Europe,  this time France.

Bath, England Apr 29&30

Apr 29
We picked Bath as nice midway point between Cornwall and Puckeridge. Kim hadn't been before and I only had a very vague recollection from my trip there as a teen.
Famous for it's Georgian architecture and the ancient Roman Baths that were uncovered, we figured Bath would be an interesting midweek interlude to our busy family visiting schedule.
Our first evening we walked up Marlborough Street to the Royal Crescent and then further on to the Circus.  Neither of these are what they sound like. The Royal Crescent and the Circus are simply a row of attached homes in a semicircle and a full circle.
Gorgeous and built between 1758-1775 they do stand out and give the city a unique feel. I kept wanting them to have more history or significance but they are just lovely and impressive buildings.

We had plenty of french fare on the ship and we'd been fed what I think of as the  most traditional English and Cornish things... Traditional steak and potato Pasty,  Marmalade toast, eggs with bangers, Roast with Yorkshire, even fish and chips. Thank you Anthea and Nicky... So Yummy!
Because of that comprehensive foodie coverage, we thought we'd go for the National food of England,Indian. (the Brits reading this will understand... For the rest of you... Well, it's just 'a thing'.) Chicken Tikka Masala is not Indian food it's British. Really.. I'm not kidding... THE National dish.
It was delicious and beautifully served, right across from the hotel, as well as being quite reasonably priced compared to some of the menus around town.

Apr 30
After a leisurely morning we walked to the city center. One of the large attractions is the Thermae Spa. It has a rooftop pool,  huge indoor pool,  4 huge steam rooms and massage services.  We lucked out and booked the last two appointments they had for the day! They were later in the afternoon, which left us just enough time to go nextdoor to the museum housing the discovered remains of a huge ancient spa/temple.
The Roman Baths complex dates back to 49AD. Huge hot pools are fed by a natural geothermal spring, the only one in the whole of England. The Ancient Roman complex was a temple to the Goddess Minerva and included a huge warm pool, hot pools, cold plunge, exercise yard, under floor heated massage rooms and a fairly involved water system to supply the pools and regulate the temperature in them.
It was a very well laid out museum and the audio tour was decent as well.
At one point we were sitting by the large open air pool when a young female 'Roman' in full garb came by.  She chatted with us for a while asking if we would be 'Taking the waters' we spoke for a bit and found out some interesting facts about the Romans of the time. Women had some independence (if they weren't  slaves and had money) and it was quite popular to have all body hair waxed, other than the occasional manly man with a beard. I guess fashions do all come around again and again. By the time we were done we only had about 15 minutes to grab a Pasty and head to the modern spa.

Revitalize back, hand and foot sessions for two, hooray! Along with the session we had 3 hours to use the two pools, rainstorm shower, scented steam rooms and relaxation areas. My session was at the beginning and then I found Kim and we lounged about the steams and pools until it was time for his massage. My favorite steam was the Lemongrass Ginger as I found the sandalwood one smelled like dirt, Lotus flower was too floral and the eucalyptus/menthol too medicinal. I was a pruney-wrinkle fingered and relaxed girl by the time we left 4 hours later.

Neither of us was particularly hungry so we wandered about reading menus for a while, then decided to try a place up near the Royal Crescent. It looked great but we found out we would have to have booked 2 months prior! The nice gal recommended a place back towards the center with apologies and the comment... 'Good luck. Thursday is the new Friday now!' We meandered down there only to find the menu unappealing and overly expensive. By this time,  although still relaxed,  we were done scrapping about and starting to get peckish. I pulled out my phone to look up restaurants and then put it away. I said... If that sort of Italian looking restaurant across the street has pizza and isn't too ridiculously expensive, let's just go there!

We both had fantastic meals, Cannelloni and lamb chops... no pizza, even though that's what drew us in. When I went online later to find the name, I found out we'd stumbled into Martini Ristorante, Bath's #1 highest rated authentic Italian restaurant, run by Italians.  Lucky us! Yes, Kim was loving the perfect after dinner espresso, as only he, the French and Italians can make one that smooth.

Barcelona April 25

One of the benefits of the Horizon ship being so small was that it was able to park so close to town! Once we finished breakfast aboard, we waited our turn to disembark and exited the ship to find ourselves in a very familiar spot. At the very bottom of Las Ramblas right by the beach and marina. No need to catch a taxi at all since we were right where we intended to go.  Since we'd donated our extra duffel bag and all my thriftstore/goodwill/cruise clothes and shoes to a gal who'd had her luggage stolen in the DR,  all we had were our small backpacks. We walked up a few blocks enjoying the relative quiet of the walking street on a Saturday morning.  Vendors setting up and cafés prepping for the crowds to come. One of Kim's favorite places in the world is the Cafe de l'Opera which is about halfway up towards the Plaça de Catalunya . So we spent a leisurely morning over an ensemada and his favorite Cafe con Leche. When we left the café the throngs of people had descended and it was slow walking up Las Ramblas. In the past when we have visited, there were many interesting street performers spaced regularly along the walk vying for the tourist coins however the only one I saw was a man posing in a bird costume and just as I looked, an officer ousted him. I'm guessing the regulations have changed and since the place seemed much cleaner than before I'm also figuring the city is trying to clean up and dispel it's former slightly seedy & pickpocket filled reputation.
We made our way easily to the train and for a mere 4 euros each ended in the airport for a hopper to London, Gatwick.