It's Saturday, must be time for a Bath

After the last week and a half of attempting to get settled and not being able to find a house (more on this adventure later), we decided to take a day to be tourists and visit the city of Bath. Bath is situated about 15 miles east of Bristol and is one of the stops between Bristol and London on the high speed train.  Amanda insisted on taking a picture of the train.  Maybe someday the mode of transportation won’t be as exciting for her…

We arrived at 9:45 in the morning and ambled about for a bit until we came upon The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Bath or as you & I know it, Bath Abbey.

The Abbey is quite amazing as you can probably imagine and the inside is absolutely beautiful, however before we went in we had to find the free walking tour that I had read about in one of Rick Steve’s travel guides. Volunteers lead the two hour walking tour around the city weekday mornings and afternoons and at 10:30 on Saturdays. The tour began just outside the Abbey were the guide spoke briefly about the history of the area and explained the significance of the hot springs that well up from beneath the earth only a few hundred meters away. After the brief introductory of the area and the Abbey the tour began in earnest and we started walking. Much of Bath’s appeal is generated by its Georgian architecture which dominates both the city and the tour. If you like symmetrically constructed stone buildings with columns, then Bath is the place for you! As we progressed through the tour, we got to see The Circus, Royal Crescent (my favorite) and Queens Square which were all designed by John Wood the elder and his son John Wood the younger (Sr. and Jr. need not apply).  Amanda and I found the tour very entertaining and would definitely recommend it anyone who visits Bath.

The tour ended just outside the new Bath Spa which we decided we would try on another trip when we were actually prepared to spend a day lounging by the pool and soaking up the naturally heated mineral waters that the spa pumps into its facilities.

Being a little peckish after walking around for more than two hours we found a Cornish Bakery were Amanda had a pasty filled with English bacon, potato and cheese and I satiated my hunger with a Panini consisting of English bacon, tomato and mozzarella. Both were very satisfying.  

We then entered the Abbey and marveled at the amazingly detailed ceilings...

... and many of the centuries old monuments to past parishioners.

Amanda grabbed a leaflet for a self guided tour and we slowly wandered the hallowed aisles for nearly an hour as we took in everything around us, like the stunning stained glass windows that a photograph simply can’t do justice and the huge pipe organ that is still played during service despite being damaged during WWII (it was rebuilt in 1997).

The city of Bath provided a great day of entertainment and enlightenment and we look forward to returning to learn more about this fascinating British city. Perhaps next time we'll learn take a closer look at the ancient Roman Bath’s for which the city is named.   

Call me Sir Francis Drake

As Amanda has told you, we made it to BRISTOL!  We’ve now had three days of wondering the city to try to get our bearings.  We’ve generally left the temporary apartment around 10in the morning and walked towards City Center and Harborside / residential areas. The River Avon wraps around the center of the city to the south and provides several nice walks around town.  The girls are going to love it when they get here.  We’ve already noted many areas that we think their noses will really enjoy exploring.

A few blocks from our current apartment is the Old City and Queen’s Square. (As a side note, you can’t go more than a few blocks without coming across something named “Queen” “King” or “Princess”).  Queen’s Square was particularly nice with a large open park gravel paths that emanate from the center of the park out towards a square path that constitutes the outer border of the park. As we meandered through the park, we watched the seagulls search for picnic scraps and observed the locals relaxing on a bright warm (for this part of the world) spring mornings.

Just outside of Queen’s Square is Pero’s Bridge which spans a small harbor where some of the local ferry’s dock to unload their passengers and take on new fairs as well as a housing a few dining barges which seem to be rather popular around town. It’s on our list to try one, but Amanda wanted to wait until she was over the jetlag, because as she has stated, jetlag and seasickness are not a good combination when trying to eat. Several times through our meandering, we have been walking on a road only to find out we’re not at all on the street we thought we were on.  It seems Bristol, and possible the entire UK, don’t find the use of street signs necessary. Instead, they post the street name on buildings throughout town however since the buildings are different throughout the city the location of the street name is not the same place on all the buildings. It has taken  us several wrong turns along the way to figure this out and there several times when we were unable to locate a street name anywhere. Driving will be difficult.

However, this little misstep has led us to some fabulous photo ops. Just outside the Bristol Choir Church is a row of trees and in the first of those trees you can find pairs of shoes hanging from the limbs. We weren’t able to determine which local custom this harkens back to but we decided to keep our shoes with us. The Cathedral Choir Church is also quite impressive although we were so confused by the shoes that we almost neglected to get a photo of the church.  In addition, I have located my hamburger competition.  Once we eat at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, I’ll provide a full report.

Also as Amanda mentioned, something we never heard about before coming we discovered quickly on day one: Bristol has hills! For awhile the first morning, we were reasonably happy with the walk. It wasn’t very strenuous and the weather was absolutely amazing with the temperature in the Low 70’s. Boy, did that change!  We wanted to look at some of the flats we’d seen online. So we decided to walk to one, then down to Amanda’s office then to the other.  We turned north when we reached the western end of Brandon Hill Park looking for Constitution Hill Rd which would take us to the first property on York Place. The closer we got to Constitution the steeper the walk began to get. After hiking about a half mile up the hill we found a post man walking his route and asked how to get to York Place since we hadn’t seen Constitution Hill. He pointed a little further up the road and told us that was Constitution Hill and that it was a “killer” to walk up.  We thanked the postman for his assistance and walked towards Constitution Hill. When we got to the street we looked up! This is about the time we realized that walking Bristol on a daily basis might be a little more difficult than we initially thought…especially in the rain…and snow…and ice.  We made it up the hill and were able to see the outside of the property.  I think we could like it, if only we could see the inside of it.

Speaking of seeing the inside of houses, we’ve had a setback.  The relocation company who was supposed to take us around to view properties canceled on us late Thursday afternoon.  The agent said that several of the properties that she had set up for us to view had been let (rented) Wednesday and Thursday, so she was going to have reschedule. At this point we don’t have a date rescheduled yet and since Amanda’s first week at work starts Monday, we’re not exactly sure when we will get a chance to view properties, but hopefully soon.

After walking around looking at areas we might like to live, provided any properties come available, we strolled down to Amanda’s new office. After she took a photo of the exterior of her new office building (she says to point out that they have not updated to the new logo yet), we entered Brandon Hill Park which is directly across the street from her new office. It’s a nice hilly park with a medieval tower perched at the top and the views to the south are incredible.



One of our more interesting people watching spots was @Bristol. This is a large open area that has fountains and reflecting pools surrounded by café’s and shops. We took a break while we sat there watching the kids play in the reflecting pools we saw that most of the children, little girls included, were topless or completely nude. Now I don’t surprise at people’s activities very easily, mostly because of my time working in an extremely rough area of Ft. Worth known as Stop Six, but seeing this was quite a shock. If I had to guess the kids ranged in age from one to four and their parents certainly weren’t all that concerned.

As this is getting to be novel length, I’ll just tell you about one of the restaurants we have found so far. Just off of Queen’s Square is a small pub called Shakespeare’s Tavern. It’s in an old row building from the 1700’s and has retained much of the charm associated with the centuries gone by. The food was good, I had a dish called Hunters Chicken which is grilled chicken wrapped in English style bacon and topped with bar-b-que sauce and English cheddar cheese. Amanda had a jacket potato (baked potato) with cheese and we spent our evening playing tri-minoes and visiting with the waiter and bar keep who were wondering why two Americans had come to invade their cozy little establishment and were more than willing to dole out advice on were to live and what areas to avoid. It has been the best place to eat we have found so far.

Our trip across the pond

Adam (and a friend I made at the airport) mocked me a little for taking a picture of our airplane. But wanted to have an official picture of the start of our journey. And I do. After a 45 minute take off delay to replace something in the air conditioning system and a 9 hour plane ride in row 36 of the 777 below, we made it to London. We made it with all 8 (4 carry on & 4 checked) pieces of luggage also. Thanks American Airlines for not making this more difficult!

I also had to sneak in a picture of Adam at the airport. I almost got the cheesy smile with the eye roll – you know the one? Where he can’t believe that you’re embarrassing him by taking a picture in the airport. Yeah, that’s the one he gave me.

I slept on the plane, despite what Adam tells me was rough turbulence and three small children crying/screaming in round. Adam, due the previously mentioned reasons, did not. Therefore when we arrived in London around 11am local time (5am Texas Time—unless you're one of our many blog readers in El Paso, then you have to do your own time zone conversion) I was slightly refreshed and Adam was not. We cleared customs with no problems. I knew we were going to be alright when the immigration officer saw we would be here two years and jokingly asked if we were sure we wanted to do that. I'm sure it was a comment of British pride. After a smile and assurance to the officer that we really wanted to live here for two years, she stamped us through.


We found the Heathrow Express train on only the second attempt (I'd like to point out, mostly for my father, that there were four alternatives, so we did figure it out before we exhausted all the options). From the Heathrow Express, we took the train to Bristol. Adam & I had to take turns walking the length of the train to keep ourselves awake during the 1:45 it took to get from London to Bristol. Many times one of us would return to our seats only to find the other nodding off. We'd never make good watch dogs.


Somehow, getting off the train, finding a taxi, going to the apartment, getting out of the taxi and getting all the luggage up the stairs of the apartment gave us a second wind. We are on the 3^rd floor of the apartment complex, however as typical European multilevel buildings, there is a ground floor and then they number. So, by American standards, we are on the 4^th floor. Just think of that when you envision us carrying 200lbs of stuff. We showered and cleaned up a bit. I could write an entire page about the adventure in showering. You must first turn on the water heater, then wait 45 minutes for it to heat up (but if you wait an hour & the system doesn't sense any water use, the heater turns off again). Once you have hot water, the shower spurts in so many different directions that the quazi-half wall around the tub can't contain all the water thus soaking much of the bathroom floor (and front hall, if you happen to leave the bathroom door open…I wondered why the wood floor was warped when we first walked in, mystery solved).


We had dinner at a pub (Adam had the burger – anyone surprised?) then forced ourselves to stay awake until 8:30 so we could try to get on a normal-ish sleep schedule. Adam has more about our adventure around town today and the hills that nobody told us were in Bristol. All I'm saying is I'm going to have great calves by the time we come back to the US!

All packed up

Think everything you want to use for the next two years could fit in this much space?

Us either.

But it did.

Special bonus points to anyone in the family who can guess what piece of funiture this is...

Blessed beyond words

Have I ever told you how amazing our friends and family are?

Starting with our work friends who managed to throw a surprise going away party for us. I'm still not sure how they pulled that off. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a tad bit nosy. I'm not good at letting others plan things around me. I meddle, I pry, I interfere. It's not easy. But they did it. And Adam & I had a great time. We are truly blessed.

There are my clients who took time out of their schedules to say goodbye. Those who have seen me grow and learn (and sometimes those who have taught me!) over the past six years. Those who care about my life outside of our interactions. It still amazes me when one of them ask about Daisy or Ginger. Who would have ever thought that you would want to know about the auditor's dogs? We are truly blessed.

Then there is our original Small Group and the friends who tagged along and joined the fellowship over the past six years. A wonderful time of catching up. Such kind words in a handy notebook for us to keep for the future whenever we get a bit homesick. We are truly blessed.

There's our families who have been so supportive. My uncle who came over to repair the hot water heater so we'd pass our inspections on the sale of our house. My aunt who has graciously invited us to stay in their home after we have to be out of ours. Adam's family who created a "pub" in their house to send us off in style (as a side note, if anyone wants to throw a British themed party, talk to my Mother-in-law; she found some amazing décor!). Speaking of Adam's Mom, a special shout out as she has taken the dubious job of being the dog escort to ensure all the shots are in order before they fly over. And to Adam's dad who loaned us the pickup and trailer to move our (LARGE) furniture. And so much gratitude to my parents who have taken ownership of all of this for a few years. Holy Moley we have a lot of stuff -- funny thing is, this is after we got rid of, what we thought was, quite a bit of belongings!

Three weeks & counting...

Getting closer

Now that we are through Lent and Easter has come and gone, the anticipation has seemingly increased some. While I was online viewing rental properties last night, it occurred to me that we are approaching a time when what we see online might actually still be available when we arrive. This managed to have both an exciting and distressing effect in the same instance. Exciting because I can now allow myself to look at a specific property and attempt to determine what it would be like to live there and distressing because they are still very few options that meet our specific needs.

As we have progressed through the past few months we began to identify things that we needed to keep with us, store here in the states and others that we could part with. At the top of the list for staying with us are our two dogs, Daisy and Ginger. As many of you know pets in my family aren’t really pets at all but extensions of the family. My Father will often lament that if there is such a thing as reincarnation he would prefer to come back as one of my Mother’s dogs.  This sense of extending family to include pets is something my mother has passed on to me so when people ask if we are going to take our dogs with us I have no reason to hesitate. It has always been a foregone conclusion that wherever we go the dogs will follow. However, in regards to house hunting bringing pets over has made the task significantly more difficult.

Here in the states, virtually every house has a private yard of some kind and many of the apartment complexes are pet friendly as well. In the UK things are a bit different. Yesterday while performing my search there were 213 properties that fit our price range and location. Of those 213 only 30 had any sort of garden (UK equivalent of a side yard) and only 20 of those had some semblance of turf in the garden. There were also several that had yards but would not rent to pet owners so that reduced my list down to about 12.

Now twelve properties isn’t necessary a bad number because it really only takes finding the right single location to make it all work. Unfortunately this is where our second major need comes into play.

A common perception about properties in the UK is that they are smaller than homes in the states. From what I have seen it is a perception that is well earned. For not only are the properties physically smaller, their rooms are also significantly more confined as well. So much so that we have decided to leave virtually all of our large American style furniture here in the states to avoid shipping it overseas only to have it stored because there aren’t any rooms large enough to contain it. Therefore a property must also be furnished in order to make the list.

Of the 12 properties I was able to locate yesterday that had some semblance of a garden only 4 of them were furnished. Again four is not an issue if a single one of them is in a livable condition. Unfortunately none of them appeared to pass that final test.

Thankfully we still have five weeks before we arrive in Bristol and another two weeks of corporate housing allowance to find a place. I am certain that in the end we will have enough time to find a place to call home it would just be nice to see a few more options come available as the anticipation continues to mount.

Sold!

It's pretty refeshing to come home to this sign every night...

Now, anyone interested in a washing machine, plasma television, poker table or lawn mower?