Day 4 -- Day in Bath (photos)

19 AUGUST | Bath: City Tour, Jane Austen Centre



Well, seeing as how I am fascinated with all things macro, I've decided (in ... post- actual-day -events, writing this now) that I shall have an "On the Train to Bath" post, followed by a more comprehensive account of our day in Bath, followed by yet another post filled with lovely pictures, followed by yet another post will all the 'filler' pictures that everyone is longing to see (from my earlier trip).

So, without further ado! *waves hand in the air*


Bath is situated approximately an hour or so west of London by train. We'd already bought our tickets prior to leaving the U.S. so everything was already booked, etc. It's not hard to buy tickets the day-of (I bought a second return; long story), it's just more expensive. (In some cases, ridiculously more expensive.) So. The plan, as far as I'd decided as of that morning (which was not really a solidified plan, and really rather what I wanted to do more than what I should do), was to stay in Bath for two extra days. Today being Sunday (this will be written in present and past tense so bear with me, *grins*), I was planning on staying through Tuesday afternoon and coming back to London later that afternoon. I'd packed a bag before leaving for Bath, this morning, and had been carrying it with me. So I buy another ticket (they wouldn't change the dates; he said I should've switched it yesterday, and I felt like telling him I hadn't known I was wanting to stay yesterday ... jerk!, but I didn't), and we quickly bought breakfast (coffee and a pastry) for me because I hadn't gotten breakfast from the house (too concerned with not being late), and was quite hungry. Food in hand, we boarded the train, found our seats, and settled in.

Here is breakfast. One very yummy pain de raisin (the bestest when left either in one's bag all day and then eaten, or left in the fridge all day or over-night and then eaten) and one latte. Not the healthiest of breakfasts, but certainly one of the yummiest. And exactly what I was wanting for that morning; on a train, writing my thoughts, passing through the countryside, sipping on coffee, nibbling on a pastry. Suited the mood, I think, very well.


Here's me. Wearing a boat-neck striped sweater, jeans, hat and Birkenstocks. Very French. *smiles*

I hadn't been taking many pictures in general, so I figured now, on an empty train, when no one was there to wonder why, I took pictures of the train. Thus we have Inside-and-Outside-the-Train, ticket stubs, as well as a little scenery. The first picture is a close-up of the ticket stub; I've saved almost all of the day travelcards for the tube and the train tickets all throughout the trip, to make some sort of artistic, framed wall piece out of them. Then my writing journal; very awesome as it's all 'graph' paper. The next two are the inside and outside shots -- the overhead lights, and the outside tracks as we head out of the station. We left from Paddington Station this time. Then the next two photos are leaving the London city area -- industrial buildings and car parks. It was wonderful to get out of the large city and back to smaller-sized cities and small towns.







These next two photos are simply artistic. My favourite being macro, I focused on the proportions of the cup: the 2/3rds brown to the 1/3 blue-and-white. The curves of the slope as the cup enlarges towards the top add an interesting flow to the photo, too. I think the part I like the most of this first photo is the fact that the bottom left portion is blurry -- fuzzed and smudged a bit. Adds interest! :) The other photo is a close-up of my window. Isn't it awesome! You can almost see the individual water droplets!



These next six are of the countryside (!), out my window. Sorry for the 'ghost' images of my hands/the camera. That was with the flash off. It just appeared anyways; the glare on the window from the sun was probably too much to not do that. Anyways, look how gorgeous that landscape is! The first three or four are good representations of English landscapes (not the best, seeing as how it's out a train window and not from a hilltop so as to show off the hedges and dividing of property better); the fifth and sixth are when the sun came out and there was blue sky! (I'm all for rain, don't get me wrong, and the sun does seem to complicate things most times, but that blue of sky was just too pretty not to capture! :D)






































So, those are the pictures I have from the train ride TO Bath. Next comes my thoughts on Bath, what we did, where we went, etc. etc. ;)

Day 3 -- Day in London (1) (photos)

18 AUGUST | London: St. Mary Abbot Church of Kensington Gardens


PHOTOS!

These are photos of the church park (sorry, I've forgotten the name); let me see if I can 'Google' it. *wanders off*

Okay! So it's the St. Mary Abbot's church of Kensington, thus on Kensington Street (the High Street Kensington tube stop), and the gardens are partially memorial gardens (link). The first time I visited London was in March of 2002, with two friends, and we stayed in a hostel in Notting Hill for part of the week. The Notting Hill tube stop is just a couple stops away from Kensington Street, so I think we were exploring that day or something and stumbled across the gardens. They're in between the buildings, so you're secluded and yet out in the open, with breezy trees above and plenty of air around. You can't see the streets though, or the people shopping. Luckily, for that would seriously hinder relaxing.






Photo 1: Flower Bed
-- This was the bed of various flowers directly in front of where I was sitting. There is a walkway (sort of like a 'thru' sidewalk for pedestrians coming from the main street on the adjacent sides of the buildings/gardens) in the middle of the picture, walking away from me (people are there), and I had come from the walkway in the right of the picture leading to the High Street. The presence of fences possibly keeps the 'garden' area safe from people trekking all over it. And the 'memorial' aspect to it would definitely suggest enclosure. People were mainly just walking through to get to the other street(s) for the time whilst I was sitting there.


Photo 2: Columns and Walkway
-- This is the 'walkway' I came from and in through to get to the bench I'm sitting at. It's a slight incline while just under the columns and cross-beams but then levels out.

Photo 3: Purple and White Flowers
-- These were just behind me, in a large flower bed. The mixture of two different kinds of flowers works well here, I think. The tall, skinny purple ones with shorter, rounder white. Reminds me of a well-decorated, beautiful home for some reason. ;)







Photo 4: Breakfast!
-- I love this photo! Not only for the fact that's it's a 'breakfast' picture (sidenote. check out a 'breakfast'-themed blog called "Simply Breakfast" (here) for amazing food pictures!), but also because the deep, rich colour of the bench accentuates the white of the lid and the tan of the bag so well! Breakfast was a raisin cinnamon roll(?), the equivalent of a raisin cinnamon roll/danish combo, with a latte from Caffé Vergnano. So yummy! :)

Photo 5: Close-up of Flowers
-- Here's a close-up of the first flower bed. The picture is a little blurry, but you can see the intensity of color as well as the variety of colours. France, anyone?

Photo 6: Pigeons
-- These are my breakfast companions. *grins* They were very polite. Not too much graveling, not too much squawking. :D I fed them the bits of danish I didn't want. And the very crumbly bits.

Photo 7: Pigeon #1
-- The BRAVE pigeon who ventured the closest! Eeeee!


Photo 8: The Stone Path
-- Isn't this picture gorgeous! The colouring of the stone is just beautiful. It reminds me of many of the ancient burial sites I visited while in the UK back in 2003, as well as in Scotland that same trip. Very old stone, weathered. Gives it a very attractive green-grey glow. It also reminds me of The Lord of the Rings a LOT, for some, unknown-to-me reason. Perhaps the stone? :D




Photo 9: Memorial Gardens
-- This first picture of the small, circularly enclosed garden area across the walkway from where I was includes the gates out of 'my' garden area because the iron is lovely! The bright green contrasts well with the darkness of the fence.

Photo 10: Gardens, Close-up
-- Here, you can see the circular aspect of the garden itself with the central pedestal surrounded on the bottom with bricks, in a circle, and to either side are stone benches and hanging plants/vines/trees that make this garden in particular, very special.

Photo 11: Gate Top
-- Another shot of the gateway, this time with only the top showing. I like how bushy the green of the trees/plants are in the bottom half of the picture counteracted with the solid black in the top half of the picture.


TOMORROW: Photos of Bath (just a few; will have to find my 'old' ones for some real fun :D) !!!

Day 2 -- Arriving in Romford (photos)

17 AUGUST | Romford: Bower House

Photos! Here are a few photos (don't we all love pictures better than words!); mentioned in the previous post, they're of Bower House in Romford (north-east of main London), where Nicole was working for the two weeks before, the grounds, as well as a couple 'interesting' "me" photos.


Click ON the images to enlarge.








Photo 1: Red-Brick Wall
-- I was sitting on a bench next to this (pretty!) wall; look at all that moss and greeny/yellowy stuff! Just had to take an 'artsy' picture. (My favourite option on my Elph is 'Digital Macro', so it's no wonder half of the trip pictures are super zoomed-in. Apologies up front, sorry folks! :D)

Photo 2: Bower House (back)
-- This is a back view of the 'house'. It's really just one of the buildings on the estate, but you can notice the window details and the white moldings/cornices (?) and the traditional red-brick.

Photo 3: Bower House (back) (again)
-- Another view of the back of the building, and the flower bed, this time.


Photo 4: Steps
-- These are the steps I was sitting on, taking the other pictures. The black & white setting added a weathered, aged look to it; I love the detail of the moss/erosion of the steps and how the majority of the picture is blurry. I'm all for blurry, interesting pictures! :)

Photo 5: Weird Stick Thing
-- I have no idea what this thing is! It was in the grass, next to the bench, in this odd, spider/spider-web sort of shape. Definitely made of twigs, so... what? Someone wove it? I don't know. Just weird. A cool weird, though.

Photo 6: Bench and the Lawn
-- Here's a good view of the grounds to the left of where I was seated. The green grass, the trees that border the property, and the lone bench. There were various ones like this scattered throughout the grounds so people could sit and contemplate the landscape/work/etc. and relax a moment. They were actually pretty comfortable as benches go.

Photo 7: Red Shoes!
-- My shoes! Pretty red shoes. And it's blurry. It's like a home-run with this picture! :)