Our train back to London is before 9 AM, so we have to leave our AirBnB by 7 AM.  The alarm went off at 5:30 AM...oy...so early.  We got up, packed, and made it out of the house right at 7 AM.  We walked to the train station and arrive at 7:30 AM.  We bought a couple of sandwiches for the train, went through security, and got our 6 month Visa from the United Kingdom which was the main reason we did this trip to Brussels.

We boarded the train on time at 9 AM and were in London 2 hours later.  This time we are in London for only the time it takes for us to walk to the car rental office and get out of town.  Don't worry...we will be back in London soon with plenty of time to spend here.

We got the rental car and headed to the Avebury Stone Circle, a 2 hour drive away.  We arrived in Avebury just before 1:30 PM.  Avebury Stone Circle, built  4000 - 5000 years ago, is the largest stone circle in the world with a diameter of 1,088 feet.  It has 2 inner stone circles.

There is also an earthwork henge (a circular ditch) that has a diameter of 4,560 feet that runs around the outside of the stone circle.  earthwork henge can be see in the photo below to the left of the dirt path.  It looks like a natural ditch in this photo, but it is man-made.

Close to the Avery Stone Circle is The Avenue, a double row of stones.

Tim and I walked down The Avenue and then hiked up the other side and arrived to Silbury Hill.  It is a 129 foot high artificial chalk mound that is more than 4,000 years old. it is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world.  I found this interesting analysis on Wikipedia:  "Archaeologists calculate that it took 18 million man-hours, equivalent to 500 men working for 15 years to deposit and shape 248,000 cubic metres (324,000 cu yd) of earth and fill."  Wow...incredible.

We returned to the car and had a 1 hour drive to our overnight town of Salisbury.  Tonight we are staying in a Wetherspoon hotel, the same Wetherspoon as the restaurant with awesome beer and drink prices that we have gone to multiple times during our travel.

I forgot to mention that when we checked into the hotel in Liverpool yesterday they said that they were upgrading us to a bigger room.  I'm pretty sure that even though the room was bigger, it wasn't an upgrade because the room was right on the main street and there was crazy noise all night.  Drunks yelling at all hours of the night, recycling trucks sucking up glass from a bin (or at least that is what it sounded like), a garbage truck later on in the morning, lots of noise.

Anyway, I didn't sleep well, but the noise didn't even seems to bother Tim at all.  The good news is that the only plan today is to take a train to London.  Our train is at 11:47 AM, so we were able to sleep in a little bit which was nice.  Around 10 AM we headed out to find breakfast and sandwiches to take on the train.  We returned to the room, checked out, and walked the 5 minutes to the station.

We are traveling on Virgin Railway for a 2 hour train ride to London.  We boarded the train at 11:25 AM.  This train is pretty nice.  The ride is very smooth even traveling over 130 miles per hour...wow.

We arrived in London right on time at 2 PM.  The hotel I found by the train station allows check-in starting at 2 PM, so we headed straight to the hotel and went up to our room.  We chilled out for a couple of hours and then headed out.  Of course we found a brewery, so we had a flight.

but since it is an international trip we thought we should show up at 9:30 AM.. Why are we going to Brussels?  I will explain tomorrow.

We woke up early since we have to drive get to Liverpool before noon to return the rental car.  We went down for breakfast at 8:30 AM an was ready to leave 1 hour later.  Leaving at 9:30 AM should be plenty of time to arrive in Liverpool before noon since we should only have a 2 hour drive.  However, as luck has it, there seems to be an accident and Google maps is saying we will arrive right at noon.  With other unexpected things, plus we need to get gas now and top up before returning the car, things look bleak.  All we can do is just go, so that is what we did.

When we got to the traffic jam, things seemed to be clearing up some.  We were stuck in traffic for about 20 minutes and somehow managed to pull into the rental car place around 11:45 AM.  We returned the car, but had nowhere to go until 3 PM since that is when we can check into our hotel.  I remembered that when we were here last time we went to a place that had pretty good food and a very good beer list, so we headed there.  It was about a 25 minute walk.

Head of Steam was a good choice.  We sat in a nice large booth that let us sore all our bags without them being in the way.  We had lunch and a couple of pints and before we knew it, it was 3 PM and we could check into our hotel.

The hotel was just a 5 minute walk.  We checked in and thought we would relax for a while and then go back out, however, we never left the hotel room.  Tomorrow we have a train to catch to London.  The train isn't until 11 AM, but since it is an international trip we thought we should show up at 9:30 AM..  Not too bad, especially since we are in for the night at 3 PM.

We actually had to set an alarm to get up this morning.  We have a lot to see today so we need to get a somewhat early start on the day.  We got up, packed, and had breakfast.  We had a frozen pizza left, so I through it in the oven...pizza for breakfast...yum. 

We managed to leave before 10 AM and arrived in Coventry by 11 AM.  I want to leave Coventry in about 1.5 hours because we have a 1 hour drive to the next location that I want to be at by 1:30 PM.  First stop is Coventry Cathedral.  The original church, St. Michael's Cathedral, was bombed during World War II, but the remains have been left standing.  It was built in the late 14th and early 15th century.  On 14 November 1940, it was bombed and destroyed by the German Luftwaffe.  We happen to be here on Remembrance Day just after 11 AM, so there was a crowd of people leaving poppies at a memorial inside the ruins.

Built right next to the ruins is the current St. Michael's Cathedral and opened in 1962.  The stain glass was pretty amazing.

As you look down the nave you don't see any windows, but if you walk up the aisle and turn around, you are rewarded with an incredible display of glass.

After the cathedral we walked down the street and went into the St. Mary's Guildhall, a half-timbered building built in 1342.  Our tour book said to go in and check out the great hall, so we followed the signs and entered.  Unfortunately there was an event going on inside, so we just got a peak.  I seemed very impressive.  It even had a 500 years old tapestry.  However, with the event going on we could just sneak in the back for a peek and then we left.  Tim didn't even get a photo of it.

Next we wanted to do a quick run through the Coventry Transport Museum.  For most of the 20th century, Coventry was the main auto production center in Britain.  According to the guidebook, the museum was free, but when we arrived we found out that it cost £14 per person.  We would have been willing to pay if we had time to spend there, but we don't, so we didn't.

We headed back to the car and headed to our next location.  Tim asked about what we were going to see next.  I told him we were going to a place similar to the place we were just at.  When I began exiting the highway, he noticed the sign for the Royal Air Force museum and then we knew where we were going.

He was very happy that I have brought him here.

We arrived at the museum around 1:30 PM.  They close at 4 PM, so that gives Tim 2.5 hours to enjoy this place.  For the next 2.5 hours I followed Tim as he walked around and heard stories of the aircraft that excited him.  Here are a few photos I picked out from the over 50 he took here.

We left the museum right at 4 PM.  I think we were the last ones still there.  I knew that I wouldn't want to drive much more today, so I made a reservation at a B&B about 20 minutes from here.  We arrived at a farm in the middle of nowhere it seemed.  We checked in and relaxed for about 1 hour and then we headed out to the local pub for dinner.  For dessert I finally ordered the sticky toffee pudding.  It was very, very good.

Saturday, 9 November 2019
We woke up to rain.  I don't mean the drizzly light rain that we have pretty much become accustomed to and learned to ignore.  This was the full-up rain with large raindrops and making puddles.  The forecast doesn't look good, but there is much to see and we can't save it all for tomorrow.  Obviously we will postpone the hike I want to do, but there are a couple of towns to walk around.  We decided to put on our rain gear, including our rain pants and try to walk around at least one of the towns and see how it goes.

We ate breakfast and headed out to Chipping Campden.  Chipping Campden was once home to the richest wool merchants in the area, so money was spent to make the main street in town worthy of living in.  All the buildings on the street was built using honey-colored limestone quarried nearby and called Cotswold stone.

Here is the Market Hall, built in 1627. This is the Cotswold stone that I talked about.

Here is a view up High Street from the dryness inside the Market Hall. At this point it is raining pretty hard.

One of Tim's artsy shots out the Market Hall archway.

The tour book mentioned that we can go inside the Tourist Information office, located inside the old police station, and ask to see the Magistrate's Courtroom upstairs.  Sounds like a plan to get out of this rain.  The courtroom was just a large room with nothing too spectacular, but we were warmer and drier and Tim got a nice view out the window.

We left and continued our walking tour that pointed out features on some of the limestone buildings.  See the black cast-iron fixtures on either side of the front door of the building below?  This building, called "Green Dragons," used to be the horse stable for visitors to use.  The cast-iron fixtures were inside the stable to hold hay for the horses to eat.

Here are a couple of nice photos taken as we walked down High Street.

This is the Grevel House, Chipping Campden's first stone house, built in 1367 by William Greval, a sheep tycoon.

The last stop on the walking tour is St. James Church.  These old rich towns of course have majestic, beautiful churches to go along with them.  The church, like the town, was built by wool.  When we arrived at the church they were getting ready for a memorial service, so we just peeked in and left.

Well...we have been out in this rain for over 1.15 hours and there are no signs of it slowing down.  We are soaked.

There is no way we can walk around another town, so I looked up "brewery" on Google Maps and up popped Boat Lane Brewery, less than 20 minutes away.  What a great find.  The owner/brewer was fun to talk to, as were the two local chaps having a beer.  Plus, they had a nice wood burning stove keeping the place warm.

After the flight we headed to a market and picked up a couple of frozen pizzas and salad for dinner.  We then returned to our awesome AirBnB, changed out of our wet clothes, and enjoyed an evening of TV and pizza.  The rain is supposed to stop by the morning, so we should be able to check out a couple more cute Cotswold towns and do a hike.  We will just have to wait and see.

Sunday, 10 November 2019
We woke up and it wasn't raining...woohoo!  We quickly got up, showered, ate breakfast, and left the AirBnB around 10 AM.  Thanks to yesterday's rain, we have a lot to see and do today.  This wouldn't be so bad in the summer, but the sun sets here around 4 PM, so we are racing the sunset.

First stop is the cute town of Stow-on-the-Wold, translated to "meeting place on the uplands."  This is the highest point of the Cotswolds and it feels like it...burrrr.  We parked the car and walked into town.  As soon as we arrived they were getting ready to start their Remembrance Sunday parade.  Remembrance Sunday is the Sunday closest to Novemer 11th (Remembrance Day). 

We felt pretty lucky to arrive just in time.  Here are old military vehicles leading the parade followed by the pipe band:

Behind the band were veterans followed by children:

It was really nice to be able to witness this parade.

After the parade we headed to the start of the walking tour, the market square. Starting in 1107, Stow-on-the-Wold was the site of an international fair, where people came from as far as Italy to shop for wool fleeces.  According to the tour book, as many as 20,000 sheep sold per day during the fair.

On the market square was stocks were people were publicly punished...do I really deserve this?!?

Th Porch House Hotel, dating from 947, claims to be the oldest in England (along with about 20 others).

We turned up Sheep Street which used to be a staging area for the medieval sheep markets.  The sheep used to be staged here and paraded down narrow alleys into the market square.  Here are a couple of those alleys:

As we were walking towards St. Edward's Church all the cars stopped.  We then realized that it was November 11th at 11 AM.  This was the 2 minutes of silence for Remembrance Day.

After 2 minutes was up, we completed our walk to the church.

St. Edward's Church is a nice stately looking church, but it was outside the back door that is cool.  Check out this old wooden door flanked by two ancient yew trees.  There is some thought, although unproven, that J.R.R. Tolkien got his inspiration for the Doors of Durin, from this location.

Another artistic photo by Tim:

Back to the car and onto the next cute town of Bourton-on-the-Water, a picturesque town that has quaint canals running along its main street.

Because of the quaintness, this place is supposedly a nightmare in the summertime...one of the reasons we like to travel off-season.  We walked around a bit and shared a Fish & Chips before heading off to our next stop.

We drove 25 minutes to Stanton.  This is the start of what is supposed to be a 6 mile hike.  The issue is that it is now about 2 PM and the sun goes down around 4 PM, so that only gives us 2 hours of daylight.  In the middle of the hike there is a shortcut back to town, so we do have an out if we need it, so we left the parking lot and headed through town, and what a cute town.

There were even some people riding horses through town.  We wound up seeing them later in the day during our hike.

Here I am headed towards the trail:

This is a signpost marking the "Cotswold Way."  This trail is 102 miles long and runs from Chipping Campton to Bath.  Our hike today follows the Cotswold Way for a bit.

Here are some shots of our beautiful hike.

Well...unfortunately there wasn't going to be enough daylight for us to complete the whole 6 miles, so we shortened it to around 3-4 miles.  When we returned to town we went into the local pub to warm up and grab a pint.  The fire burning went perfectly with the pint.

After the pint we headed back to the car.  It is so cool that all the houses in this small town are built using the Cotswold stone.

On the way back to the car, we actually found a couple of geocaches.  We have found a few of these throughout this trip.

 Here is a shot Tim got out the window of the car while we were driving back to the AirBnB.

This is our third and last night at this wonderful AirBnB.  We didn't take a photo of it, so I grabbed a shot off the AirBnB website:

Nice...right?!?  We enjoyed the last night by making tortellini, garlic bread, and salad. We did the laundry, and watched TV.  Tomorrow is a full day with a surprise stop for Tim, so we have to get up early.  With that...until tomorrow.

We woke up and headed down to breakfast.  We are not in too much of a rush today.  We are driving to Stratford-upon-Avon for the day.  We are going to walk around the town and then see a Shakespeare play, so it will be a late night, but I think there is only a few hours worth of stuff to see in the city and the play isn't until 7:30 PM.  So, after breakfast we went back to the room and relaxed a bit until the 10:30 AM check-out time.

It took us just over 1 hour to drive to Stratford-upon-Avon and arrived there just before noon.  We parked the car and headed into town for an Historic Walking Tour.  Our guidebook doesn't have a walking tour of this city, but I found a walking tour online that I downloaded.  Stratford-upon-Avon is best know at the hometown and gravesite of William Shakespeare.  Besides the Shakespeare sites, the half-timbered buildings make the town really nice to walk around.  Here are some highlights from the walking tour:

This is Shrieve’s House, and impressive 17th century merchant’s house.

I like this sign...Shakesbeer...ha!

Ah...finally...here is the house that William Shakespeare's was born.

We were having flashbacks from our narrowboat holiday when we walked along the canal and saw these locks.

The last stop on the walking tour was the Church of the Holy Trinity.  This was the church the Shakespeare family attended.  William was baptized here in 1564 and was buried here in 1616.  Also buried next to him is his wife Anne.

When we left the church the sun popped out and Tim took these two really nice photos.

We then took the scenic route back into town along the RIver Avon.

This is the Royal Shakespeare Theater, right on the River Avon in town.  The play we are seeing today will be in that round portion of the building.  This is called the Swan Theater and has a seating capacity of 450.

It was now just after 4 PM.  We still have 3.5 hours till the play starts.  We walked back to the car to dropped off the backpack and went to our stand-by restaurant, JD Weatherspoon.  We had a pint and ordered an appetizer and eventually ordered dinner.  We left around 7 PM and walked across the street to the Swan Theater.

Tonight we are going to see the Shakespeare play "King John."  It is an historical play written by Shakespeare int he mid-1590s.  The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is using the original script, but has put a modern twist to the set, costumes, and role players (King John is played by a woman).

That is King John in the center of this photo.  By the way...I grabbed this photo from the website since, obviously, photos weren't permitted during the show.

This is a photo of the stage as we sat in our seats...second row, center.  I bought the tickets a few days before the play and there weren't many seats left.  I noticed these second row seats available, but the seat between them were taken.  i figured the person would move one seat over and let Tim and I sit together.  However, the woman refused to move, so Tim and I had to sit apart for the duration of the show...what the heck!

The play was actually really good, and the thought that I was watching a Shakespeare play in the birthplace of Shakespeare being put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company, put chills down my spine.

The play ended around 10:30 PM.  By the time we got back to the car and drove the 25 minutes to the AirBnB, it was after 11:30 PM.  We unloaded our stuff from the car and went right to bed.  Tomorrow we are supposed to do a hike and see some really nice towns in the Cotswolds, but it is supposed to rain, so we will see.

I woke up feeling a little better.  The good news is that it isn't raining, so it should be a nice day to visit Blenheim Palace.  Instead of driving there, we are walking into town then taking a bus to the Palace.  This will be a nice break from me driving everywhere.  We went down for breakfast and then walked into town.  We caught a bus and arrived at Blenheim Palace around 11 AM.  This it the palace of the Duke of Marlborough, and is still his and his families home.

Armed with an audio guide, the public is allowed on the first floor in Great Hall and the state rooms.  Here are some of the photos Tim took inside the Palace.

After the log library we entered the Winston Churchill Exhibition.  Winston Churchill is part of the Duke of Marlborough family tree and happen to be born in this palace.  This is the bed and room that Winston Churchill was born.

Another interesting thing about this palace is that this is were the Golden Toilet was stole in September 2019.  Here is a blurry photo of the crime scene that was left as is.

After we were done touring the inside of the palace we had the outside to explore.  There is 2,000 acres of gardens and paths on the property that the pubic is free to roam.  Here are some of those photos.

The grounds were so beautiful.  I can't imagine what this place is like in the summer when flowers are in bloom.  We walked back to the bus stop and got the bus back into Oxford.  It was now just after 4 PM.  Since it was cold all day and I was still not feeling 100%, we stopped at an Asian restaurant where I had soup.  It really hit the spot.  We walked back to the B&B arriving there pretty early and enjoyed a relaxed night, which I really needed.

Tomorrow we head to Stratford-upon-Avon and learn about Shakespeare.

We were not in a hurry this morning since we can't show up till our next town, Oxford, until afternoon.  That is when we can park our car in the parking lot of the hotel we are staying in tonight.  We got up, went downstairs for breakfast, then relaxed in the room until 10:30 checkout.  We drove the 1.5 hours to Oxford and arrived to the parking lot around 12:30 PM.

After parking the car we headed into town.  Oxford is home to the oldest English speaking university in the world, Oxford University, founded in 1167.  Its alumni include 27 British prime ministers, more than 60 Nobel Prize winners, and 11 saints...pretty impressive.  It was about a 20 minute walk to get to the start of the walking tour in our guidebook...and here I am reading said walking tour out loud for myself and Tim.

We went inside the Weston Library to visit its "Treasures" room. The room had some pretty incredible books on display including original drawings and books by Leonardo da VInci.  They had another room dedicated to maps that was interesting as well.  For some reason Tim didn't take any photos here, so you will just have to take my word for it that it was cool.

The plan was to continue the walking tour, but it started raining, so we decided to go across the street to the Museum of the History of Science.  This is me leaving the library and heading across the street.  The museum is the building diagonal to the right.  By the way, the round building is called the Sheldonian Theatre.  More about that later.

This museum was filled with scientific instruments used here in Oxford University over its history.  Lots of compasses, microscopes, and photographic and wireless equipment.  One of the coolest things they had was this blackboard used by Einstein.  It was saved from when he gave a lecture at the University in 1931.

Ah...here is details of the Sheldonian Theater.  This is where graduation and other important ceremonies are held.  There are 13 heads carved in the 17th century nicknames "the emperors."

This is the Clarendon Building.  When you enter through the archway behind the columns, it leads to the heart of Oxford University.

Here are photos of the original Oxford University.  The chapel looking building in the background is the Divinity School.  The building to the left is the Bodleian Library, and the building on the right is part of the original classrooms.

Hertford Bridge (1914) AKA "The Bridge of Sighs" is modeled after the Bridge of Sighs in Venice.  It connects two parts of Hertford College.

We left the quad and arrived at Radcliffe Square.  This cool building is called Radcliffe Camera (1748).  It was originally built as a medical library and is now used as a reading room for the Bodleian Library in the quad.  It is  accessible through tunnels under the square back to the main library.

We were able to peek through the gate into All Souls College.  It is known as the college with the toughest entrance exam and has no undergraduate students.  Its entire student body is made up of research fellows.

The next stop on the walking tour is the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, the University Church.

The last stop on the tour was the Covered Market (1774).  In the market, Tim managed to find a turkey that I would eat...in the window of a cake shop.

As we were walking hack to the hotel we saw a burrito restaurant.  Mexican is one food that we really miss, so we went in and had a burrito each (Chipotle style).  We then headed back to the hotel.  We arrived back there around 5 PM and I was pretty happy to be lying in bed.  I had a sore throat and in general didn't feel well.  Tomorrow we are supposed to take a bus to Blenheim Palace.  Hopefully the weather will be better as am I.

Sunday, 3 November 2019
It was a nice night in a very nice AirBnB.  We are in Bath for 4 nights, so we get to relax a bit and not run around trying to see everything in one day. Today we are going to a flea market and then check out a couple of breweries in Bath.

Our AirBnB is about 1 mile south of Bath, so it took us 20 minutes to walk there, but it was a pleasant walk and it didn't rain today, so it was nice.  First stop is the Bath Flea Market.  It is only held on the first Sunday of every month, when we happen to be here.

It is a pretty nice venue, totally covered, so protected from the weather.  There wasn't anything that we couldn't live without, so we didn't buy anything, but it was fun walking around.

Next stop today is Bath Brew House where we ordered the flight.

One of the beers was a mint stout...quite good.

Next stop is Bath Ales and another flight:

When we left the pub it was dark out.  This clock change makes it dark here by 5 PM.  We decided to walk home and stopped for take-out pizza on the way.  We got back to the apartment around 6:30 PM, ate pizza, and watched TV.  The plan for tomorrow is to take a walking tour at 2 PM, so we can sleep in and have a relaxing morning.

Monday, 4 November 2019
Another enjoyable night and a relaxing morning catching up with the blog and watching TV.  We left the apartment around 1:15 PM and walked downtown.  Today we are taking a walking tour of Bath.  These tours are provided by the mayor's office and is totally free.  Tips aren't even allowed. I really like following the walking tours in our guidebook, but it is nice to have someone else give the tour so I can just relax.

We made it to the walking tour meeting point about 10 minutes early and noticed this sign in front of a building.  It seems that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein while staying here in 1816-17.

Also here at the meeting place is the Roman Baths that made Bath what it is today.  We will be checking out the baths tomorrow.

The tour started promptly with 22 people taking the tour.  Gill was our tour guide.  She discussed the history of the baths here and pointed out architecture throughout the tour.  She also pointed out locations that are mentioned in Jane Austen novels.

The tour lasted over 2 hours and was really good.  We decided to head home and eat dinner there since we have some leftovers.  We got home around 5 PM and I made shrimp quesadillas, we watched TV, and relaxed.  Tomorrow we are visiting the Roman Baths.  I bought advanced tickets, so we have to be there between 10:30 and 11 AM.  Another morning that we don't have to rush...ahhhh.

Tuesday, 7 November 2019
We woke up around 8 AM had breakfast and left the apartment at 10:00 AM.  We arrived at the Roman Bath right at 10:30 AM and went inside.  They provide an audio guide, so Tim and I went our own ways and enjoyed the tour.

The Roman Baths were built between 60 - 360...wow.  During the Roman times, the pool was at ground level.  Now ground level is where I am stand...wow.  Pretty much, this how place was...wow.

View of Bath Abbey from the Roman baths.

This was the pediment from the Roman temple on the grounds of the bath.  They did a great job displaying it by having a projector project the missing pieces of the pediment.

This smaller pool is the called the "sacred spring" and was not used for bathing.  This was where the Romans prayed and threw offerings into it.  Many of these offerings such as coins and jewelry are on display in the museum.

This is the underfloor of a hot room.  There was a tile floor on top of these pillars with a fire warming up the space below the floor making it hot.

After the tour they had a fountain to taste the water.  According to the display, the water "contains 43 minerals and has a rather unusual taste!"  Unusual...I would say.  Not the best taste...actually...it tasted pretty bad.

We spent almost 3 hours at the Roman Bath.  It was fascinating.  After the bath, we went next door to check out the Bath Abbey, founded in the 7th century, but most of what is now here was rebuilt in the 1860's. 

We then walked home stopping in a couple of pub for a pint.  We got back to the apartment and ate leftover pizza for dinner.  I was exhausted and went to sleep early.  Tim stayed up and did the laundry and watched TV.  Tomorrow we leave Bath and head to Oxford.

As I laid in bed this morning, it sounds like a monsoon outside.  The wind is howling and the rain sounds very heavy.  Although it seems to rain most days, the rain is usually light, so just a rain jacket with a hood is good enough, but this is real rain.  Maybe it will stop by the time we are ready to go?

Luckily, the rain did stop when we drove out of town.  After 1.5 hours of driving, we arrived at TIntern Abbey, built in 1131 with continuous construction through 1526.  The Abbey fell into ruins in 1536 after King Henry VIII dissolved all monasteries.

Tintern Abbey was occupied by Cistercian monks.  Cistercians broke off from the Benedictines and lived a life of very strict monastic rules.

After visiting the Abbey, we drove 20 minutes to the town of Chepstow.  The Rick Steves guidebook suggested stopping in this town for walking tour.  This tour isn't from his guidebook, it is a tour on Chepstow's website.

We parked in a car park and paid for 3 hours.  According to the website, the walking tour should last 90 minutes, so 3 hours should be more than needed.

Here I am walking up High Street, the main shopping street in town, reading the walking tour on my iPhone.

These houses were built between 1805-1823.  Notice the bow windows...pretty cool.

Here is a row of cottages built in the 17th and 18th century.

Just past thees houses is the Old Wye Bridge, built in 1816.  The bridge crosses the River Wye, that has a 40 feet tide range, and is second only to that in the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia where the range averages 46 feet.

Another cool thing about the Old Wye Bridge is that it joins Wales to England...that is Gloucester, England across the bridge.  This cute photo is me in England and Tim in Wales.

We wound up back at the car park after 2.5 hours of a 1.5 hour tour.  I guess it the extra time was due to the sandwich we stopped for and then the pint we had at a pub.  Whatever the reason, we feel like we should move along even though we hadn't seen Chepstow Castle or completely finished the walking tour.  Plus, it has been raining on and off all day and it is currently pouring and we are soaked.

Tim did manage to get a photo of the Chepstow Castle.

It took us about 1 hour to get to our AirBnB in Bath.  We arrived around 4:30 PM, brought our stuff up to the apartment and then headed out to the supermarket.  This AirBnB is nicer than the past 2 we stayed out, so we decided to take advantage of the kitchen and cook dinner (shrimp quesadillas).

After dinner I caught up on some blogging and watched TV.  We are here in Bath for 4 nights, so we can relax some and not run around as much as we have been.  The plan for tomorrow is to have a relaxed morning, cook breakfast, and walk into town to check out Bath.  I'll let you know how it goes.