Bath, England

Hi friends,

So, I am a little late on this blog but I hope you will forgive me. A few weeks ago, Shane and I went to Bath. It is about a very cute town, about a 3 hour drive from London. We headed up late Friday night and arrived at our B&B around 11pm. The owner of the B&B was a very British woman who believed that regardless of what time you arrive, you should have a full history lesson on Bath. So, we sat in the living room listening to the glory days of Bath (which was when the Romans were there!) for about an hour and finally made it to bed around midnight!

We got up early the next morning for breakfast and then headed out to our morning at the Thermae Spa. This is a naturally fed, spring water spa that has been renovated to be an upscale spa complete with steam rooms, 2 hot water spa pools and offers of every type of massage/body treatment you can imagine. We spent a few hours there and then headed out into the cold of Bath for some exploring.

The first place we went was the pump room. This is a beautiful Georgian hall, right above the Roman baths that was built for the London elite who would travel to Bath in the summer to bathe in the "healing waters." Now it is a very pretty restaurant where you are serenaded by music as you eat. You can still drink the bath water, that was the known cure for all ailments - we tried some - it was gross!

Next we headed down to the original Roman baths. They are amazingly well preserved and the tour is very thorough and well done. After the baths we visited the Abbey. The current abbey has been there since the mid 1700's however the location of the Abbey has been a place of worship for over 1000 years! The first King of England, King Edgar I, was crowned on that spot in 973.

After a full day of touring (and it was now pouring down rain) we hit the pub and then grabbed dinner at a cute little French/English restaurant called Tilley's Bistro. The next morning we went to church at the Abbey and then joined the local walking tour. It was a 2 hour, very thorough tour, that led us all through Bath. We saw the Pulteney bridge, which Bathonians consider to be similar to Florence's Ponte Vecchio. It wasn't quite as splendid, but very nice :o) We also walked by the Jane Austen museum. Apparently Jane didn't really like Bath and was happy to leave after living there for 3 or 4 years, but the town definitely considers her their most famous citizen. We also saw the Royal Crescent and circus, with was built by John Wood, the younger, whose father built most of Bath. These are considered the first Georgian "condos" and were built in 1770 to all look identical. Lastly we stopped at Sally Lunn's to try a famous Bath biscuit which is somewhere between a biscuit and french brioche. They were delicious.

On our way home we stopped at Stonehenge. Unfortunately, we took a bit longer getting there than we had intended and it was 4pm by the time we got there. In England, in Dec, it is dark at 4pm so Stonehenge had closed! However, we were able to still snag some good pictures from behind the gate as the sun was going down.

Love to you all!
Sarah and Shane

Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family,

In an effort to reach the most of you, as well as help save the environment, we have decided to do our Christmas letter on the blog!

We have had yet another whirlwind year! This time last year we were decorating our tree in NYC, having recently arrived and just getting used to the bitter cold, public transportation and Shane’s very busy new job. We continued to survive and eventually thrive in NYC for most of 2009. We were blessed with wonderful friends and fellowship that made the city feel small and homey, while we were still able to enjoy all the culture, arts and diversity that living in a large city encourages.

In June Shane and I headed for Anchorage, Alaska. We went salmon fishing and managed to bring home 35 pounds of fresh Alaskan salmon! We were able to attend the wedding of a friend, which was beautiful, and when we left at 11pm it was still light outside! We also went on a glacier cruise and got to see amazing glaciers, humpback and killer whales and a ton of other wildlife, up close. After Anchorage we headed for Vancouver which is a beautiful city that we thoroughly enjoyed.

By summer we thought we had fallen into a routine, when we got the news that Shane had an opportunity to work for 2 years in London. We jumped at the chance, of course, but were (and still are!) sad to leave our NYC friends behind. So, 2 months later we boarded a plane, crossed the Atlantic and made London our new home.

We hit the ground running and managed to visit Paris, Norway and Belgium in the first few months. (Shane also snuck a business trip to Amsterdam.) The proximity to all of Europe still amazes us and we are excited for some of our upcoming vacations!

And just when we thought life couldn’t get much more hectic, we had one more surprise, Sarah is pregnant! Thankfully our London house has a small extra room that can be converted into a nursery so come June 3, 2010, T3 will have somewhere to sleep (or scream, but hopefully more sleeping than screaming!)

As we settle into London we were blessed with several connections of other expats who recently moved as well and have the beginnings of a great community of people. We are looking forward to the excitement and changes that will come next year but we know that none of this would be possible without the love and support of all of you reading this. We miss and love you all and wish you the very Merriest Christmas and Happy New Years!

Love, Sarah and Shane