London for tea and then off to Bath 29 September

After a leisurely breakfast at Richard and Pauline's the four of us drove to the St. Albans train station. We got there just in the nick of time and had no sooner bought our tickets than it was time to board the train for St. Pancras station. Less than 30 minutes later we were all navigating our way to the Tube and onto the Piccadilly Line.

Two stops later we said adieu to R & P while we continued on to Green Park. Memories of 2001 for me!  Spent a month in school at the International House learning to teach English as a second language and came into the city every day from Willesden Green and got off at Green Park.

Since we had a little time to kill before our afternoon tea reservation we strolled through Green Park. From the Bomber Command Memorial we walked beneath the Wellington Arch, passed Apsley House, the Duke of Wellington's home, and on up Park Lane to the Dorchester Hotel.

Bomber Command Memorial

Wellington Arch

To  learn more about tea at the Dorchester, or to see their menu.

Upon leaving the Dorchester we opted for a taxi to Paddington Station and the next leg of our journey. We made our way to the ticket agents where we collected our tickets for Bath (we had purchased them online using the trainline.com app).

After a 30-minute wait we boarded a Great Western Railway train heading for Bristol with the penultimate stop at Bath Spa. About an hour and a half later we pulled into the Bath Spa train station. Exiting the station we got our bearings and grabbed a cab to the Queensbury Hotel. Consisting of four connected Georgian townhouses, the hotel is full of charm and the rooms were well appointed and quite nicely laid out.

After checking in and settling in we attempted twice to find a place for dinner but both were fully booked. So we returned to the hotel and ate a delicious light meal in the bar -- and I had fish pie for the very fist time. It was scrumptious indeed!

fish pie

Tomorrow we do another afternoon tea and visit the Roman Baths. Don't touch that dial!

Back to England 28 September

Travel day but this time we'll be heading back south to St. Albans. After our final leisurely breakfast, handsomely prepared by our hostess Virginia, and a rousing conversation with the new guests it was time to pack and go. Richard and Pauline picked us up about 10 am and we were soon wending our way through Edinburgh heading for the motorway. It was a gorgeous morning as we cruised along the A1 keeping the North Sea on our left.

We stopped for a tasty lunch at Morpeth -- we had stopped in this lovely town once before in 2014 -- and got a chance to see the tail end of a wedding downtown.

We arrived back at Ellis Fields in St. Albans at about 7 pm; the weather cooperated as did the traffic gods but it was thanks to Richard and Pauline that the trip seemed to go so smoothly.

After unpacking the four of us went out for dinner at Chez Mumtaj. In keeping with this day of repeats, we had eaten here once before in 2014. The food, a fusion of French and Indian, was delicious and it proved to be a superb way to unwind after a rather long, tiresome journey.

strolling Morpeth

lamb shank

seafood biryani

Little rest for us travelers though -- tomorrow it's off to London for afternoon tea at the Dorchester and then a train to Bath. Stay tuned!

Edinburgh 27 September

Today we focused on going out of the city into the countryside, and to do that we signed up for a day trip to St. Andrews with Rabbie's Tours. This particular tour would take us to the fishing village of Anstruther on the North Sea then up to St. Andrews where we would spend the bulk of our time. From St. Andrews we would go to Falkland and the head back to Edinburgh. The tour was scheduled to last about 8-and-a-half hours, which proved to be about accurate.

The tour groups -- there were three of us -- congregated outside Rabbie's Cafe on Princes Street and at just about half past nine were ushered to our waiting bus vans.

After an hour and a half or so we pulled into the quaint old fishing village of Anstruther where public restrooms were available as were a few lovely views of the harbor and town. The town also boasted a kebab joint and a Turkish barber.

From Anstruther we drove up the coast to St. Andrews where we left the bus near the British Golf Museum. The Dunhill Golf Classic was underway but the inclement weather had us doubting whether anyone was playing. The important thing was were weren't scheduled to play so we could just enjoy the town. And, as our guide Martin said, if people stopped playing golf in Scotland due to the weather, people in Scotland would never play golf.

So we strolled up Scores Street to the ruins of the St. Andrews castle and from there to yet another set of ruins, but this time it was the St. Andrews Cathedral.

side entrance to the castle

view of the ancient cathedral from the castle

From the castle it was less than five minutes -- in the rain mind you -- to the cathedral. It's possible to climb to the top of the tower but we skipped that portion, thank you. Still, the little museum inside the visitor center held a wealth of old tombstones that had been recovered and preserved from the very earliest burials here.

while this wasn't a terribly old burial it nonetheless had a wonderfully poignant inscription

lots of the burials were blocked off because of unstable ground

inside the museum - reportedly St. Andrew's sarcophagus

After leaving the cathedral we walked up Market St. to find a place for lunch and opted for Nando's, a chain specializing in grilled chicken.

Sadly, the rain was still falling quite heavily by the time we got back to the bus and arrived in Falkland. Equally unfortunate, however, was the Falkland palace turned out to be a waste of time. Poor signage, confusing layout and an ambiguity over which particular century fell into which part of the palace -- much of it renovated and/or recreated elsewhere on the property -- made this a very perplexing place to spend any time.

But we were soon back on the bus and heading south once again to Edinburgh. Our guide kindly stopped at a lovely overlook on the south side of the River Forth to let us take some wonderful photos of the bridges, both the new Queensferry Bridge and the older Forth Road Bridge, the latter heavily restricted to most traffic because of problems with the infrastructure.

Near St. Cuthbert's kirkyard along Princes St. we caught sight of a bit of street graffiti that seems to sum up the state of things in at least three countries:

Tomorrow it's time to meet up with Richard and Pauline for the drive back to St. Albans. Don't click around!