Thirty-nine Steps

Stonehenge
After our stay in Bath, we drove back east, to visit Gary and Janet. Not without stopping by Stonehenge, which was more or less on our route anyway. This makes two Unesco Word Heritage sites on one holiday!

Aunt Edith
When we arrived at Gary’s and Janet’s, we almost immediately prepared for a visit of Aunt Edith, now 95 years old. (My mothers aunt actually).

Reading
The next day: Reading here we come. Quite a lot has changed since last time I was here. For example, they have built the Oracle, a giant shopping center near the river Kenneth.

Basildon Park
That day we also visited Basildon Park. We didn’t have to pay, as we borrowed Gary and Janet’s friends National Trust passes. Nobody could have suspected we were tourists, not even when the lady inside the house shouted “No pictures inside please!” when I tried to take a photograph of the now immortalized staircase in the new version of Pride and Prejudice.

After our stay at Irina’s, we headed for Bath. It had been since I was a child that I was there with my parents. I remembered almost nothing of it, except for the bridge and the Roman baths. It’s a very beautiful city, nearly all houses in Victorian style and the city view and center are on the Unesco list of world heritage.

We stayed at a very nice hotel, the Royal Bath, near the railway station. We were happy we took dinner, bed and breakfast because Andreas needed to go to bed early anyway but also because the restaurant turned out to be very nice indeed. It’s always fun to be able to choose from the menu without having to pay (well, it was included in our price per night ).

Of course we visited the Roman baths again, both astonished that the Romans were so clever compared to people the middle ages. A very nice complex, complete with central heating (wall and floor heating), lead plumbing and swimming pool of course.