What's for dinner?

As sore as I was when I woke up this morning, I managed to get an hour of bike riding in this afternoon. Of course, I forgot to take my camera with me but tomorrow I plan to run again and share the beautiful wilderness that is the Blackwater Valley.

I haven't really been up to cooking recently so I thought I would give it a shot this evening. I was able to find some quinoa at a small health food shop here in Farnborough. I was on a search for it for a while and had looked for it at all of the local grocery stores. Then I thought I'd ask Helen. She had never heard of quinoa, but once I described it, she pointed me in the right direction.

Quinoa is generally considered a "super food." It's packed with protein and all sorts of good stuff. Although it looks and acts like a grain, it is actually a seed. I use it in place of rice or couscous usually. It can be eaten as a side dish to just about anything or you can tip it with chili or pasta sauce. It's so versatile, which is one reason I love it.

This evening, I planned to make some quinoa, and curried tilapia out of some left over curry sauce and tilapia I had bought a while back.

While I simmered the tilapia in the sauce, I prepared the quinoa:

2 parts water or vegetable broth
1 part quinoa, rinsed
salt
1/4 cup fresh herb of your choice (I used basil)
1/4 cup nut of your choice (I used shelled pistachios)
1/4 cup diced cucumber

I used what I had on hand. Since I have a metric measuring cup and nothing else, I used 1 pint water and 1/2 pint quinoa (yeah yeah...dry measurements vs wet ones...but I used what I had and it worked).

Bring the water and salt to a boil. If using vegetable broth, no need to add salt. Add quinoa and cook covered for 10-15 minutes until the seeds split and it looks like it has a "tail."

Remove from heat and let sit covered for another 5 minuted until all water is absorbed.

Fluff with a fork and add the herbs, nuts and cucumber. I have never made the same recipe of quinoa twice. I have used various combinations of mint, basil or cilantro with pine nuts, slivered almonds or pistachios (like I said, use whatever you've got).

My tilapia didn't turn out too well, not bad but not excellent. The quinoa was the best part of the meal. I paired them with some cherry tomatoes but I ate most of them before they made it on the plate.

Looks like I'll be having leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Cheers!

I'm the oldest 25 year old you'll ever meet

Aside from playing mah jongg, being in bed by 10pm and entertaining friends rather than going out to clubs and bars, my body is also very old.

I have a subluxating in my left knee, bursitis in both hips and this new thing with my right ankle. This is probably why I've never been a runner, but enjoyed low impact sports like riding and swimming. About a year and a half ago, I finally took up running since I had to if I wanted to participate in a triathlon. So I sucked it up and ran. After three months of training, I finally ran two 12:30 miles (and you think you're slow?). I make up for my running speed in biking and swimming though. I did it and I am so proud of my accomplishment. I plan to do another one soon.

That being said, I got bored with the Fat to Fab DVD. Then the Husband and roommate left  so my schedule was thrown all out of whack. Today I thought I'd take some time to myself and just run. I also felt bad for slacking on the blog entries and partially did this just so I would have something to write about. I live in an area called the Black River Valley. Not too far away, there is a river with all sorts of trails around it, so I decided I would finally get around to checking it out. I was surprised at how long I was able to run considering it's literally been months since I went running. I ran for more than the first half hour of my trip. I totaled almost 4 miles. I would have run more but my ankle popped, even though I'm wearing a brace. It doesn't really hurt any more but I wanted to take it easy this first time back on my feet.

During my run, I came to realize why I'm a slow runner. It's because of my small stride, possibly related to the bursitis in my hips. I thought about regularly going to yoga once I get back and think that will help loosen them up. In the mean time, once I started walking (after my ankle flared), I tried walking with Husband-length strides. Oh man, did I feel that! my run/walk took a little longer than I hoped but I'll take all of those 408 Calories my heart rate monitor said I burned.

I didn't take my camera so I apologize for that but I'll be sure to grab it next time since the Black River Valley is beautiful. Assuming I'm not too beat up tomorrow, I think I'll take a bike ride down to the BRV so I can actually enjoy it rather than turning around right when I get there.

Until then, Cheers!

I think I'll go to Oxford today

This weekend was a very last minute change of plans and worked out to be one of the best weekends I've had since I've been here. On Wednesday, we got word that the Husband would be going off shore for about ten days. The problem was that we had plans to visit family friends in Oxford. We began to realize we were running out of weekends and asked if we could push it up a week. Our friends said it would work in our favor as they would have a spare room available this weekend. So we finalized the details to head up there on Saturday. 

Friday night, before we arrived was the last scout meeting of the term before everyone went off to scout camp. It was pretty laid back and we watched a spy kids type movie. After the movie, they did some quick awards and then officially introduced the Husband to the group. He had a few minutes to go over some of the differences in the uniform.

And then, they welcomed him into the troop with troop patches and handkerchief.

We didn't stick around for the scout leader's meeting (which is more social than business) as we had to go home and pack.

We made it to Oxford and met J & E. J is a very close friend of the Husband's uncle. They met in Japan when they were both teachers. We started to get to know J & E over lunch. Then we took a bicycle ride to downtown Oxford. J is a Historian and made our private tour fascinating. The town was very different than any we had been to. The architecture was so diverse and unique. You could tell the city was a college town because there were people EVERYWHERE!

It was also easy to understand how Oxford is a city with rich secrets. The library is one of four (I think) that has a copy of every book ever published. It is blocks long and goes seven stories underground. The example that J used was "so if you want to read the first edition of Alice in Wonderland, you would find it here." The collection is so extensive that they have vaults twenty miles outside of the city where they keep the rare book (i.e. more rare than the 1st edition of Alice in Wonderland).

The colleges in Oxford are completely independent of each other but are governed by the University. It offers a completely different structure than the multi-college Universities in the States and offers more specialized degree plan, more similar to our Master's programs. J wanted to take us into one of the colleges so that we could see the lay out of the halls.

Originally, he wanted to take us to Christ Church, which includes the dining hall where Harry Potter was filmed. Not only were the crowd ridiculous there, but the Husband and I aren't big Harry Potter fans to begin with, so we headed to Magdalen College, a smaller college that J though was actually prettier. It was beautiful. Surrounding the well groomed courtyard are the rooms where the students meet with their tutors once or twice a week.

This is the Hall. Scholars and special guest sit at the high table during the meals and other students fill up the room. This hall was set probably for a conference of some sort as school is not actually in session at this time.

We roamed around the city for a few hours and then broke for tea. Tea doesn't have to as elaborate as what we had in London, but it does offer a wonderful break in the middle of a long day. J took us to his favorite bookstore, Blackwell Bookstore, which looks small from the outside but opens up about two floors underground.

We talked more over some Earl Grey.

J took us the scenic route home. We rode our bikes along this canal.

There were plenty of canal boats trying to get through the canal. This one, had been taken over by pirates who were on a 30 year old birthday voyage.

We rode across this pasture. It was breathtaking to see such a beautiful, open space so close to the city.

Originally, we had talked about going to see a Shakespeare play in the city. It was a little pricey and we were having such a pleasant time with our hosts, we decided just to stay in and get to know them better. E didn't make any special (chicken, eggplant, rice and green beans) but it was so nice to have a home cooked meal, very simple but delicious! She took us around her garden and I have been inspired to venture beyond just herbs for my own garden (although I'll have to wait until I have our own house). Most of the homes we have visited have gardens in the backyard. They tend to be a bit more wild and overgrown than what we are used to in the states, offering a more natural, and private feel.

Dinner lasted probably five hours, because our conversation never ended. E had a lot of questions about Judaism which I was more than happy to share. We also discussed the differences in our cultures and experiences traveling. We had dessert and then tea and chocolate. Then some more tea and chocolate. Around midnight, J cut the conversation off so we could go to bed and explore a little more the next day.

Sunday, we woke up, had breakfast and headed to the Museum of Natural Science. Outside were dinosaur footprints and African Ghost Forest tree stumps.

Inside the museum, were columns, each made of a different type of stone. It greatly enhanced the beautiful architecture of the building.

We didn't spend much time in the museum, as we only had an hour and half before we were to head back to the house for lunch, so we spent most of the time in the Pitt Rivers Museum located in the back of the Museum of Natural Science. The Pitt Rivers was essentially an anthropology museum. It looked at many problems faced by humans and compared solutions across cultures and continents. The topics ranged from the creation of fire, lamps, fishing, death of loved ones, death of enemies, boats, religion, humans in art form, animals in art form, money, etc. It was a very interesting approach to look at how different cultures reach similar solutions via different methods.

Here's just one example of what was shown in the museum.

In the currency section, I came across this pre-revolutionary note from Pennsylvania. It sparked my own interest.

We headed back for a quick lunch before we had to catch the cab to the train station. The good-byes were quick and before we knew it, we were on our way. Before I wrap up, I'd like to introduce you to the family. This is Possum. She is actually the neighbor's cat, but J & E are taking care of her while they are away. She was so friendly. I haven't met many cats who give kisses and demand attention as much as Possum.

This is the Husband, E & J as we were waiting for our ride.

We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to meet them. When we make it back to England in later years, we will surely be revisiting Oxford and J & E.

Cheers!

Good ole comfort food!

Today I journeyed to Aldershot, Home of the British Army. I got off the bus and headed towards American Sweets Candy Company, an American food novelty store. I didn't really know where I was going but I brought my handy maps so I made it there with no problem. On my way, I strolled through this beautiful park. This is the first time I've seen swans here. They are nasty birds but beautiful, especially when they are sleeping (like the one on the left). Kind of like Falafel, the cutest devil you'll ever meet.

After about thirty minutes I finally made it!

Look at all of the cake mixes they had! I actually didn't get these because with the Husband and Roommate gone next week, I will have no one to make them for. Also, it's just not worth it if I can't make my own icing.

They even had Kashi cereal. As much as I like the Honey Sunshine, I was not prepared to spend $9 on a box of cereal.

However, the Roommate wanted Velveeta and so does their boss and they were also about $9 a piece (and that's the smaller 16 oz box). I picked up a box for some mac and cheese tonight and some other snacks for the boys when they get shipped off. $80 later...

I think they will be pleasantly surprised when they get back. Good thing I started Fat to Fab so I can burn off all of this junk food. You can follow my review and status of the workouts by clicking here. Be sure to check back regularly to see how I'm doing (and to make sure I'm doing it).

Fat to Fab Review

This is my review of Nadia Sawalha's Fat to Fab Workout DVD. Check back regularly for updated reviews and my status.


Day 1
Boy! I can't believe how out of shape I am. I have been through periods were I have worked out everyday for months but this is definitely not one of those times. I thought for sure I'd at least be able to do the entire DVD even on easy/modified moved. Nope. The work out involves five parts:

• Warm up
• High NRG Cardio
• Body Blast
• Body Toner
• Cool down

I did the warm up,  High NRG Cardio and cool down in about 40 minutes and I was sweating. It was definitely high energy! There were lots of jumps and then they threw in criss-crosses and then added arms. There were times I couldn't get my rhythm, so i just flailed about. Good thing I was alone and not in a class.

I wore my pedometer and heart rate monitor. I doubled the amount of steps I've taken today (totally over 6,600) and burned more than 250 calories. Think about what I could do in the with another half hour! Tomorrow I'm going to be sore but I'll try to add one more part (possibly two), but now, I must go shower.

Day 2
Today I was running short on time and just did the warm up, body blast and cool down totally about a half hour. I felt the body blast was a bit easy. It did involve weights (of which they never suggested a particular size). I didn't have weights so I used the Husband's steel toed work boots thinking they were heavy enough. They weren't, which also contributed to how effective I thought it was. I plan to give it another shot later with 1.5 liter water bottles, which weight about 4.5 pounds each.

Day 3
Well I'm still feeling the "weights" I did yesterday. Today, I woke up with full intention to either try the new section along with the high NRG. Then I realized it was 8am on a Saturday and people live right below us. So I considered a short run. The walk to the bathroom was killing my ankle so I decided to take today off, especially since we are going to Oxford and will more than likely be walking around.

A change of pace

Since I've arrived in the UK, I have managed to stay pretty busy, all the while enjoying my experiences but also craving a regular schedule. Although I still don't have a set schedule, things have begun to settle down. I got to the cake shop twice a week and the rest of the days are spent planning our weekends so there's really been nothing to blog about recently.

Today, rather than planning, I spent the day writing my personal statement and updating my resume. The application for my certificate in nonprofit management is due soon so I thought it was about time to get on that. I also started looking for jobs for when I get back. It looks like there's a lot out there, and the organizations have meaningful missions. Fortunately, I am in a position where I don't have to work. Yes it's tight sometimes, and yes I've been going crazy not working regularly for the past year, but this gives me the opportunity to find the organization that best fits me. I don't mean to sound snooty or to imply that I choose not to work, as this is not the case. I fully believe in doing something you really enjoy and believe in and am fortunate enough to be able to take my time finding the right organization. My first year of grad school, I decided I would be a full-time student and keep my eyes open for some part-time work. I had a couple of temporary positions here and there that I really enjoyed. That set-up really worked well, especially being newly-wed and in a new city.

Last year, I did struggle with getting out of the house before 5pm (when I left for my evening classes) most days, due to my heavy study load. I felt like I was living under a rock, especially at midterm and finals times. My free week night was dedicated to date night so I could see my husband before 9pm, Fridays we went to shul and/or Shabbat dinner with friends or family and Saturday nights were hard to out because I taught Sunday School in the morning.

This year however, I will taking a mix of in-class at U of H and online courses at A&M (whoop). My husband will be gone for most the first semester and I'm starting to get scared of finding a new routine. This semester will prove even more difficult because I'm only taking one onsite course rather than my usual three. I intend to study more at Panera, Starbucks and Boarders (for as long as they are around), just to make myself get out. I also hope to find a job, part-time would be preferred but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to cut back to being a part time student with a full-time job.

Wow, this has gone on longer than I originally planned. I didn't mean to ramble on about the above topic but it did feel nice to put it on "paper." Back to what's going on here. The Husband will finally be going offshore. It's bittersweet in that this is what he came here to do, but is leaving me (selfish, I know). He'll only be gone for ten days and then we'll be on our way to Brussels for our anniversary. In the mean time, I thought I'd keep myself busy:

 I got some videos from the library to watch while he'd gone. I also have a few more books to tackle.

Remember how I have been unmotivated to work out? I finally got motivated but it's been raining every day so I can't run, I can't ride and I don't belong to a gym (well, I do, but it's in Houston so not really). Usually when it rains here, you don't really get wet, it's more like a long mist or sprinkle. But apparently, the summer rain is worse (as proven in the past two weeks). It's definitely more like a Houston rain, one that you don't want to get stuck in. Recently, friends and blogs I follow have been talking about Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. It's been sitting in my Netflix queue and I realized I should have brought that DVD rather than The Hangover. Thinking about how I messed that one up, I looked what the library had in stock:

When I got home, I goggled some reviews of this DVD and they look pretty good. The DVD is due in a week so I'll try it out and keep you posted on my thoughts.

Now, if you're like me, and want to take a nap after reading all of this, be my guest! That's where I'm headed.

Cheers!

This is a story...

...about how this:

 turned into this:

Tada! I know I've been slacking on posting recipes here. I have struggled with making food in this apartment. I don't have the right appliances, utensils or even cookware. The stove I have to use is electric but does not cook evenly at all and sometimes turns itself off? Yeah that's a question because I really don't understand it. The oven has three nobs and I can't figure out what they mean (of course there's no instruction manual to go with it). I have flimsy post and pans and we were only given metal utensils to use with the teflon (don't worry, the guys went out and got wooden spoons before I even arrived). I don't have my food processor, mixer or any of my bakeware. I know this sounds like a lot of complaining but I've made do with what I've got. I have just taken everything for granted up until now. That's also why I haven't been cooking more than quick, simple, recipe-less meals.

Tonight was taco night, another recipe-less meal: brown some ground meat, add water and taco seasoning and simmer for 20 minutes. But I decided I wanted to actually make something. That something still had to be simple. I also decided I wanted some guacamole. Problem solved! I've never actually made guacamole. Believe me, I've eaten more than my fair share of it but I had actually never made it by myself. So I got some coriander (cilantro), hot red peppers, some avocados and a lime and headed home. I had some garlic on hand and added that to the mix.

Here's what I used (most are approximations of course since I don't have measuring cups either):

1 large clove of garlic
1 avocado
1/8 cup freshly chopped cilantro
1/2 seeded red pepper
1/2 lime's juice

Smash it all together (trying not to bend your fork) and voila! Homemade guacamole!

Eat it with some chips or atop taco trays! They are so much better than taco shells (what's up with those anyways?)

Menu Planning Monday

Here's a quickie and is just so I have something to work with this week. Sorry for the holes during the weekend, I just don't know where we are going to be.

Monday
      Breakfast: Rhubarb Activia with Grape-nuts and 1/4 galia melon
      Lunch: Cheese and tomato crepe and sushi (two parts)
      Dinner: Burgers and roasted potatoes
Tuesday
      Breakfast: Rhubarb Activia with Grape-nuts and 1/4 galia melon
      Lunch: Smoked Salmon pita with beet root salad
      Dinner: Tacos with tomato and cucumber salad
Wednesday
      Breakfast: Rhubarb Activia with Grape-nuts and 1/4 galia melon
      Lunch: Smoked Salmon pita with beet root salad
      Dinner: Tacos with tomato and cucumber salad
Thursday
      Breakfast: Rhubarb Activia with Grape-nuts and 1/2 grapefruit
      Lunch: Smoked Salmon pita with beet root salad

      Dinner: Bangers and Mash

Friday
      Breakfast: Rhubarb Activia with Grape-nuts and 1/2 grapefruit
      Lunch: Smoked Salmon pita with beet root salad

      Dinner: Indian take away

Saturday
      Breakfast: French toast and fruit
      Lunch: Lunch TBD

      Dinner: Dinner TBD

Sunday

      Breakfast: French toast and fruit
      Lunch: Lunch TBD

      Dinner: Dinner TBD

Just one of those days...

Yeah. It wasn't the worst day in the world but it sure didn't run smoothly.

I woke up this morning with a wonderful itinerary for another day in London:

• Arrive in London at 10:15
• See Tower of London until noon
• Quick Lunch
• See British Museum until 2pm
• Meet with Lord Barnett at the House of Parliament at 2:15
• Walking tour of London and wander around
• Go back home around 6pm

This is what today actually looked like:

• Arrive in London at 10:15
• See Tower of London until noon  go to Tower but be deterred by price and crowd
• Wander around underground for a while
• Quick Lunch snack
• See British Museum until 2pm  iPod dies
• More underground shenanegans
• Meet with Lord Barnett at the House of Parliament at 2:15
• Walking tour of London and wander around
• Go back home around 6pm 4

Yeah...My train was on time so I was off to a good start. I got off the train and onto the underground, also making good time. Then I thought of something: remember last night when I posted all of those pictures? Yeah...I left my SD card in the computer. Ooops. All I could think about was what an awful blogger I would be if I didn't have any pictures! Thankfully, I walked right by a camera store and picked up the smallest, cheapest one I could find. 

Then I headed to the Tower of London.

I got there at a reasonable time (or so I thought). I was walking up and heard Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and thought how fitting it was to be listening to a Beatles song in London. There was a line both at the ticket booth and to get in. I don't really care for crowds and though Monday wouldn't have been so packed but I wrong. I was already in a bit of a grumpy mood since I had to spend 11 pounds on the SD card and didn't want to spend another twenty pounds on a museum when there are plenty of free ones across the city.

So I left and headed towards the British Museum. The underground line I planned to take was experiencing major delays so I had to go an alternate route which was out of the way of course. I got off at Russel Square. Ever wonder how far down the subway is underground? Most tube stations have escalators. This one doesn't. It does offer a lift though. But I thought I would take the stairs. I started counting and wasn't even close after the first 50. It was a spiral staircase which was worse because there was no end in sight. The good news is I made it up all 177 stairs. Guess who's butt is going to look great tomorrow! I wanted to die when I reached the top. I got out and crossed Russel Square which is this small, beautiful park.

Then I finally made it to the British Museum.  

I was still recuperating from conquering those stairs and decided I needed a reward of a cheese and tomato crepe. MMMMMmmmmm....crepe.

I wandered in and turned on my Rick Steves British Museum Audio Guide. I've mentioned this before but wherever you travel, you MUST download the Rick Steves Podcasts. He gives great commentary on all types of attractions as well as tips for staying wherever you are. The British Museum is HUGE and he covers the highlights of the permanent exhibits in just over an hour. Honestly, I think if you were to cover every bit of information in the museum, you would walk away with nothing as it's truly an information overload. I apologize for the quality of the pictures from here on out, but of course I also forgot to charge my camera before I left and to conserve the battery (and make my SD card purchase worth while), I turned off the flash.

We started in the Egyptian exhibit with the Rosetta Stone.

Let my people go! This one of the many statues of Ramses that he had made during his time.

Translator anyone?

 Roman mosaics. A technique they got from the Egyptians and mastered the art.

What's an Egyptian exhibit without a mummy? There was a whole room of them!

This is Ginger, a perfectly preserved skeleton.

Now we move on to the Assyrians. They were very advanced for their time. Can you find the tank in this picture?

And then on to the Greeks. Like the camera battery, I had not charged the iPod before I left and it died with a little less than ten minutes of the tour left to go. That meant that I couldn't take the walking tour I had planned later in the day.

So I headed to Parliament. I had been put in touch with Lord Barnett as he is a family friend of my Great Uncle and he knew my maternal Grandmother growing up (I'm a quarter English by the way). I spoke to Lord Barnett last week and we set a time to meet: today at 2:15. I got there at 2:00 and was escorted into the building most Londoners haven't been in. I'm sure there was some sort of mix up as our meeting never actually took place. We set the time and date on Thursday of last week once he was back in Manchester and I hadn't given him my contact information in case something else came out. I kept holding out hope until 2:45 when I finally left. I still have a few more weeks here so hopefully we can work something else out.

It was beginning to rain and since I knew I couldn't do my walking tour anyways, I thought it was a good time to go home. A little bummed from the days events, I really holding out for some French macaroons at the market by the Waterloo station. I passed up some tempting street food vendors only to find the market was gone! Now I was really upset and grumpy as I hadn't had anything more than breakfast and that crepe. I thought for sure I would splurge on the next indulgent thing I saw. Then I came across a sushi stand. It was only 4 pounds (much better price than any pre-packaged sushi in the States) for all of this. It absolutely hit the spot! I love how sushi is an extremely satisfying, relatively healthy option. YUM! I grabbed it for the train ride home and read my book for the duration of the journey.

I caught a bus immediately and was home before I knew it. I was going pull the pity card and pout for the rest of the evening until I got to chatting about cakes with some family. That always puts me in a good mood. The roommate made burgers and that made me happy too. 

All in all, today actually wasn't too bad, just not great. I did walk over 20,000 steps and my ankle is more comfortable thanks to the brace I bought. YAY.

Cheers!

I haven't forgotten about you

I've just been extremely busy and it's hard to blog when I'm not home during the day. Thursday and Friday were uneventful. So uneventful that I took some pictures of the food I ate just so I would have something to blog about. Obviously, I never got around to it, but don't worry, it wasn't anything special.

Friday night was when everything started picking up. After a quick dinner of jacket potatoes and beans (a common meal here), we went to the scout meeting.

The scouts went through a rotation of pitching tents, first aid, knot tying and sawing. The Husband helped out as an unconscious person.

The meeting ended with a fun game of dodge ball.

After the meeting, the scout leaders got together and hung out by the fire. It's nice to be able to get out in the community and have an evening out with others. We got a ride home and went to bed for an early morning. We had to be in London earlier than ever before. We were going to take a tour coach through the country to Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge. I grabbed a quit half of grape fruit and some coffee as we planned to have a true British breakfast in London.

I had an egg, hashed browns, grilled tomatoes and bean (they do love their beans in this country). The husband had scrambled eggs with toast and chocolate cake (of course). Then we were off to catch our coach for an 8:45 departure.

The trip had its pros and cons. The cons were associated with the tour company and "guide." There really were no cons related to the places we actually got the chance to visit so I'll stand on my little soap box here and complain a bit (just a bit, I promise) about the tour itself. We went with a company called Evan Evans. A friend of mine actually recently went on a tour and raved about it so my complaints could mainly be attributed to our poor tour guide. First of all, this kept displaying on the screen:

Its not super clear in this picture but it says "Evans Evans Tours," not "Evan Evans Tours." This gets under my skin like none other. I understand type-os happen but there were two instances on the slides that rotated where they spelled the company's name wrong! It just shows the lack of professionalism to begin with. At least they got it right on the giant bus.

Our tour guide wasn't really a guide at all. He shared a few pieces of information but nothing truly relevant or interesting. He also didn't see to be knowledgeable about certain subjects when asked. Our first drive to Windsor was about forty-five minutes. He talked for a fraction of it. When we got there and got off the bus, we were to meet him at a set location in an hour and a half. After the self-guided tour, we headed back to the bus and were told that it would take two and a half hours to get to the Roman city of Bath. After the first hour of silence, the bus driver finally offered to put on home music. It may have been poor planning on my part but I did not bring a book or an iPod as I anticipated a TOUR with a speaking guide. We got stuck in some traffic and he said it would take a little longer. Even with the traffic, we made it to Bath in two hours. I would assume that if he's done this tour before, he should know how long it takes to get places. 

At Bath, the same thing happened, we got off the bus and were to regroup in an hour and a half. Then it was another two hour drive to Stonehenge. This site was the first one I didn't feel rushed at because while we were given 45 minutes, it really only took 30. Once again, back on the bus for another two hour ride back to London. Our guide, Peter gave us some misinformation regarding the London Eye and places to eat, which made us question everything else he's told us. We had planned to catch the Eye after the tour but he said it closed at 7:30 and that the price was 11 pounds. Good thing we called because it closed at 9:30 and was 18 pounds.

All in all, we were unimpressed with the company as the guide is representative of Evan Evans. We are well aware that different guides will offer different information but this suggests that there is no standard across the company. For less money, I could have gotten on a regular coach (rather than a tour coach) and done the same amount without any added benefit. Essentially, the tour guide was more of a chaperone.The only positives were that we didn't have to wait in line too long for the attractions as we were with a group (which can also be avoided with strategic planning), and that although VERY rushed, we were able to scratch three places of interest off our list. 

WARNING: The rest of this post will contain A LOT of pictures (because we covered A LOT of ground)

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I would highly recommend every place we went to, just not particularly with a tour. As I mentioned before, we started the day off at Windsor Castle. It is the oldest and largest functioning castle in the world. When the Queen isn't in London, Windsor is her preferred home. Inside, we saw Queen Mary's famous doll house, complete with working plumbing. We weren't able to take pictures inside the castle but here are a few shots from around the grounds.  

Then we were on our way through the beautiful British countryside to Bath.

Bath is an ancient Roman city known for its hot spring. The Romans came and set up a temple around the bubbling warm water. I particularly love ancient Roman engineering and how well it was preserved. I find it very easy to imagine what it was like to live in the time.

Here is what hung on the entrance to the bath house. The museum did a great job at piecing everything together based on the ruins. This theme was present throughout entire rooms.

Again,  here is an altar recreated to fill in the gaps.

The springs aren't too hot and it would have been nice to go for a dip

We got out a few minutes early, grabbed some pasties for lunch and stumbled into a fudge shop. We did not leave empty handed.

We wandered around town before we got back on the bus.

As we were leaving, we got this beautiful view of the city.

Then we made it to Stonehenge.

Just like the Roman engineering, this prehistoric site still blows my mind. How did they get the stones to stand up AND stack them perfectly leveled?

When we got back to London, we headed towards the London Eye. On our way, we we passed Westminster Cathedral...

 Not to be confused with Westminster Abbey.

I don't know much about the London Eye other than it's just a giant ferris wheel. It takes about a half an hour to get all the way around.

Up high, you can see a fabulous view of the city.

For dinner, we headed to a Latin resistant, Iguana. Mexican food isn't my favorite cuisine but it is one thing I do miss and will eat as soon as I get back. I settled for veggie chili and rice with tortillas. It was very good and was also nice to have guacamole for starters.

This morning, we were planning on going to Portsmouth but our train was delayed last night and the weather was so bad today we slept in and hot up the carboot sale again. We picked up two helmets and an ankle brace for me.

Then we went to the grocery store, had lunch and got to working on our bikes. We cleaned them, degreased them and then regreased them. No squeaks or clicks now! Hopefully they will get some use this week.

That's it. Until next time, Cheers!