nawl

I've never properly been to England before, so this is kind of a fun experience. People have neat accents, the terrain is rather bumpy, and people drive on the wrong side of the road. It was kind of depressing to leave Nice, which was probably 25 degrees and sunny at 8 am, and arrive two hours later in London, which was cloudy and at least 10 degrees cooler.

Once in Bath, I had a very agreeable lunch of a feta-tomato-olive salad and tomato-basil soup at an underground restaurant (Wife of Bath). Actually it wasn't really underground, but it was in the level of building that was underneath street-level. I'm not sure whether that means that they dug down to build rows and rows of house stories you can just peek over the railings of streets to see, or if the road has been built up over time... or if there's a difference anymore in an area that's been inhabited for a few thousand years.

Later on, we walked along the river and then along a canal. I was interested by the system of locks that were still in place. It's really rather clever (and impressive) although I'm told that they're a terrible pain to maintain, and nobody actually uses them but tourists. They're all operable by hand.

In the evening, we went out (again, sheesh I never eat out in France) to a good Indian place (Bengal Brasserie). It wasn't Breads of India, but it was rather delicious, and their "hot" curry chicken dish was reasonably spicy, something I haven't had in quite a while. I adore good Indian food.

I think what struck me most was the architecture of the city. I'm sure it's all kept up this way for the tourists... but so many of the buildings were so consciously *old* and even ones that were probably recently remodeled had been kept in a stereotypical style, that I kept wanting to see people dressed in 16th century clothes popping out of shop doors.

It's as if the English are consciously trying to stay different.

Today's photos.