Left Cassocks House for Heathrow to pick up car. Ended up with a Toyota Avensis (mid-size) and standard - not automatic. Luckily, Neal decided to drive and did very well, once he figured out where first gear was and stopped stalling because he was trying to get the car moving from third gear.We stopped in Marlborough (pronounced in two syllables as "Mah-bro") to have lunch at "Polly’s Tearoom," recommended by both our guide from last night and tonight’s proprietor at Haydon House in Bath. It was very quaint, fancy, feminine and British (I bought a curling iron across the street at Boots). Then we went to Avebury ("Ave-bree") to see the ancient stones and the village. I bought a beautiful cat puzzle and sheep vase from the National Trust Shop. They have very nice shops. When I walked out of the shop, Neal was sitting at an outside table of the Stone café/refreshment house (I can’t remember what its name was) with tea and scones - delicious! Then we visited the extremely small museum about the ancient sites nearby.
Sheep rubbing against one of the monoliths in Avebury Oops, I forgot to mention West Kennet Longbarrow ("Long-bro") burial ground (a long walk up a hill with beautiful views), Silbury Hill (not sure of name) and a crop circle in a field of yellow flowers that looked like mustard only bigger (rapeseed, I think). Longbarrow was cool (literally) and musty smelling - eerie. Some teenage kids were rolling down Silbury hill, taking turns, not very smart because it’s so steep.
View of the entrance to Kennet Longbarrow We arrived at Haydon House in Bath with a little difficulty because of missed turns and backtracking. British people use different words for landmarks and have a different way of speaking English than we do, as we learned while trying to follow Gordon's instructions. For instance, a flyover light is a stop light on an overpass. There were lots of other examples too, and any one of them could have gotten us completely lost.
Anyway, Gordon is a talkative fellow with a lovely, lovely home. Its appointments are just beautiful and the front and side entrance is such a lush garden. There is also a rear garden but I haven’t figured out how to get to it.
The dogs, Cloud and Cobweb, are friendly and look just like their photo in the B&B book.
Our room motif is white and dark green (white flowers/green leaves-same as what I'm wearing today) and it’s cozy and very well decorated - like the rest of the house. There are two very pretty watercolors on the wall of the rear garden and side entrance garden. Everything is so nice, I can’t wait to see what breakfast is like.
Dinner was at Sally Lunn’s House downtown. The bun was excellent as was dinner (though expensive). I had Braised Bits of British Beef and potatoes. It was delicious. Neal enjoyed his chicken and we shared chocolate cake and ice cream. Then we walked back up the hill (which we walked down earlier) to our B&B. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Well, more walking to be done tomorrow in Bath!
