Lords Cricket Ground

I snuck a day off work to spend some time with Jonathan in London. We didn't quite know what the plan would be, but we decided to first go to Lord's Cricket Ground at St John's Wood in north London.

We caught a bus from Angel and managed to jump onto the end of the tour. There was a match on between Oxford and Cambridge for the final of the MCC Universities Challenge. The tour initially took us through the rooms of the Pavilion - the Long Room, the Members Room, up onto the Members balcony, back through the members bar, much to the chagrin of the members having their breakfast. We spent some time in the museum, and had a look at the original Ashes trophy, and memorabilia from some of the greats of cricket.

The tour wrapped up with a look around the NatWest media centre - that's the space age looking one at the western end. In the photos there is a picture of one of the function rooms used during matches. We sat in the stand and watched some of the match, although Jonathan had a bit of a snooze - it had been a long first few days in London.

Just up the road from the cricket ground is Abbey Road, which is famous for the Beatles studios and the cover of the Abbey Road album. We had a quick look at that before jumping on the tube down to the south bank of the Thames and had a walk around past Tower Bridge and a look inside the Tower of London.

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Lords Cricket Ground

Jun 29, 2006 - 19 Photos

Jono arrives in London

Jonathan arrived in London today. London was raining quite heavily and he walked up from Trafalgar Square to my work on Fleet Street, if he had known how far it was then I don't he would have done it in the rain with a small case and backpack. His first activity was to get to our flat and sleep.

That night was Australia's appearance in the World Cup finals with their match against Italy. We went up to a local pub, The Winchester, to watch the game. As I am sure we are all aware it was a gut-wrenching game for the Aussies. It was a good experience for Jono to experience the pub with a football game on. It was a great atmosphere, though it must be said that there were quite a few Aussie supporters - I don't think there were many English supporting the Italians!

Royal Ascot Races

And they're off...

To the Royal Ascot Races - Horses, Hats, Pimms, Bookies, The Queen, Jockeys, and more Pimms.

We went out to Ascot on the last Saturday of the Royal Ascot Races. It is your typical race day except that the Queen and a few other Royals are there. Well, not in our section, but they do ride past in a carriage and give a wave before ascending into the stands.

Not being big gamblers, we didn't have much of a budget for the bookies. And a good thing it was too because we only picked one placing in seven races.

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Royal Ascot

Jun 24, 2006 - 11 Photos

Bath

Another day trip out of London. Bath is an old Roman town near the west coast of England, just east of Bristol. The bus ride there takes 3 hours. Kate, Kelly and I caught the 7am bus from Victoria and headed west to spend a day out in Bath.

The town is built on the banks of the Avon River - the same one that flows through Stratford-upon-Avon, through the Cotswolds, Bath, Bristol and then the ocean. The town's main claim to fame is that it is built on ancient hot springs that the Romans constructed bath houses on. The main square of the town is focused around the ancient bath house. It seems like a typically Cotswold town with narrow cobbled streets, gothic churches and plenty of character.

We firstly went into the Roman bath house. It has a self-guided tour and it is amazing to see the infrastructure that was built for the baths, the church nearby and the old town square. You can almost get the feeling of being there in Roman times.The town also has a famous author, Jane Austen, who spent some of her life living and writing in Bath, taking inspiration from the country side surroundings. Kate and Kelly spent some time in the Jane Austen house, looking at a history of her life. We walked up towards the northen side of town, up the top of the hill, to the Royal Crescent. The Royal Crescent is a half moon of stately Georgian houses that overlook a park and the botanic gardens.

The arched Pulteney bridge crosses the Avon river and it has houses and shops built on top of it, probably much like London bridge would have looked before its many rebuilds. We stop to have dinner and a couple of beers at a cafe that looks over the river before getting back on the bus for the trip home. It is little wonder that Bath has been listed as a World Heritage Site. The town is a beautiful example of golden sandstone architecture blended with an interesting history and window into Roman-esque life.

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Bath

Jun 17, 2006 - 14 Photos