Bath

We went to Bath one day. It was okay but kind of boring at the end.

It was a long drive, about an hour and a half long. When we got there, my dad, Anthony and I were going to catch a train to a place called Bristol to get Dad’s jacket that he had left there. My dad parked right outside the train station and we went inside. It was pretty small-at least the inside was. The inside part was where you get tickets and check the train schedules. Then you went up the stairs to this outside train station where you waited. Anyway, our whole family went up to one platform (after buying tickets) to eat lunch. Then the girls went to go to this tearoom place called the Pump Room where we would meet them when we got back.


Meanwhile, when our train came, we got a big surprise. The train that we were taking was one of the sleek fast trains that I guess I haven’t mentioned before. Anthony and I had always seen them speeding past the Hungerford train station at top speed (which is like 100 mph) and have always dreamed of going on one. Anthony calls them “purple trains” because, well, that’s their color! (Pretty obvious, isn’t it?) The inside was awesome. They had luxurious seats that were adjustable (I think) and big tables perfect for playing a game on. It was also really quiet. You couldn’t hear outside the train at all unless the window was open.

The station in Bristol was like the one in London, only smaller. We managed to find dad’s jacket and then we went back to our platform to wait for our train. Unfortunately we weren’t there when it came and so when we got on there were no seats available. Also the train was much worse than the one we took over. It was a two car diesel, that was noisy, overcrowded and we couldn’t find a place to sit so we ended up sitting on the luggage racks.


When we got back to Bath we met the girls at that Pump Room place I was talking about. When we got there, though, it was nothing like a room. Well, it was a room but it was huge. It had an orchestra and a ceiling that was like 40 feet high and had balconies all around the second story perimeter. There was no barrier between the first and second stories so you could see the balconies.


When we left the Pump Room we went to the Roman Baths. These were a bunch of pools of mineral water that in ancient times when England was part of Italy the Romans would strip down and jump into the baths nude and swim around with all their friends and people they hardly knew. They did this JUST FOR SOCIALIZING!!! Well, okay they also did it for relaxing, washing, and because they thought the natural mineral waters would cure many afflictions. The baths were okay at first but got reeeeeeeeeally boring and I was glad when we got to go home.

Five Days in London

I loved our trip to London. It was like NYC, only smaller and shorter buildings, and more national parks. We took a train from the Hungerford station to Paddington Station in London. Paddington was amazing. I had never seen a train station so big. There were two big domes that must have been the roof, and there was platform after platform of trains. The place was just like an airport. It had little fast food take-out restaurants like Burger King and McDonald’s. It even had a mini-supermarket. It also had stairs and an escalator that led down to the Paddington Underground Station. (In England they call the subway the Underground.) But anyway. We grabbed our luggage (we had only brought some of the stuff from Hungerford because we were staying in London for only five days) and headed out of the station.

Our hotel was called Quality Crown. It was a chain hotel, one of the ones that there are more than one of around the world. The rooms were pretty fancy. There were three beds, a fan, a TV, and a large bathroom. Once again we had to share two rooms, 308 and 304. We ate at a different Burger King, which was about a block away. We went back to the Hotel, got moved in, and after playing some games we walked to a big national park called Hyde Park. There was a playground that we played on a while, and then we walked around in the park a bit before going back to the hotel and going to bed.

The next day we had breakfast, then walked a looooooooooooooong way to a huge church called St.Mary’s, and then we walked halfway back before finding an Underground station, and took the subway back to Paddington underground station, and walked back to our hotel. In the afternoon we took the underground to the Tower of London, but unfortunately it was just minutes before closing time, so instead we just looked out at the River Thames (pronounced tems) and got the great opportunity to see a tall boat go under the Tower Bridge, which had to raise its middle section to allow the boat to go through. When we got tired of the river, we walked a little ways, had dinner, and took the Underground back to Paddington and walked back to our hotel to go to bed.

The Day We Left

The day we left we took a shuttle to the airport. We had 18 bags, including our backpacks.*The place our plane was going to was Newark, New Jersy. We were going to stay there for 5 days to see our cousins. We went to their house first on Wedensday.David, my favorite cousin who is almost my same age and also plays baseball, took me to the baseball field across the street from their house.I had brought my glove so we started playing some catch. When we were warmed up David put on his new catcher's gear and I pitched to him. A little while later we switched. I put on the catcher's gear and David pitched to me. Stirfry was for dinner, and David and I both hate it, so we both skipped dinner. David showed me his room instead. It was pretty cool. He had a big bed, a golf bag, and an ESPN sports practice thing. There was a hole in the middle and you threw balls through it. I tried it but I wasn't too good. Finally it was time to go. When we got back to the hotel it was pretty late. I fell asleep quickly.

*In our backpacks we had carry-on items, such as books, small toys, and electronic games. Mine was obviously the most full, because it weighed about 15 pounds!