The waters of Sulis

Another visit to a World Heritage site! This time an entire city famed for its Roman remains and Palladian architecture, namely Bath in Somerset, a 3-odd bus hour ride from London. A place apparently first found by acorn-hunting pigs that wallowed in its healing spring waters and cured their skin ailments. We stayed just outside of Bath, in Bathford. You can follow the River Avon down to Bath, and pass lazy houseboats, spot stalking grey herons, riverside pubs and daffodil fields. If you are brave enough to stick your thumb out, you might get a houseboat give you a lift and teach you how to open and close locks! Best way to get to the city I reckon.

There are walking audio guides of the city (how thoughtful!), where you can gander past the honey-coloured limestone buildings so typical of this place. On the cathedral, make sure to look up and see the sad-looking souls clambering up the stony ladder to heaven,  haven't quite seen something like that on a church before to be honest. The Roman Baths themselves really are a wonder. Sulis, the Celtic nourishing, life-giving mother goddess evolved into Roman Minerva and her Greek counterpart Athena and has a temple dedicated to her inside the baths. Temple goers would give offerings by throwing coins into the baths for her to punish wrongdoers. On pewter scrolls you can read requests for Sulis Minerva to impair the physical and mental well-being of various perpetrators, by denying them sleep, ceasing normal bodily function or causing death, until the wrongdoing had been made right. Constellations of crimes beneath the steaming waters, waiting to be fixed.

Onto another famous lady, Jane Austen also lived here! We saw the only sketch ever done of Jane Austen (the original is in the National Portrait Gallery in London) it was done by her sister, apparently an unflattering representation of the author however, she was much more pretty than that. None of the books published in her lifetime had her name on them, they were described as being written "By a Lady".

Musicians playing in every street cove, Gorgon masks, steamy baths and spring sunsets. Oh and the best almond brioche. Ever. Not to be beat really.

Canterbury tales

An hour train ride from London you come upon a town in Kent where most of it is a World Heritage site. Yes indeed. Canterbury has one of the oldest monuments to Christianity in the UK, built from stone imported from Normandy, and has stood on the site for over 1,400 years. The Mother Church of the Anglican faith and seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury (cute teddy bears of him can be found around the town if you fancy). Services are held at the Cathedral three or more times a day. We would know since we felicitously came to visit when a sermon was about to start = not having to pay the £9.50 entry fee. We went on Mother's Day and watched a lovely sermon where children handed out daffodil bouquets to everyone that attended. Those same bouquets were left in the hands of statues dedicated to Kent's King and Queen Ethelbert and Bertha, the sexy-as-hell-sounding couple that established the English-speaking Christian civilization that the British Empire became.

Did you know the equestrian word "canter" comes from Canterbury? After the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in the cathedral, pilgrims from all parts of Christendom came to visit his shrine. Many pilgrims on horseback who were nearing the city late at night would increase the horse's speed from a trot to the faster "Canterbury trot", but not as fast as a gallop. To "canter" became the shortened expression. It was a secret thrill to stumble upon a pilgrimage sign in front of the cathedral after so many years since doing the camino to Santiago. You can walk to Rome from here! Or walk from Rome to here!

The mind abuzz with walking the Via Francincigena, visiting the Beany House of Art and Knowledge with its miniature doll houses and textile art, tea breaks in cafes to warm up, coming across green and grey graveyards, ancient abbeys, wooden emblems and stained glass windows, this walkable town's slow pace and steeped Roman, Norman and medieval history is a well worth experiencing. Just avoid the Three Tuns if you are feeling peckish - worst pub food we've had to date, and that says alot!