We arrived at midnight and plans were, we were picking up our rental car to save money the next morning, so we did as hundreds other’s were doing to save a dime, camp at Stanstead airport. You should have seen how many people just landed and instead of checking into an expensive hotel nearby, they would set up camp for the night and wait for the next flight or the train to London. It should be re-named Campstead. So we got our little posy got some zzzz’s and woke to a buzzing, busy airport. We got the car and had pretty much the day to kill as we were picking our friend Annabel up from Gatwick airport that evening, so we looked at the map and halfway was Brighton. So off we headed to Brighton for the day, to laze on the unusual sandless yet rocky beach, and amuse ourselves in the carnival located on the pier.
After a days worth of shopping and checking out the Royal Pavilion which was a former Royal residence in the 1700’s, we drove to Gatwick to collect Annie and head to Minehead west of Bristol where we went to be part of All tomorrows parties a music festival curated by Animal collective.
So basically Animal Collective chose all the bands they liked the most to create the line-up. This was the most interesting organised festival I have ever been too. It was located at an old family holiday village, which had this ghostly feel to it, that this was the summer holiday destination to attend back in the day and now it felt all abandoned and that it had had it’s day, except for now! We stayed in self-contained chalets, which were a really good change to the usual camping at festivals, you actually slept!
It was so interesting the lengths they went to at organising everything, from having there own Animal Collective television channels where they chose what was to play, to the quirky, interesting movies playing in the in-house cinema to having a DJ set located in the swimming pool. They had speakers underwater, so you could hear and feel the beat whilst being submerged in the water. It was amazing. There were too many bands to speak about, but all in all I went in pretty much not knowing any of the bands and leaving with a new heap of amazing likeable new bands to get into. After ATP we drove to Bristol to stay with my friend Orla and her boyfriend Rick who were amazing hosts and attended to our tired, fragile selves for the night. We said our thanks and left to Bath the next morning. Named Bath by the Romans as it’s famous for it’s hot springs and therefore the Romans built all these amazing, wonderful, ancient baths through the whole valley and that’s where the name Bath comes from.
We discovered that Jamie Oliver has his Italian Restaurant there and we thought it needed to be tried and tested. The food was delicious, we both had Buffalo ricotta and lemon ravioli as to avoid food envy and I had to try the Chocolate and Espresso tart with Sticky Figs and orange crème fraiche, that’s all I have to say about that one!! We decided to head out of Bath for the night and find a nice Bed & Breakfast in the surrounding countryside.
We found this beautiful one, quite close to Bradford upon Avon and next door to a small traditional country pub. We went into Bradford for Naomi’s long awaited Cream Tea experience, which is basically Tea and Scones. We found The Bridge Tea Rooms which had been voted quote ‘Near Perfect” by the British council. Yes they have a Tea council!!
Not like we hadn’t eaten enough that day we went back home had a rest and than had dinner at the pub next door. Looking at the menu full of traditional English cuisine the decision was proving difficult, so I read “Hogs Roast” the only description was pork Roast with crackling and apple sauce, and a side of veggies. Yeah that sounds basic and fulfilling… this needs to come with a warning this was half a pig and don’t ask me how I stomached this… Pig 0 – Jake 1!
Waking in the morning to Naomi telling me that I had the night sweats from too much pork, I tried to devour the Full English Breakfast, got on the road and headed for London Town. We dropped the car off in Kings Cross, note to self, don’t ever drive in the city of London there are congestion charges for a reason. Finally got through the crowded streets, dropped of the car and thus started our 2 days in London. Not really having allot of time to do much in London and knowing it’s a stone’s throw away from Berlin, we spent majority of our time drinking pints and meeting up with friends. I thought if there was one place to take Naomi it would have to be Camden for some punk spotting and Brick Lane for a curry. Other than that London Town was a short but sweet visit, but we will be back!
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