Bath Abbey...

It’s probably not a surprise that Sally and I would opt to visit Bath Abbey without Ashlynn. Originally founded as a Benedictine monastery in the 8th century, the present building was built in 1499. After King Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of all monasteries in 1539, the Abbey lay in ruins for over 70 years until it was repaired as an Anglican parish church.

I was especially fascinated by the fan vaulted ceiling, which the Abbey’s brochure says was created by the king’s master masons in the 1500s with the intention to draw visitors up to God.

The Abbey suffered minor damage to some windows during a WWII bombing nearby, after which some long overdue repairs were made.

The Abbey is still in use today with services for up to 1,200 worshipers.

It wasn’t until we came by at night that I noticed the angels going up and down the ladders surrounding the doors.

Rumor has it that this interpretation of Jacob’s Ladder came to the Bishop of Bath in a dream about angels ascending and descending above him.

After our wander around the Abbey, Sally and I went to Sally Lunn’s Bunn House for lunch. Housed in one of Bath’s oldest homes, from around 1483, they serve their meals on giant brioche buns.

In the basement there’s a small display to show how the buns were cooked historically by Solange Luyon (pronounced by the Brits as Sally Lunn) who came to Bath in 1680.

Best Friends Reunited...

We got up early the next morning for the 4.5 hour journey to Bath to meet up with Sally and Andrew. She met us at the train station and we walked to the hotel to drop off our luggage. Then the three of us hopped on a bus to head up the big hill to the University of Bath where Ashlynn would be spending two nights with Andrew. As you can see, he was happy to see her as well. 

He gave us a tour of his residence hall, including his room where I happily saw his high school graduation gift from us on the wall, and then around much of the campus which was very nice. We also stopped by to see his girlfriend Hannah, also from the BSN. 

After the tour, Sally and I caught a bus back into town and went in search for a restaurant. While we met up with Ashlynn the following afternoon, we didn’t see Andrew again until the following evening when we had dinner at a Latin American restaurant.

We stopped to take these photos in front of the cathedral on our walk to drop them off at the bus. It makes me so happy that these kids who met when they were five and six are still such close friends.

The following day Ashlynn went to class with him and then they had a picnic on a hilltop overlooking the city before she had to catch a bus to meet me at the train station for our journey to London.

Falmouth...

Early Friday evening we hopped on two more trains to make the scenic two-hour journey to Falmouth, in the far southwest corner of England. We dropped our stuff off at our guesthouse and headed into the small town to have dinner at a pizza place that had a separate vegan menu, which is always a big plus.

The next morning we took a taxi up to the even smaller village of Penryn to tour University of Exeter’s campus which they share with Falmouth University. We enjoyed the lectures, but were disappointed that we were not given a proper tour of the science facilities. I was also not impressed when I learned that many of the Marine Biology classes are taught by Biologists rather than Marine Biologists. 

Ashlynn liked the campus and was especially happy when our tour guide stopped at a reptile table run by some students. First she was thrilled to hold a gecko...

...but her true love was this adventurous corn snake.

As you can see, she was completely calm as he crawled all over her.

He clearly wanted her to take him home as he climbed into her bag.

We got back into Falmouth in time to go to a Cornish pasty shop that makes vegan pasties and then to the movie theater to see Black Panther, which I absolutely loved despite not being a big fan of comic book movies.

University of Plymouth...

The University of Plymouth has a very modern campus right in the city center. Drake’s Place and Garden was named after Sir Francis Drake, who was responsible for the original channel built in 1592 bringing water from Dartmoor to Plymouth. A reservoir was built here in 1825 and was used until the 1970s. Eventually the school bought the derelict property in 2007 to restore to its former glory.

As a future Marine Biologist and an American, it was fitting for Ashlynn to pose with this funny Pilgrim fish. I had my first egg butty (fried egg and mushrooms served on a bun) while she enjoyed a vegan breakfast at one of the cafés on campus.

Our first appointment was to meet with Dr. Stacey DeAmicis, an American who got her PhD there and never left, for a tour of the Marine Biology Department. She brought along a Dutch student named Emma to be able to give us an international student’s perspective. We were really impressed with the facilities...

...which were just as sophisticated as what we saw in Southampton. It was actually too bad that we only had 1.5 hours until our appointment for a campus tour, because it was such an informative visit (and the view wasn’t bad either). 

After our campus tour, we met back up with Emma who had no lectures that day and offered to show us around some more. First she took us over to the Marine Biological Association to see their library, which students are entitled to join and can use as a peaceful place to study. You can only imagine how excited Ashlynn was when this original copy of Darwin’s masterpiece was placed in her hands.

Then we walked to the other side of the harbor to the Marine Station, the school’s waterfront teaching and research facilities, which were also very impressive. We had lunch nearby at a restaurant serving Asian street food and heard more about what Emma thought about the school and city. It was impressive to learn that she’d been accepted to St. Andrews, but chose Plymouth and had no regrets. We would have loved to have stayed an extra night, but we had to get to our next stop: Falmouth.

Special Note: just as I’m posting this, Ashlynn finally made her decision and she chose Plymouth as her top choice (she’ll find out if she has secured a place after her exam results are in on August 16). I’m crossing my fingers that Jimmy and I’ll have many visits to this wonderful city in the future.

Beautiful Plymouth...

When Ashlynn was invited to attend University of Exeter’s Applicant Day on a Saturday in mid-February, it dawned on me that we could also visit Plymouth University along the way. We flew out on the Thursday (I must mention that the closest airports are two hours away!) and explored the city. Directly in front of our hotel in the middle of a traffic circle was the remnants of Charles Church, built in 1657 and destroyed by fire in March 1941 during World War II bombings. Rather than rebuilding, it remains as a memorial to the 1,200 civilian deaths in Plymouth during the air raids.

It’s probably not a surprise that we immediately headed towards the coast. The big open space is know as The Hoe and features statues...

...and Smeaton’s Tower, a lighthouse used from 1759 to 1877 and then relocated here as a memorial to the designer. 

We both loved the views along the low limestone cliffs.

We had no idea at the time that we climbed the hill that this 17th century fortress was built to defend the coastline from the Dutch. The Royal Citadel is still in use by the military today, but does offer occasional tours in the spring and summer.

There were threatening clouds, but luckily we stayed dry as we wandered along the harbor.

Despite the Pilgrims having absolutely no connection with the city of Plymouth until they were forced into the harbor due to bad weather, I’m guessing most of you connect this city as the starting point of the Mayflower’s historic trip to the New World. This portico was built in 1934 to designate the Mayflower Steps, however, historians believe that this was not the actual spot that the Mayflower was boarded. 

We enjoyed visiting the small but very interesting Mayflower Museum. Ashlynn got a good laugh when I wondered why they were selling stuffed empanadas and she reminded me that we were on the edge of Cornwall hence it was clearly a Cornish pasty.

We covered a lot of ground that evening as we went in search for dinner. While we never ventured out of the downtown area, I can say that we loved everything about this city, and I could definitely imagine Jimmy and I having a great time visiting Ashlynn there.

Giant Carnaval Floats...

The floats were definitely unlike any I’d ever seen before. Not only were the huge, but they were extra complicated because they had to lower in order to get under the apartment building built over the road. Where we stood didn’t make for the most scenic background, but it was fascinating watching the floats lower and raise up.

Some of the floats made political statements, such as this yellow book saying: Leadership for Dummies.

Many of the floats were just goofy.

Many were huge and goofy.

We left after two hours and incredibly it was still going. When we headed to the station, it was finally over and the street parties had once again begun. At one point we were so stuck in the crowd that I wasn’t sure we’d ever make it out, but we managed to push our way through. Will definitely have to bring Jimmy back next year.