Arrival

I flew Air India from Chicago to London, because it was a great price.  It was an interesting flight.  It was an overnight trip, and the difference between the western and eastern cultures was very clear.  The flight was only about half full.  Nearly all of the Indians travelled as family groups.  They sat together towards the front of the plane and chatted and socialized throughout the 8 hour flight.  They didn't seem interested in spreading out to get more space.  The westerners, on the other hand, were all travelling either alone or with just one other person.  As soon as the seatbelt sign was turned off, they started heading to the empty rows in the back of the plane.  One British woman actually stopped to tell my friend Jenny and me that we should move back there so we could get a whole row to ourselves.

  We did so, and took separate rows and slept, barely speaking over the rest of the flight.  It was a really interesting contrast in ideas of personal space and social interaction.

We landed at Heathrow and immediately took the tube to Paddington station.  Our vacation was going to start in Bath, not London.  Despite our ability to lay down in the plane, we didn't sleep well and were feeling pretty jetlagged.  The train ride from Paddington to Bath was not fun.  But soon we got to our B&B, The Henry.  This was a nice B&B located fairly close to the train station.  After showering and changing, we hit the town with a bit more energy.

We visited Bath Abbey, the Circus (the architectural type, not the big tent and elephant type), and walked up and down the streets.  That night we went to the Bizzare Bath tour, which was a lot of fun.  Entertaining locals lead walking tours of the town that are filled with comedy and very little accurate history.  It is a great way to get a taste of the town--you can get the history in so many other places you really don't miss it.