Tewkesbury and Bath

 Aren't they just about the most English place names you've ever heard? The names are only rivaled by the history and architecture, let me tell you.

The morning started with a delightful breakfast spread and Rhys and Louise's. Full on B&B treatment - so unexpected and so sweet! Then we followed Rhys' walking directions along the Avon River to the Tewkesbury Abbey. While that sounds like something easy and not worth mentioning, it isn't. You see, I typically can't take in verbal directions and teachings. I'm a visual learner and struggle to remember anything verbally presented. But as established in the last post, Rhys and I are similar enough as humans that he speaks a language I understand. Directions complete with landmarks and visual cues for making turns! I could paint a picture in my mind as he talked and had no issues recollecting it and leading us there. Was this my Catholic Miracle fresh from St Winifride's Well???  You can't rule it out!

More baby birds! Signets no less. Delightful.

Tewkesbury Cathedral is like 1000+ years old and one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in Britain. (Romanesque style is before the Gothic period and the architecture features thick walls, rounded arches vs pointed, symmetrical design with sturdy pillars and barrel vaults).

It has a long and interesting history - not devoid of bloodshed - but these days seems to play host to events featuring art and craft, theatre and games, childrens fun and more... something for the whole community to partake in. Honestly, it was a breath of fresh air as I had gotten used to the usual Catholic experience with strong smells of incense and mustiness, quiet and cool cathedrals that are empty and grounds that lack life and love ... and scream "find the money to maintain me better!"

A walk through Tewkesbury with it's beautiful and crooked Tudor style buildings would not be complete without coffee and cake. And a quick stop to pick out a silver charm for my bracelet!

By lunch time we were headed to Bath. I thought Mark would enjoy something super British and Roman, yet different from the other sights I had navigated us to all week. The baths of Bath!

Incredibly touristy but worth the stop. We meandered while listening to the audio guide. Took pictures and learned a crazy amount too. 

Call me crazy, but I was EXCITED to find a nice hotel near Heathrow and have some downtime. Repacking, refueling and relaxing before tomorrows flight seemed the perfect way to end the day - the week - the whole trip. 

Mentally, I was ready to go home. The call of the fur-babies was strong!

And then... the fun began... 

Peru Day 14: Final day in Peru

Apparently we had sufficiently recovered from the "food tour day" of 2 days ago, because our checklist of stuff left to do in Lima was... mainly eating food!

Teresa had beautifully compiled a list of foods that we had not tried yet, but that had been recommended. While I was ticky-tackying away with blog posts at night, she was doing homework that benefited both of us. Each morning, I was lucky enough to wake up to a working plan - things she thought we'd enjoy together, places to visit, tastes to experience, pictures to take. How did I get so lucky?

We packed in the morning, carefully assessing (guessing) how much space we had, how much weight we could still get away with in our checked bags and how many US$ and Peruvian Soles we had left. I should be a little embarrassed that our plan involved intentionally leaving Peru at midnight tonight with no money left to spend. - but I have no such shame or regret! :-)

We Uber'd back over to Barranco. This district with it's art, color, history and architecture had been a favorite. Today, there was a local handicraft market going on too. First stop, breakfast a the cafe that Lucas introduced us to. Breakfast was to include lucuma milkshake and we were fairly excited about that. (Like... little kids, excited!)

We then wandered Barranco and hit the markets just as they opened. 

My intention was honestly to buy gifts for others. But as is often the case, I find so many more me-to-me gifts lurking amongst the treasures of every market!

Today I took a fancy to one stall in particular. The artist was Leonardo. A Colombian native who had found his way to Lima, via Mexico City. His work was not just beautiful, but it was unique. We both bought earrings here and I picked up a cute set of wooden cats to commemorate my time in Lima too.

We also met the most awesome little old lady. Olga was her name. She was hand-making what I can only describe as patchwork traditional Peruvian scenes, with a 3D twist. Olga became the proud bearer of pretty much all the US$ I had left and I become the delighted new owner to a work of art that I just adore. It features alpaca, vultures, cows, potatoes and corn, prickly pear cacti, mountains and even the red roofed buildings that I'll remember from Cusco forever. The little agricultural workers have clothes, baskets and even hair that is all intricately put together!

On my particular bucket list of food, was Alfajores - sandwich cookies filled with dolce de leche. We found them in a small bakery and as tempting as it was to eat them, had them boxed to go. After all, there were picarones in our immediate future and these sweet potato/squash doughnut type things are best eaten immediately, while swimming in a sticky molasses/honey-like (chancaca) type syrup.

Mmmm.... Picarones.

One plate of these will never be enough but it was Alex to the rescue again...  He sent us the link to a recipe! Oh, this could be dangerous.  Picarones Recipe

By mid afternoon it was time to take a break at home again. An hour or so to relax, drink tea, eat those alfajores and plan stage two of what is now known as our Lima Food Crawl.

We moved from restaurant to restaurant, ferreting out individual dishes that were still on the "must try" list and sharing them. While we could never bring ourselves to eat guinea pig (cuy) we did observe another couple picking bones clean at a table next to us. That was enough for me!

Stuffed!
With just enough energy left to hit the silver and textile markets one more time, we set about walking off some of the incredible amount of food we had put away. Yes, this time I DID find gifts for other people. :-)

So here is where we were at...
A pocket full of Sole coins left and about US $11 in my wallet that I would use for the bus back to Boulder tomorrow afternoon.

The cats became the recipients of most of the coins and their park, the site of our final goodbye to Lima. The smart women we are, we left just S/2 (about $.60) in my wallet in case we had cause to use a "pay bathroom" @ S/1 each.

Then it was time to pack once more and load up our Uber at 9:15pm for start of our homeward bound journey.

Goodbye Lima

Lima to Houston @ 12:30am.  Houston to Denver @ 12:40pm. LONG journey... but actually happy to be going home.

We're coming home!!!