Our Anniversary Trip to Bath

We knew we wanted to do something special to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and we wanted it to involve a little bit of travel. Though we considered returning to Paris, we ended up being a bit short on time to plan a trip abroad, so decided to keep things simple with a weekend away in one of our favourite British cities: Bath.

Though we've both been to Bath several times (many times in my case!) and know the city's famous sights well, we wanted this trip to be a more relaxing one, where we could really enjoy the experience of being in this beautiful city without a particular schedule.

I have a sort of bucket list involving types of hotels I want to stay in; one of those was a classic British seafront hotel, which we "ticked off" in Dover in June. Still on the list are classic townhouse hotels in both London and Cheltenham, and a country cottage in the Cotswolds. And I also really want to stay in a castle at some point in my life!

Naturally, a classic Bath townhouse hotel was also an item on my list - and one that we ticked off over our anniversary weekend!

We stayed at the Kennard, a hotel in a peaceful street on the edge of the city centre, located in a terrace of very classic Georgian houses - exactly what we were looking for!

We went inside to drop off our luggage and had a little look around the hotel, which is beautifully decorated and even has a little secret garden out the back!

Our first bit of exploring of the day took us to the nearby Henrietta Park, a pretty, tranquil space we hadn't visited before.

We then stopped for brunch at the Provenist, a café that feels quite off the beaten track, well away from Bath's Christmas crowds. The coffee and avocado on toast was delicious and the place was decorated beautifully. To make things even better, a gorgeous sausage dog at the next table kept coming up to us, wanting cuddles!

The café is actually joined directly to Neptune furniture store, so we had a great time afterwards looking at all the arrangements of furniture and décor, and picking out what we liked for our dream future home!

We then passed through the centre of Bath, where we visited a new attraction for us: the Parade Gardens. Interestingly, you used to have to pay to visit this park, but this year, it became free again (probably because no one wanted to pay), which is why we finally went! It's a nice little park, with great views of Pulteney Bridge.

As we had a whole afternoon ahead of us, we decided to do the walk to Bath Skyline. This was a mostly uphill route that gave us a bit of a workout, taking us up past the picturesque Bath Locks and then up onto a (rather muddy!) hill overlooking the city.

We then went back to the hotel to have a rest and some snacks! This was when we got to check into our room, and we really loved it! It was right up in the roof (la chambre de bonne!) and was decorated in a very vintage style. Being there made us feel like we had stepped into the past (but in a good way)!

Later on, we had a Christmassy walk through the city on our way to Côte, one of our favourite restaurant chains. We had a very tasty meal there, and I tried orange wine for the first time (would highly recommend)!

The next morning, we had something planned to make the weekend extra special - a trip to Thermae Bath Spa! I'd been before but many years ago, and it was Claudio's first time going, so we were very excited!

We booked to go at 9:00 for our two-hour slot, and I'm glad we did, because it did start to fill up towards the end of those two hours, even though it was a Monday.

When we arrived, we were given cases to put our phones in that could only be opened with a special machine. This meant that we couldn't use them for the full two hours, which was actually quite nice!

The spa has three areas that we could use with our tickets: the rooftop pool, an indoor pool called the Minerva Bath, and an area with various steam rooms, a sauna and an ice room. The rooftop pool was lovely and warm and had great views, but getting out into the cold December weather was a struggle! We spent the most time in the Minerva Bath, which was very big and had a jacuzzi and a lazy river. Overall, it was a really special anniversary experience, and a great callback to the Roman history of Bath as a spa town.

Obviously I couldn't take any photos inside, but took one outside to remember our morning there. Unfortunately, the building was not in its most photogenic state!

Afterwards, we were very hungry, so headed over to the Pulteney Kitchen (located actually on the bridge itself) for an English breakfast. Great food and great views!

We the visited two churches: Bath Abbey and St John The Evangelist. Neither of us had entered Bath Abbey before, so this was another new Bath experience for us. Both churches are very beautiful, and it was nice to look around them and have some moments of prayer and reflection.

After that, we did some more walking around the city, visiting the market in the old Green Park station...

...and a nearby Winter Wonderland type of event. On our way there, we passed Bath Elim Church, a building that reminded me a lot of churches in Italy.

As it was a weekend, we also took the opportunity to visit Sally Lunn's Historic Eating House without having to queue! Naturally, we had Bath buns with cream and jam and pots of tea, which was absolutely delicious. Plus, it was cool to spend time inside what is said to be the oldest house in the entire city!

Our train home was after the rush hour, and there came a point in the day where we became quite tired and cold. So we decided to walk back to the hotel to chill out for a while. Walking past Pulteney Bridge after dark felt very atmospheric.

I also just had to take a photo of this old-fashioned chemist near the hotel, as I loved the big bottles!

Even though we'd already checked out of our hotel room, we had a code to come back in to pick up our luggage. The hotel has two landings, one of which has a little bar and the other one of which has a small lounge area, which was a nice comfy place to rest our feet before making our way to the train station.

To sum up, our anniversary weekend in Bath was a very special trip. Even though I grew up near Bath and have been countless times, it was my first time ever spending the night in the city and it was a super memorable experience to stay in a beautifully decorated hotel in a classic old building. Our time at the spa was fantastic, and we really enjoyed exploring the city on foot and seeing some hidden gems. Bath is absolutely one of our favourite cities in the UK - it has an elegance that reminds me of Paris and a connection to history that reminds me of Rome. I'm sure it won't be long before we'll be back again!

Spring Travel 2025: Reading, London, The Cotswolds and More

So, I've now been living in Reading and working in London for a bit over a month!

It's been a busy but really exciting time - we've been getting settled into our flat (and have loved getting the chance to decorate a bit and add our own touch!) and have spent plenty of time exploring London and areas near where we live. This move is something we were waiting to do for literally years, so it absolutely feels like the start of the rest of our lives, and we're really happy about it.

In this post, I'll be writing about what we've got up to in this new chapter, as well as all of our travel adventures over the last few months. So, let's start by going back to March...

Heathrow Airport

After arriving back in the UK following our honeymoon in Thailand (plus the chaos of missed flight connections and lost luggage!), we had to stay in London another couple of nights, as I had an early appointment in the city centre less than 48 hours later. To save money, we decided to stay at a hotel next to Heathrow: the Ibis Styles. This hotel is affordable for those of us on a budget but also has a really fun aviation theme!

We were a five-minute walk away from the Heathrow Airport Viewing Stand, so decided to check it out. It was difficult to get decent pictures, but we had fun seeing the planes taking off and landing.

Westbury Court Garden and the River Severn

At Easter time, we were still living at home and were busy getting ready to move, but we managed to squeeze in one last local trip over the long weekend. We decided to go to Westbury Court Garden, a place that I had visited during the pandemic but that Claudio hadn't been to before. This Dutch water garden is quite small but really unique and beautiful.

After exploring the garden, we drove to the River Severn and sat enjoying the view for a while.

Wembley Stadium and BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

Since moving to Reading, we've regularly used our weekends to get on one of the frequent Elizabeth Line services and go and visit different places around the capital. We both know central London pretty well at this point, but there are lots of interesting neighbourhoods and sights further out that we're enjoying getting to know.

Claudio is a football fan, so of course Wembley Stadium was one of the first places he wanted to visit! Passing through Wembley in the best seats on the bus (top deck at the front, obviously!), it was an interesting experience to see the neighbourhood. This area of London has a large South Asian population, and we saw lots of Indian shops and restaurants, and even a intricate temple, the Shri Sanatan Hindu Mandir.

Seeing the stadium was awesome - it's probably the most iconic stadium in the country, and maybe it's a bit strange that I hadn't been before. The surrounding area was buzzing with music and lots of people enjoying being out in the sunshine, and it was a great introduction to the London lifestyle.

After we'd had a good walk around the stadium (and had an ice cream!), I noticed that we were quite close to another place I was interested in visiting: BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. I can't remember whether I read about this Hindu temple in an article or saw it on Instagram, but it had been on my list of places to visit in London for a while.

We took a short bus ride to get there and were really amazed by the building: you would think you were actually in India, if it wasn't for the British weather! What's even better is that it's free for anyone to go inside and look around (though you are not allowed to take photos inside). A very nice couple talked to us outside and gave us some interesting information about the temple and Hinduism in general, which definitely added more context to our visit. Overall, it was a unique experience that I'd really recommend!

IFS Cloud Cable Car, the O2 Arena and the Olympic Park

The following weekend, we were back in the capital: this time in the east. We took the Elizabeth Line all the way to Customs House and got out at the Excel Centre.

This area of London is super nice and we enjoyed sitting on a bench by the river for a while with some snacks we picked up from Tesco. It was during the time when we had a sort of mini heatwave, and sitting there in the sunshine, next to the shimmering water, with skyscrapers in the distance and sporty people jogging and cycling past, I almost had the impression that we were in Sydney or Melbourne.

However, we weren't there to just sit by the river. We had come to this area for a reason, and that reason was the IFS Cloud Cable Car. So, with a bit of nerves, we paid £7 each, and got into a capsule that would carry us high above the River Thames, over to the O2 Arena on the other side.

Neither of us were strangers to cable cars - there's one in Santiago that we've taken a few times. However, this one was a lot further from the ground (or rather, water) than the one in Chile and it moved around quite a bit. We had fun, but at the same time, it was a relief to get back on solid ground on the other side!

As with Wembley, I'd never been to the O2 Arena before. I didn't know that, apart from the arena bit itself, the building is actually a big shopping mall that you're free to go into and wander around.

Then it was time for us to get back onto a more familiar mode of transport (the tube) to go and see yet more stadiums!

We went to Stratford to visit the Olympic Park, a place I'd first visited during my Gap Year back in 2015. I'd swum some lengths at the Aquatics Centre, which was really surreal, having seen it on TV during the London 2012 Games a few years earlier, and then had a walk around the park and the nearby Westfield Shopping Centre. I'd really loved the area at the time, and was interested to see how much it had changed in the 10 years since!

Fortunately, it was much the same and we both enjoyed seeing the park with the interesting formations of the Orbit Tower and the Aquatics Centre. There was actually a swimming competition going on inside the Aquatics Centre, but the security guard was nice enough to let us in for 5 minutes to see the place!

One thing that has changed since then is the Olympic Stadium itself. What was once the space where track and field medals were won in the 2012 Olympics, has been turned into a football stadium, which has been the home of West Ham United since 2016. I'll admit that back in 2015 I was disappointed about the impending fate of the stadium - I felt it should have remained an athletics venue in order to preserve the spirit of the Olympic Games. However, in 2025, Claudio was very happy to get to see the home of a famous Premier League club, so maybe it wasn't such a bad decision after all!

Visiting a Bristol Britannia plane at the Cotswold Airport

Though we've now got our flat looking nice and homely and well-decorated, the one thing we still haven't got round to getting is a TV (or a TV licence). So in the middle of May, we were back to Wiltshire and my parents' house for a weekend, mainly for the purpose of watching the Eurovision final!

But before parking ourselves in front of the telly, we had another exciting activity to participate in. A Bristol Britannia plane had arrived at Cotswold Airport and we got to go inside it! We even had the chance to sit in the cockpit, where a former navigator told us a lot about the history of the aircraft and how it's flown.

Next to the plane, there was a tent with military planes that are in the process of being repaired. Here we got to see some missiles and even an ejector seat!

Henley-on-Thames

The following weekend, we were in the Chilterns, visiting the picturesque town of Henley-on-Thames. It was such a nice place to walk around, and we rounded off our time there in the perfect way: with a cream tea by the river at Viv's café.

This trip was actually the topic of my first proper reel on my Instagram page - I'm in the process of experimenting with some new content ideas on social media as part of a marketing portfolio I'm creating. Although my personal favourite format of sharing content is this kind of old-school blogging that I do here on this website, I know it's not as popular as it was previously, and nor are the kind of Instagram posts I do (generally image carousels with a lot of hashtags). So I'm going to be playing around with short-form video over the coming weeks and months. 

But of course, I've also captured some picture content from Henley-on-Thames to share right here!

Clapham Common, Battersea Park and Chelsea

Of course, we couldn't keep away from London for too long, and so on the Bank Holiday Monday at the end of May, we headed down to Clapham Common. While in Wembley, we'd had an experience of India, we were here in Clapham for an experience of Australia!

Clapham is the most popular neighbourhood for Aussies and Kiwis living in London, and is filled with Antipodean-inspired cafés. We went to one of them: Brickwood Coffee and Bread, which is just outside the tube station. Of course I had to have the avocado on toast and flat white! Even though the flat white was a lot stronger than what I'm used to, we really enjoyed the food and the Australian aesthetic of the place.

We then had a walk around Clapham Common in the sunshine.

It was cool to spot the pub the Windmill on the Common, as I remembered it being mentioned in one of the Cormoran Strike books, a series that I'm a big fan of and am currently rereading!

Next, we took the bus to Battersea Park, as I wanted Claudio to see the place that I'd enjoyed visiting back in January 2022. He really liked it too!

Then we crossed over the Albert Bridge...

...and arrived in Chelsea, an area neither of us had visited before. It was nice to see the elegant buildings, and Claudio loved all the fancy cars!

Working in London

However, we haven't just been having fun in London; I've also been working there - going in each week on the Elizabeth Line (super super early to avoid the rush hour prices haha). Although my current job isn't really aligned with what I want to be doing at this point in my career, all the same, working in London was a dream of mine for a long time, and I feel proud to have achieved it and happy whenever I step out into Central London early in the morning.

The office is located pretty near to the City of London itself, and I can see all the famous skyscrapers like the Shard, the Gherkin and the Walkie-Talkie from the window! The walk from the station also has plenty of great sights to see.

Life in Reading!

So, we're at the stage now where we've been living here for several weeks, we've settled into a routine, and it feels like home now. Obviously, moving out after over a year spent living in my parents' house was a big step, and it was stressful to take that plunge at last of deciding which area in or near London to live in and then choosing a flat, but pretty soon afterwards, we knew for sure it was the right decision. For example, before I moved to Bristol, I had a feeling that I wasn't doing the right thing, and that was confirmed to me pretty much as soon as I arrived. But since arriving here in Reading, we've both felt generally very happy.

We did consider living within London itself, but it was pretty clear that we wouldn't be able to find a flat like ours (very nice and modern, with a beautiful view and great location) in the capital for a similar price. The downside of living here is that it is a bit costly and takes some time to get into the centre of London, but with the Elizabeth Line, we do have that flexibility to just go to the train station whenever we want and get to London without planning in advance. The upside of being here, aside from cheaper rents, is that it's quicker and cheaper to visit home than it would be from London, and we're also very close to nice places like Oxford and the Chilterns.

Funnily enough, we do actually have the classic London black cabs here in Reading and we're now on the TfL network. However, our buses are local ones and we're part of the South East region rather than Greater London. So it does feel like we're getting a bit of both worlds, which is quite nice!

Reading doesn't have a reputation for being an attractive town, which I think is a little bit unfair; of course it's not as beautiful as Cheltenham, Bath or Oxford, and some parts are less well looked after than others, but it has a nice mix of modern, high-rise buildings and elegant, grand architecture. Here are a few highlights!

One of the nicest areas is Caversham, to the north of the River Thames. We once spent a really nice Friday evening in Caversham Court, an area that really makes you feel like you're in the most idyllic English summer setting possible.

That's all for today - it's been a long one! However, there's more to come soon; we recently sneaked in an early summer minibreak featuring beaches, a castle, and a very iconic sight. A post all about it will be on its way shortly!