All right. I haven't been very good about posting here while I was away - not enough time, brainspace, or even a mouse with which to copy-paste the photos in.

From Derbyshire to Bath was just a train trip, and the canal boat where I was staying was fairly close to the station and the town. It was easy enough to find...I just walked right past it!

Bath, bed, and beyond!

The bedroom of the canal boat where I stayed in Bath.



I didn't take any other photos of the place. It was a very individual space, and the host made no effort to vanish the way so many other hosts seemed to do. I don't know if it's a memo that's gone out where the people who live in the house are instructed to vanish as much as possible so they don't have to interact with the guests, or the guests don't have to see them or what, but I found that most hosts on my travels tended to vanish into their rooms.

David of the canal boat did not. He and his partner were very friendly and chatty, checking in if we wanted cups of tea or a drink or breakfast. He made me breakfast on the morning I left (because I had to leave before sunrise to catch a morning train into London to catch the flight to Porto) and was exceedingly kind and polite.

After staying in the canal boat, I have realised that I may be a little bit claustrophobic. The place was lovely, but I felt crowded in all the time with the low roof and everything. I could deal with it, but it got vaguely on my nerves.

This is another canal boat, but not the one that I stayed in. Mine was wider - this one pictured is a narrow boat, but the guy who owned the boat I was on had the boat specially made so he could fit a grand piano in it!



Bath is on a river and all through the UK there are locks that allow for boats to move up and down different water levels. On the Saturday after the P&P pilgrimage, I went for a walk up the canal and past the locks. And spotted several different kinds of 'wildlife':



Bath has plenty of Georgian-Regency architecture (of course), with a heavy emphasis on classical style and design.

A building near the original springs that gave the town its name, and Bath Abbey (also near the original springs).




Ginormous thing, isn't it?

I did a session at the spa on Saturday morning and it was SOOOO GOOOOOOOOD. I tried to book a massage but there weren't any times or sessions available. But the sessions were pretty much the use of any of the pools, steam rooms, saunas, and suchlike in the building for a two-hour period.

Frankly, I'm surprised I wasn't more pruney by the end of it. All the water was heated - apparently it comes out of the springs at around 46C and they just let it cool to a more comfortable temperature. Also, chlorinate and generally clean, because the colour of the water that comes from the spring is a distinct greenish colour and it might be a little disconcerting. (Not to mention people will accidentally get some of it in their mouths and it's not exactly tasty.)

I think the spa day helped significantly in easing the twitches that my butt and hip were giving me after the long walks of the P&P pilgrimage. So good.

Then there's the actual springs from which the city gets its name. The Romans built an entire complex around the springs, including a temple for the goddess Minerval Sulis (Sulis was the local deity, who got merged with Minerva, the Roman version of Athena).



Of course the Georgians did it up...in the Greek/Roman classical style. Which is pretty much what we're seeing today.

Fish and chips in Bath:


Stourhead Gardens on Sunday (with my cousin and his wife). Some guy who was an architect to the rich and famous of the day bought this place up and basically got it fully landscaped, then built all kinds of grottoes with statues and springs, and a couple of temple structures in the Greek classical style because: why not?





If you recognise the temple structure, it was used in the 2005 P&P movie for the 'unwelcome first proposal' that Darcy makes to Elizabeth. You know, the classic scene in the rain and the wet...

My cousin didn't know this when he suggested Stourhead, but was tickled when he learned about it. It was so commonly asked that the National Trust member who was at that site had an ipad with the scene stored on it!

And a set of windows that made me think 'Hobbiton'. I really do need to make it to NZ one of these years.

Bath to London Gatwick, and off I was flying to Porto.

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Porto was the section of the trip i was most uncertain about. The friend I'd been planning to visit wasn't in town and I'd never been before, so had no idea of what to expect.

Frankly, I needn't have worried.

A port with port

More than enough buildings and history and city tours to keep me occupied, and that was without the port or wine options. I did take a visit to the Douro Valley and it was amazing.





Daniel also had fun and was greatly admired:




Big walking tour with a historian on Wednesday, up and down and through and through the stairs and spaces of the city:


And a 'lego' John the Baptist. Not appreciated by the locals.


Sunset over the river from the Jardim do Morro. And I got dinner, too. It was a surprisingly excellent dinner given the location was a big tourist point. Usually the touristing is good and the food is crappy. The food here was good.



Lots of murals and brightly-coloured walls. Also tiling decorations, just casually there. Which, of course, Porto is known for - their regional train station (different to the urban one) has entire murals that were glazed into the tiles when the place was first built a couple of hundred years ago. I do not have photos of this.


And finally in Porto at one of the restaurants I was at: a slice of fandom on a condensed milk mousse!

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There was a small bit of drama getting from Porto to the Netherlands. Due to Reasons, my flight was 90 minutes delayed. I only had 70 minutes to make my connecting flight at Frankfurt. That said, I was booked on the same airline for the connecting flight and they (luckily) had a later flight that day, but instead of arriving in Amsterdam Schiphol at 6pm, I wouldn't make it there until 10:30pm. And then I had to get to my lodgings!

I communicated with the host I was staying with, and they were very good about my late arrival. And fortunately Dutch public transport is very safe and very efficient. Within an hour of landing, I was at my lodgings, and my host was letting me in.

But a trip that was supposed to take about 6 hours from start to finish ended up taking more than double that. Oof.

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The point of the Netherlands was to see family and friends. So Saturday was with my stepbrother A, his wife A, her cousin V, and my nephew L. L is about 3, and adorably funny. He was a bit shy to begin with, but got the hang of me by the end of the day (my willingness to make dinosaur noises helped immensely). And by Sunday night we were making silly faces for photos. (If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!)

Netherlands, family, and friends

On Saturday we did a Van Gogh experience in Utrecht and walked around the city.



Then walked around Utrecht, which I'd seen before on at least one tour, but really wanted more time to explore.



Sunday I spent with just the stepbrother and nephlet walking around Rotterdam. Nephlet and the SIL and cousin V were heading off to Paris on the Monday, and I had plans to spend Monday with a friend who I've known for over twenty years, since the old Stargate SG1 days.

Behold! Our lemmings, Daniel and Heimdall!



Tuesday, we went out and down to Zeeland, the bit of the Netherlands best known for the building of dykes, and for agricultural produce.



Veere is a town that was thriving in the 16th Century-ish, before a sandbar developed at the main entrance to their port and rendered them unable to take the big shipping boats. It was so huge because this was the major port for the Scottish in the Netherlands. Which remains in such small details as carvings of sheep and thistles in the housing, and a Scottish flag hanging outside one of the older buildings.



The old Town Hall. Note the empty niches in the building front? I'm always curious about those and what statues used to stand there. Patron saints? Local magnates? Sheep?



Wednesday I had lunch with my stepbrother and we talked about the family and his plans for the future.

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The flight to Toronto was uneventful. 7 hours, quite a long time, but pretty ordinary.

I wrestled my bag onto the airport train and then onto the Toronto metro. And then onto a street tram. I love public transport.

The place I was staying seemed like a good neighbourhood - a high school nearby with an athletics field, a the trams run in to the city one block away, and there were plenty of restaurants and quite a few painted murals around the street.

colourful and interesting

The host had a friendly cat that looks like my Maladicta:


She also seemed like a bit of a fannish type - once upon a Harry Potter, if you know what I mean, as well as the Sarah J Maas series and other series I've heard mentioned in the romantasy line of things. But I didn't really get to ask many questions, she kept mostly to herself.

In Toronto, I was hoping to go and see Niagara Falls, but didn't realise it was an entire day trip. And then I didn't like the timing of any of the ones that were offered. So instead I spent the day in the city, just exploring with a walking tour and wandering around.

Sculptures in the city:




The CN tower in reflection, with Daniel and Li'l Pig.


And apparently someone...likes dwarves? As building decorations?


IDK. Can you explain it? I haven't looked it up, but I sure am curious!

I arranged to meet up with jenab on Saturday morning for brunch and we sat and talked for at least two, maybe three hours? It was lovely to meet and eat and talk with a fannish friend before I headed off to the station.

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Caught the train to Ottawa. Very comfy, if a bit expensive because I only booked the week before. Do it way earlier and you save something like $100! Anyway, I really have to do more travelling by train in Canada... Maybe next year? *weak smile*

Staying with alphaflyer, and got to celebrate a Canadian Thanksgiving on Sunday night. My very first Thanksgiving. (We don't do it in Australia, it's just Christmas for our family/feast get-togethers, although my family also does Chinese New Year in late January/early February.) It was delightful! The turkey, the pies, the food prep. Very familiar processes, but very different fillings, if you understand what I mean!

Look, I love a good feast with friends. The actual food doesn't matter, so long as there's much of it and people are comforted and satisfied by it. It could be a salad feast (with tasty salads, mind you, not the bland awful shit) and I'd still be good with it.

Outside (and inside) Ottawa

Anyway. Have a pic of Daniel and Li'l among the decorative gourds.



Pie. I got the crust recipe too. Must try it sometime!




Tilly the cat


And the Ottawa countryside was spectacular that weekend!






Mind you, some things are inexplicable to the Australian mind. An open BBQ fireplace in the middle of the woods? Do you WANT the country to go up in flames?



But there were also beaver swamps and slow-running rivers:


And me, taking photos in the woods while alphaflyer's husband went rock fossicking in an old mining gully and alphaflyer rested up in the car.



On Tuesday, my flight out wasn't until 6pm-ish, so I didn't have to be at the airport until 4pm. So in the morning we went to the National Art Gallery in Ottawa!

Overhead sails:


Indigenous modern art:


And an entire rebuilt chapel tucked away in one corner of the wing!


A quick diversion to see the rock sculptures of John Ceprano in the Ottawa River - he's been doing them for 35 years!



And then it was hugs and time to say goodbye.

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The travel time from Ottawa to Sydney was 24 hours. Not counting airport time either side. From Vancouver to Sydney took 16 hours alone.

It's a long trip. Longer than from San Fran (14 hours) but unfortunately not doable this time around due to authoritarian regimes etc. So Vancouver it was.

Those 24 hours also didn't count the redirection from Sydney to Brisbane because Sydney was fogged in and we were running out of fuel. So we had a six-hour detour; landed at Brisbane, refuelled, and came back without leaving the plane. Well, except for the person who had a medical situation: they had to call ambos (EMTs) on to check them out before escorting them off.



I arrived in Sydney 6 hours after planned. I'd sent the parents home, so I had to wrestle my luggage (all just-under-23kg, plus the backpack - at least 10kg, plus the satchel handbag - at least 3kg) on to Sydney trains and get to a home station before asking mum to pick me up.

But home! Home sweet home!



What a trip! I enjoyed every place I went (not so much the flights there maybe), but by the end of week 6, I was really ready to come home.

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I did several loads of washing over Thursday and Friday. Ran errands right, left, and centre. B1 went into surgery for her hand and came out fine, just grumpy that she can't do half the stuff she's used to doing (and she has a bad habit of not asking for help).

I slept badly on Thursday night. Woke at 1am and doomscrolled until daylight.

Went to sleep around 10:30pm on Friday night, woke 5am on Saturday morning.

And then decided I was going to remake the back of a dress so it would lace up and I could fit into it for a party that was at midday...