Thursday 30 June 2011

Come back Mary all is forgiven! Stu you will be pleased to know that Mary reasserted herself today and expertly led us to Bath! She took a road we might not have selected but hey she brought us right to the door so we are not complaining.

We set off early and arrived here about 12.30pm just in time to park the car (not the easiest thing to do due to the tiny car park), drop our bags and head off down the road to town. Our B&B is perched up above the town about 2ks from the centre. The walk down was pleasant with the main part of it through the park. Nice day today incidentally and without those icy breezes we have been used to.

Bath is wonderful - what can I say, all those things people told us about it are on the button! It is made up of historical buildings and of course has the Roman Baths, the only natural thermal springs in Great Britain and the Bath Abbey, build in 973AD. In 1973 The Queen was present at a service to commemorate the 1,000 anniversary of the Abbey being built.

After the best prawn salad either of us had tasted to date (and the obligatory beer - Kronenburg - you have to do it) we bought ourselves tickets to visit the Baths. Before I go on a bit about the pub we ate at. It was tiny - the bar took up the main part of the downstairs room where there were a scattering of tables. It was very entertaining being so close to the action! The barman was French and hailed from La Rochelle. Just about every person in the bar was overweight - chips, sausages, pasties and mushy peas to blame I'm thinking).

There were hundreds of people around today including school children as teachers are on strike and we had to join the queue. The Baths were built by the Romans in 45AD and the bathing houses at the time were extremely elaborate containing various rooms where people could enjoy steam baths, massages and simply sit and acclimatise prior to soaking in the healing waters of the main bath. The baths are 2 stories below the level of the modern city and were excavated over a number of years to become the site they are today. It is a truly wonderful exhibition very well organised and laid out and gave you a good impression of what the baths would have been like hundreds of years ago. It was truly wonderful walking amongst all the historical stones and viewing the old coins and artefacts that were on display. It would have been nice to bring home something from the shop but we are always conscious of fitting things in our bags! Kev was flat out taking photos though and you will be able to look at these in our album. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow but will probably take the hop on hop off bus at some stage and maybe do the guided walk with one of Bath's honorary guides.

Lucy you would have loved all the things we saw today and it would have been such an amazing lesson for you in ancient history. Bye the way, best of luck with your races at the weekend - we will be cheering you on!

Love to all the sickees at 6 The Oval and also to the ones looking after them! Lu got your message thanks and looking forward to seeing your new togs! Not sure about the high heels though! You are tall enough already!

Mum thanks for the letter! Jannie is doing Ok even with all the steps. You obviously are sure that we are off to France in a week but it's not for another 18 days. then we will see. Steps - well we forgot to say that neither of us were volunteering to climb the 288 steps to the top of the tower at Bath Abbey. I told Jan that it was her turn but she refused. Love from us both. thanks Sheryl for keeping Mum up to date.

Hey girls we needed the fashion police today - where were you??