A visit to Bath

Given the combination of lovely weather and high work load we were determined to get out of Windsor. Sunday looks like I'll be working so Saturday was the day. Bath has been on our "to-do" list every since arriving. So it was not a difficult decision to set out for Bath.

Merrilyn and I have visited Bath when we were here in 1998. So this time we decided to skip the Roman Bath and instead focus on exploring the city.

We left around 10am and headed west on the M4. Its an easy drive of about 1.5hr to the outskirts to Bath; just before Bristol. On the way we passed many holiday makers and caravans. Its only a few days before the Summer school holidays start. Parking in Bath is horrendous so we took some advice and opted for a Park and Ride. Easy. For 3.50GBP we got a return bus ticket from the car park into the centre of the town. Buses make the trip every30minss and the journey itself is only about15minss. So all up - very easy.

We got in to Bath at midday and made our way to the Abbey. We learnt that inside is a small bronze memorial plaque dedicated to Admiral Arthur Phillip - the first Governor of Australia. He died at Bath on 31 August 1814.

A good way to see Bath is via the "hop on - hop off" open top tourist busses. We were able to pick up half price tickets from the tourist information centre (a good tip) that let us tour both the city and the outskirts. Good value. Before jumping on, however, we grabbed some lunch. Whilst eating outside we had our first rain shower in many weeks. It wasn't very heavy and was a welcome cool break. You can see from the photos that it was a little threatening all day.

We found the bus a fun experience. The tour guide was a local chap with a great sense of humour. And whilst the banter was wellpracticedd it was nonetheless very entertaining. You can hop off at any time but we decided to enjoy the ride as we toured the Pulteney Bridge, Royal Circle, Abbey, and Georgian architecture.

But there was one place we had to stop off. On the map we saw that the bus passed a playgroundthat'ss part of the Botanical Gardens. Jumping off we weresurprisedd to find an enormous playground. James was thrilled and couldn't decide what to do first. He climbed a fort but that didn't quite impress. Next to it was a high slide. Imagine a flattened "S". He climbed to the top but was a little daunted by the steep drop. Easily fixed. I climbed up and we both went down together. Of course, we did that for the next 10 minutes. Other things he loved was a long sliver slide, rope bridge, and a yellow "curly" slide. That one he could do himself.

After about 45 minutes of fun we were back on the bus to completed the city tour. Arriving back at the Abbey we decided to take the tour that runs along the outskirts of the town. You can usually get a great view of the town but it was raining again by this time so we stayed in the lower section. We learnt that Bath is situated in an extinct volcano. (Makes sense I guess - hence the thermal spring feeding the baths).

We finished up about 3:45 and caught the Park & Ride bus. On the way up the steep hill (side of the volcano rim) the heavens opened up. Whilst itunlikey rained for about 10 minutes the steep slopes caused an enormous amount of runoff. Very soon the streets were flooded and the bus was throwing up a huge wake. Luckily by the time we got to the car park the rain had stopped.

Probably not suprising - when I asked James that night what he enjoyed most about our adventure we said "the playground"! Its nice that we could all enjoy the day!

See the photos here