Europe 2012 - England/Spain Part 6 - Bath

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Bath Day!  Not as in taking a bath but as in going to Bath.

We had another leisurely full English breakfast at the B & B, packed and headed off to Bath.   

 The Munchkin view of breakfast at the B & B

Bath is medium sized city to the west of London on the river Avon just before the Bristol Channel.  

Bath is renowned for two major sites; it’s abbey and the Roman Bath and is also known for the Bath Rugby Club whose home stadium is the Rec (actually I doubt if you cared about that at all but I do!).

The drive to Bath was only about 30 minutes.  3A was tired from two days of driving so #3 took a turn at the wheel.  When either of the folks who are not native to driving on the left, there was a certain amount of terror among the other passengers.  But #3 did well and using our Tom Tom, we parked in the center of town. 

 

 Then we walked up to the abbey.   

 

The abbey in this case looks like the traditional Gothic Cathedral.  I’m a real sucker for Gothic Cathedrals.  This had a unique feature of ‘fan vaults on the ceiling which were put in during a 19^th century renovation and consist of a series of small supports coming out from the main pillars like a fan.

Then it was on to the Roman Baths.   

Yay Baths!

These were a pretty amazing restoration and presentation.  They don’t let you take in strollers but they have free child backpacks you can use.  3.1 loved being so much higher up and was fascinated with everything going around her.  She’s at a pretty good age for traveling because she’s only slightly mobile and the world is all pretty new and interesting.  Another year a so and she’ll be in the terrible twos and that will be that.  

The Bath Roman ruins are really well done.  They have excavated extensively and have a full, well-developed system for investigating the complex with a recorded system of explanations accessed by a free hand set (nice that it is included in the fee unlike a lot of places that make you pay for it after the entrance cost). 

 Daughter modeling the use of the handset information system.

 I was particularly taken with the still operating water system that brings the mineral spring water from the source into the main bath complex.  There was so much to see and listen to that we were all pretty beat before we could even finish it all.

We left the baths complex and the squares between the complex and the abbey and found a sandwich place with outdoor seating (the weather being fairly nice) on another small square just a block from the abbey.  It was a wonderfully tranquil place (amazing just being a block from the abbey and in view of the abbey). 

"I think I'll just take some of the street scene while you have lunch"

"Or maybe not"

After lunch we walked around town looking for hats.  I’m looking for a nice looking hat that is collapsible that I can use for travel.  There was no luck but 3.1 had a nice nap in the stroller.  Then we were ready to drive to the southern Dorset coast our next stop.  I took a turn a driving with #3 acting as navigator.  3A and Wife were in the back basically silent in terror.  Lots of roundabouts and small roads with large trucks coming in the other direction.  I took us most of the way until we got to Dorchester where we stopped to get groceries for out cottage in West Bexington which is right on the coast.  After the grocery shopping, 3A decided he really wasn’t that tired and would really much rather drive.  I was very happy because the steep, narrow roads we went down to get from Dorchester made the roads I had driven on look like highways.

It was pretty late and I whipped up a vegetable soup.  We fed 3.1 a frozen kids meal because she was beat.  Then we enjoyed a quiet evening with some local cheese I had picked up in Bradford-on-Avon.  Drinks and sweets finished our evening again.