Stonehenge
Stoney beach on the English Channel over looking the Isle of Wight
Roman baths at Bath
Jane Austin characters
Lacock village houses
Day 7: Bath
As it is Saturday, the two families were able to go to Bath together. It is a very busy town and even more so with a Rugby match being played and the end of the Jane Austin Celebration Week. Maybe there was also a Mini convention nearby as we saw heaps travelling together on the M4 on the way to Bath and on the way home.
Bath has hot springs near the Avon river which have been used since at least 2000BC. The peak times after that were the Roman times, 1200'sAD, and again during the Georgian period. The architecture and archeology of the area reflect all of those periods. Extremely fascinating and enjoyable. We also saw heaps of people dressed up in costume of the Jane Austin era as they were attending a ball tonight.
We left Bath in the afternoon and stopped at the village of Laycock on the way home. The inventor of photography came from Laycock and it was a town and Abbey used in some of the Harry Potter films. It is a World Heritage Site with fantastically old buildings which are still very much in use today.
On the drive home we enjoyed the sunny afternoon and sunset views of the Somerset and Wiltshire country side, which we hadn't been able to see in the morning as there had been heavy fog until midday.
We have been navigating our way about using photocopied maps and John's GPS which we have named "Jenni"*. Jenni has been invaluable in telling us where to go. She travels everywhere with us always chattering away, letting us know how far to the next turn, which exit to take for the multitude of roundabouts etc. She also lets us know where all the many fixed and mobile speed cameras are located. She doesn't seem to mind that we sometimes ignore her chatters. At times she leads us astray as her directions can be misleading, if not entirely wrong, especially with roundabout exits.
* Any similiarity to people living or dead, in Orange or elsewhere is purely coincidental.
2 comments:
Yay. Great to see some photos.
Maddy had a look too.
It sounds like you are having a fabulous time.
Oh, what a bonus to be there at the end of the Jane Austin celebration week, the characters do look like they have just stepped out of a novel.
It is comforting to know you have Jenni with you and that she is invaluable to you. I hope she is enjoying your company. I assume she is sleek and stylish as well as useful. I do wonder how many of her 'wrong directions' are the result of her feeling you are not listening to her - just a thought.
Continue to have fun, be safe and enjoy!
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