Bath and North East Somerset

. . . for the wallet.

Today was the sort of day we had been anticipating all along. It was wet - all day.

(Before getting into the day’s events, a side note about ‘Cornwall connections’. Others have private messaged us telling us of their own family roots stretching back to Cornwall, as indeed do my own.
My great, great, great Grandfather (Francis Dennes) lived in this region, was tried at Truro Court (no longer exists) in the early 1820’s for petty theft to sustain his family and was transported to Botany Bay sentenced to 14 years of hard labour for his crime. He was then given a parcel of land in the Manning river area in N.S.W. where he settled - and the rest is history).

We woke to steady drizzle, but despite this we still decided to go for our planned walk before breakfast around to the next little Port - Port Gaverne.

This is because before we left Sydney we had decided that, as much as possible, we were not going to let inclement weather stop our planned activities. So far there had been little to challenge that. Today was a day to test that resolve.

Port Gaverne was similarly pretty and worth the effort, with a final walk out to the eastern headland through grass long enough to thoroughly soak shoes and socks.
We returned for the 8.30 breakfast commencement and fortified by an excellent ‘Full Cornish Breakfast’ at The Slipway, I walked up the somewhat deserted streets (now with strong currents of water flowing down them) to retrieve and return with the car to load up and drive to our next destination (Bath), but not before banging my head on a few more low doorways.
Having braved driving the narrow streets of Port Isaac yesterday, the drive out now seemed ‘a piece of cake’ despite the rain.

The drive should have taken just under 3 hours, but it took considerably longer due to heavy traffic on the M5 (it must go with the name!). On approach to the second long delay, Waze suggested an alternate route due to the congestion and we gratefully accepted this. As it turned out we were actually pleased about the new route, as it took us through dozens of tiny picturesque villages along equally tiny roads to finally emerge into Bath. Additionally, we had the pleasure of some WhatsApp calls back home along the way. Bible readings and podcasts helped make the time go more quickly as well.

We checked into our Villa at exactly 2pm. I had only booked a standard room but because the room hadn’t been cleaned on arrival we were pleased to receive a complimentary upgrade to their best room. As the drizzle continued outside, we were both thinking (but not saying) the same thing - let’s stay here and enjoy the lovely accomodation. However, historic Bath was just down the road to be explored, so we donned the rain jackets and set off in the steady drizzle armed with an online audio guide and map to spend about 2 hours following the guided tour around the major features of this unique city.

First stop was ‘The Pump Room’ where ancient Romans would come to bathe in (and Edwardian English would come to drink) the natural mineral waters emanating from the spring. The Pump Room would be closing soon but the Roman Baths themselves would stay open until 6pm, so this determined the order of events. We would line up and pay a ‘walk up’ fee at the Roman Baths when we had finished at the Pump House.
This ‘Pump Room’ is now a very upmarket restaurant, but I had read (thank you Trip Advisor) that you can go into the restaurant and sample the spring waters for a very small fee (50p) without having to dine there. So we fronted up looking slightly bedraggled, asked in the confident Australian way if we could sample the spring waters please as we had read that this was possible?
‘Yes, of course, just there at the back of the restaurant sir’.
We were pointed in the right direction and then left to our own devices. While sampling the said waters (palatable but lukewarm - we both made the Laodicea comment) we unexpectedly noticed that through the window and directly below us were the famed Roman Baths which people were lining up for outside (long queues) and paying a relatively large fee (AUD$100 each) to view from a vantage point little different to what we were enjoying here. So we ‘sampled the waters’, enjoyed the view and took our snaps of the Roman Baths. The 50p fee was reduced to zero as they didn’t want our money - perhaps they were pleased to be rid of these two uncouth tourists who were dragging down the tone of their expensive restaurant. Two points of interest done and dusted ‘on a budget’ :)
We walked our way around the rest of the audio tour of Bath, noting and appreciating the transition from Roman through to more modern architecture - albeit through the haze of a steady rain that barely let up.

A 20 minute uphill walk from the point at which our audio guide finished through the ever present drizzle back to our accommodation concluded our day.
As I write this blog, Loss is literally enjoying ‘a bath in Bath’ :).
Our ‘wet-weather resolve’ is still intact.Read more