England 2

Another amazing day, seeped in ancient history. Leaving our accommodation early, we drove 5 miles into Bath city, stumbling by luck on the long term parking lot. With a purchased guide map in hand, we headed off in the direction of the abbey as we intended to take a Mayor's free walking tour at 10:30am.

 Best Western, Limpley Stoke, Bath

The view from our window

Hanging baskets of flowers are common in the area.

After a delicious bacon and egg breakfast (with gluten free toast!) we found the pump house and gathered with 30 other tourists wanting the tour. 4 guides turned up, all volunteers who had to pass an exam to have the honour of being our unpaid guides. I highly recommend the tour; it was fascinating 

and opened our eyes to so many details that we would have otherwise missed.

This is a statue of St Peter, positioned on the left side of the abbey doors. Notice that his head is rather small and that he has no neck? He actually lost his head during a war when soldiers were practising manoeuvres outside the abbey. A later restoration reused the stone that made up his original beard to carve a new face. The statue of St Paul on the other side of the doorway is complete with original head and halo and looks very different.

 

The Circus, Bath. There were 3 of these buildings, each with 3 stories and they formed a ring around a central courtyard where the wealthy ladies and gents would stay for 4 to 5 months for the sole purpose of finding a suitable match. The courtyard was gravel, not grass as it is now, so the fine shoes and dresses were not soiled. The columns on the lower level are Doric, the second level Ionic and the top level are Corinthian. Stone acorns decorate the roof edge.

A tour through the old Roman Baths completed an amazing morning in Bath. We had soaked up enough history by then and escaped for an English cup of tea and a peach for me, and an authentic traditional Cornish pastie for Peter.

Then began the torturous journey from Bath to Tintagel, on the coast of Cornwall. Finding the route out if Bath, and then out of Bristol had our nerves frayed. But succeed we did and the supposed 3.5 hour journey, predicted by Google, actually took 5.5 hours and provided us with significantly more grey hairs than we'd had before the journey started.

 The view from the B& B near Tintagel where we are staying. Pity we didn't arrive earlier as the day is sunny and a walk to the beach would have been great.  Tomorrow...

And another must do ticked off the list - Dinner in an English pub!Yum!