Wednesday, May 30, 2018 -- Bath
You would not believe how hard it was to get this post ready to go... my google accounts blew up and it took several hours to get back into them! All because I am in a foreign country! Blah....
Look what I found on the rainy drive south to Bath
We arrived at our hotel, parked then walked to town. The route crossed the canal on a foot bridge
We visited the Abbey. It is an Anglican parish church. It was founded in the 7th century, reorganized in the 10th century and rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries and had a major restoration in the 1860's. This one was also effected by the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in the 1500's.
The organ is massive
A wonderful window wall and fan vaulting
We really liked this memorial, the detail of the carving is amazing
The piece on the left is an additional piece
Busy place
The buildings form a semi-circle
We went on the free city walk. Mike was our guide
Park by the river
This is the most interesting dam I've ever seen. Check out the bridge...
This is actually the bridge by the dam. Both sides are lined with shops. You'd never know you were on a bridge.
New use for old phone booth
Check out the two sections nearest to the scaffolding. The black one has not been cleaned, but the one next to it has been. The stone is so soft that they can not power wash it. To clean, they have water run over the stones from above and gently use a brush on the stone. Good thing they outlawed coal burning, eh? Now things stay clean.
Before the city had fire departments, you purchased fire insurance and got this on your building. Without it, they'd let your building burn.
Another neat building
This chandelier is insured for 1.5 million GBP. It dates back to the 1800's
Look at the chimneys. I expect Bert and Mary Poppins to appear!
You can hardley tell, but this is another of the circular buildings
Got to have a selfie once in a while!
Georgian Garden
This is the back side of a building complex. As you can see they are all different
This is the front of the same building, where certain standards had to be met
When the taxes on tea became too much for the poor, another way of taxing the rich was to tax the number of windows they had in their home. But loopholes can be found. The top two windows on the left were redone to have only a single sash, so they counted as one. The one on the top right was closed off, to reduce the taxes.
After our walking tour we visited the Roman Baths. The exhibit shows how the baths evolved and how they would have been used.
The Roman era baths are below street level. the museum does a great job of presenting how the space was used.
Part of the delivery method for the hot water
Wayne standing on 1st Century Roman stones
We celebrated with Espresso Martinis Here's to us!!
Thursday, May 31, 2018 Stonehenge, Avebury, Lacock and Castle Combe
We let someone else drive today, taking a tour with the Mad Max Touring Company. It was a great day, but my mind hurts from all the new information I was told. Not sure I can remember all of it! LOL
Found another use for the old phone booths
Our driver, Barry
Stonehenge was awe inspiring
To keep the feel of the area, thatch roofs now have to be replaced with new thatch, rather than longer lasting tile or slate.
The center and left are thatch, the right is not
Wayne admiring Europe's largest man-made prehistoric mound at Silbury Hill. It was created over a short period between 2400-2300 BC.
This stone is called the Barber-Surgeon Stone. It is part of the Avebury Standing Stones, which is larger and older than Stonehenge. During the 14th century, Christians in the area began to destroy 'pagan' sites. This stone was toppled, but in 1938 when archaeologists were working to put it back up, it was discovered that one of the men pulling this one over had been trapped underneath it when it fell. He was determined to be a 'Barber-Surgeon' based on the tools in his pouch, and dated in the 14th century based on the coins from 1320-25 also in his pouch.
The Christians named this the Devil's Chair. After all, it was a 'Pagan' site.
The ditch around standing stones is call the henge. This one is 380 yards in diameter and over 1,000 yards in circumference.
Avebury Village is inside the stone circle
Thatch roof next to its newer cousin
Chalk horses are found in fields around this area. The soil is chalk, so take off a layer of turf and you make something like this.
Here it is in the distance. Barry told us who the monument is to, but frankly I have brain-ache and can't remember the story...
Established in 1361 in the Village of Lacock
Lacock was used for three nights to film some scenes from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. This is the street Harry and Dumbledore walked down, looking for Professor Slughorn's house.
A little movie magic makes it all come together.
Used as Slughorn's house, it is actually on a different street
This was used as the house where Harry's parents were killed.
This is a Tithe Barn. 10% of what you made that year was tithed to the church. It was often paid in goods which were stored here. Look at the workmanship. This has wood pegs holding it together, after all these years it is still original.
New kid on the block is only about 200 year's old.
We also went to the Cotswold town of Castle Combe. Cotswold was known for its fine wool production in the middle ages. This town has survived without much change since that time.
These were the weavers cottages
View of town
Another beautiful church
Love all the stained glass windows
After coming back to Bath, Wayne and I found dinner at a place called the Cosy Club. They have a Vanilla Espresso Martini, so cheers to us again! Not as good as Bill's yesterday, but still mighty fine! We leave Bath tomorrow morning. We are headed to the FIM MXGP at Matterly Basin. We have 2 days, so we are going to try to go to Cornwall as it is one of my cousin's favorite place to go on holiday.
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