Europe 2023

There’s a lot of things to do and see in the lovely city of Bath but the one ‘un-missable’ attraction is a visit to the thermae, the city’s Roman baths.   Taking advantage of the natural hot springs in the area, from water fed from the local Mendip Hills, the Romans constructed a temple and public baths here dedicated to the Goddess Minerva.  The presence of these baths led to the development of a small urban settlement and hence the birth of the town of Bath.  In constant use up until the end of Roman rule in the 5th century, the temple and baths nonetheless fell into a state of disrepair on their departure.  However, on being ‘rediscovered’ during the reign of Queen Victoria, and with the supposedly healing qualities of the water, it once again became a ‘health spa’.  Today the site’s use is as a museum that, not only includes the Great Bath, but also presents the history of the baths and temple.  In addition, it’s also home to the many archaeological artefacts that have been foun

Off out and about town this morning to re-visit some some of the sites that have helped Bath become the only city in the UK to be designated a World Heritage Site in its entirety.   First off was a visit to to the Pulteney Bridge on the River Avon.  Only one of four in the world to have shops across its full span on both sides, the bridge is in such esteemed company as Venice, Florence, and Erfurt,  Our next stop was to the beautiful ‘Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul’, a.k.a. Bath Abbey.  Though ‘only’ a parish church, because of its size and magnificence it gives the impression of being a cathedral.  The church is also not a real abbey either, due to the absence of monks or nuns, but apparently Queen Elizabeth the First mistakenly called it such and so it’s been called one ever since.  Being keen to make the most of our National Trust membership our next port of call was to Prior Park, a stunning 18th century landscaped garden designed by Capability Brown.  Overlooked by a

Celebration day today on our very last hike walking from Cold Ashton into the Roman Spa town of Bath where we’re going to spend a couple of days. Mostly a lovely walk and, although the Cotswold Way was taking us into a large city, we were quite lucky as the path generally missed any industrial suburbs and took us straight to the River Avon and then into the centre of town.  Last steps off the dirt track into town! Yay! 😅🥳

  Back to ‘normal’ again as the journey and landscape to Cold Ashton today was much improved on yesterday, plus we had the bonus of a break at the National Trust property of Dyrham Park.   Dyrham Park, typical of a large number of National Trust properties, is a large stately home with formal gardens and surrounded by ancient parkland.  Built by the local MP in the late 1600’s, William Blathwayt, the Grade I listed building is home to art works and furniture from around the world, particularly Holland, and includes some magnificent tapestries.  This Blathwayt apparently made his fortune by both marriage and during his role as Minister for War for, according to Louis XIV of France, “the warmonger” King William III (‘William of Orange’).  So, not a lot has changed there then! 😆 Top R: Leather ‘wallpaper’ We stopped again a little later when we came across this lovely Norman style church, Holy Trinity, in the tiny village of Cold Ashton.  Built in the 14th Century, it was substantially

  Our hike today, from Wotton-under-Edge to Chipping Sodbury, was a little disappointing.   Although the weather remained ok while we walking, the actual scenery along the Cotswold Way was a bit ordinary.   There was a fair bit of what I would call ‘industrial’, i.e. pylons, major roads, bridges, railways etc, and on the ‘nature’ side of things it was all a little underwhelming, especially when we got close to any towns on the way.  A shame but hopefully things will pick-up tomorrow.

  Today’s hike, from Dursley to Wotton-under-Edge, was really nice and quite a bit different from yesterday as it was mostly open country, however, it did have the addition of a few ‘killer’ hills!   Once up at the top though, and no easy feat on a couple of them, there were some spectacular views.   Top L:  A monument to William Tyndale, a local lad  who was the first to translate the Bible into English.   For his efforts he was convicted of heresy  and burnt at the stake! Bottom L:  The ‘Jubilee Clump’ - Built and planted to  commemorate the jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887.  Drinking water for the dry and thirsty on the  Cotswold Way and provided by a friendly farmer It seems that the more we move southward the towns where we’re staying seem to be getting a bit more ‘ordinary’, and Wotton-under-Edge follows that trend.  There’s a couple of nice old pubs here but overall there’s not a lot that’s picturesque. 

  Not a great day for walking today as it rained all the way from King’s Stanley to Dursley.   In these conditions though h aving all the right clothing for the right weather is generally a good thing and a positive.   However, when you’re traipsing through boggy puddles, or sliding down muddy tracks when trying to walk uphill, all that extra clothing increasing your body temperature is not so positive! 🥵😊 Walking through mainly woodlands the rain was constant and heavy, and at times we found ourselves walking through some low level clouding, which was certainly interesting! R: Not a happy bunny! Just to finish off the day in the same vein, the town of Dursley doesn’t exactly have a lot to recommend itself and so it came as no surprise when we found out that JK Rowling (born in a nearby town) named Harry Potter’s rather unpleasant family after the town!

  It was a lovely walk today on our way to King’s Stanley, and it covered a real mixture of scenery with farms, woodland, vineyards, rivers, and a canal on the way.   With the farmland we’ve noticed there’s a bit of a change in the type of crops that are being grown.  Previously there’s been an abundance of wheat and barley but down here, just a little bit further south, there seems to be more corn than the others and in addition we’ve even seen grapes.  While we were wending our way through one of the woodland areas we came across this old fallen tree.  It was looking a bit odd from a distance but when we got closer we realised that it was covered in coins, it even had some Australian ones!  Once in King’s Stanley, and on a recommendation from our host, we were off for a pub lunch, and she even drove us there!  Showing off the local sights on the way she pointed out a local church and it was there we went next.  Built in the 1860’s the church has a distinctive 'saddleback' to