BATH

Time for another trip within the UK. We decided to make a long weekend of it and headed to Bath. The original plan was to hire a car and check out some of the surrounding coutryside but it seems not many hire places are open to return the cars on a Sunday. Back to the train and the bus.

The B & B we stayed in was only a few minutes walk from all the attractions and had a fairly nice view over the town to the hills behind. Fantastic breaky overlooking the back garden to get the day started.

One of the highlights was the Roman Baths. Located right in the center of town we had walked past it before we realised what it was. We made a smart choice in touring the baths on Friday before the masses arrived on Saturday. The water is about 40degrees and seeing as the air temp was around 6 the steam was rising.

We also headed out the Stonehenge on the Friday afternoon. The tour we chose went via the village of Lacock - the highlight being Lacock Manor which is closed during winter. The reason for Stonehenge itself is not know but the audio tour gave some interesting theories. We tried to hang around for the sunset but it was too cold and it closed at 4pm! (Sunset is around 4:15 at the moment) The surrounding country side was gorgeous.

Saturday saw the sunny weather disappear and it turned freezing. As part of our mission to acclimatise for christmas in Russia, we decided to remain outdoors (need to get longer coat, better shoes, better gloves....). Steve hit the gardens and out came the camera for some wildlife shots. Squirrels in particular, although the duck with the curled tail feather was quite cute. Once we made it into the main shopping area we understood why we had been encouraged to do as much as we could on Friday. There were people everywhere. I think it rivals Oxford Street.

The good weather returned on Sunday so we took the opportunity to walk along the Kennet and Avon Canal towards Bradford-on-Avon in the hope that we would see one of the many locks in operation. No such luck but it was a pretty if somewhat muddy stroll. It would have been nice to do the full 10miles instead of the couple of km but we weren't sure what transport there was to return to Bath by and we did have a bus to catch.