Friday Daytrip to Bath

On the bus ride to Bath we passed Windsor Palace which was way off in the distance, but still a grand thing to see. Bob, our BLC guide, told us that the roadway we were on has a speed limit of 70mph “but don’t be surprised if somebody wanks past you”. When we pulled into bath we saw that some of the buildings were covered in soot still from before the Clean Air Act. Most of the buildings had been cleaned. Being in Bathed opened up the floodgate for my creative juices. My photos became much more thoughtful and artistically balanced. I tried to capture the irony in contrast between the ancient buildings and the modern culture that is incorporated in the same community. Gillian and I shared a glass of Bath water. I felt internally connected to history and Earth. After our walk around in the Roman Baths, Bob took many of us on a walking tour of the town of Bath. Pulteny Bridge had shops on both sides of it so when I was on the bridge I didn’t even realize it. Its only on either side of the bridge that you can see how beautiful it is. I loved learning about the culture of the 18th century. We stood outside a house that was the only one which still had an original lantern to it. We learned about these portable chair/coaches that people used to get around in after a late night out in the town. Strong soldier men would be hired to carry the partiers home in these boxes. Bob said “If it were peeing down rain the carriers would take the customer right into their house.” We visited a couple of ballrooms. Although we learned that they had been damaged in WWII and had been restored since then, it was still cool to be in the rooms and imagining what a ball would have been like. When we came to the Royal Crescent we learned that Johnny Depp lived there. We also learned about a thing called a “Haha”. This is a ditch that provides the Crescent grounds with privacy while maintaining the beautiful landscape view from inside the Crescent. Toward the end of our walk it began to rain and some people were complaining. I say rain is much more tolerable when there are beautiful things to look at.