Back to Bath

We decided, yesterday, we needed another trip into Bath as we hadn't managed to see all the sights on our first trip because of the traffic. This time we drove to the Park and Ride and took a bus into the centre, much easier and less stressful. We wanted to visit the Roman Baths and the Abbey so once we had orientated ourselves and found a map we headed straight there.

The Abbey and Roman Baths are next to each other so we didn't have far to walk.

We went into the baths first and found it very interesting and amazing that the Romans were able to build something so functional which could still be used today. It is apparently the only source of hot water springs in the UK with 1.25 million litres of water passing through the baths every day.

This stone shows that the baths were around in 76AD.

A model of what the baths would have looked like when first built.

We didn't really fancy having a swim in this green water!!

One of the Romans they left behind!!

After visiting the baths we decided it was time to have a coffee and piece of cake, not cheap but very nice, banana and chocolate. While there we got chatting to a young girl from America, Virginia Beach we think she said. She was in the UK for a 3 week holiday on her own, she said it was a graduation gift to herself so she couldn't have been more than 24. She had been staying in London and had come on a coach trip to Bath and Stonehenge, then she said she was off to Scotland via Manchester and Liverpool.

We then had a walk around the Abbey another impressive building which has stood at this spot for hundreds of years.

I thought this ceiling was amazing.

I wonder how long this chap has been riding around Bath!!

Like a lot of cities today there were a number of buskers around, the chap in the background played spanish style music on his guitar very well and just around the corner was a young women singing classical songs.



We managed to find our way back to the right bus stop after a pleasant afternoon in Bath and were soon on our way back to our caravan.

Well we have packed up most of our things today ready for an early start in the morning. We set off tomorrow for Cornwall and have booked into a site near St Austell. So my next blog will be from there when we have got settled in.

Bath and Bristol

We are finding it difficult travelling around here as we are not use to all the traffic, we were definitely spoilt living up in Flamborough. It seems to take us twice as long to go just a few miles so the stress level goes up a few notches.




We drove into Bath on Friday and found parking in the Royal Victoria Park right opposite the building known as The Royal Crescent.

What an amazing piece of architecture which was built between 1767 and 1775 and was originally 30 terrace houses. However now in the centre is the Royal Crescent Hotel which certainly looks very impressive, we didn't go inside we weren't dressed right but I have looked at their website.

We then walked along to The Circus which was designed by an architect who was infatuated by The Coliseum in Rome. It is three blocks of terrace houses built in a circle.

In the centre is a green area with some large trees which was originally a reservoir, the water being for the houses to use.








We went into Bristol yesterday, particularly to see the Clifton Suspension Bridge which crosses the Avon river at an incredible height. On one of the walls is an advert and telephone number for The Samaritans!!

The bridge was opened in 1864 and was designed by Brunel. It has always been a toll bridge apparently and costs £1.00 to cross.

There were people climbing this cliff face!!!!





















The last couple of evenings at the caravan site we have been watching hot air balloons flying past not something I fancy doing but they certainly look good from the ground.

We haven't been anywhere today but Rob has been busy cleaning and polishing the car and caravan, he always finds something to do. I just sat and read in the sunshine and went for a short walk in the field with the horses.

Travelling South

Ready to leave Wold Farm eventually on Tuesday.

The sunrise on that last morning was fantastic a nice change as it had been really foggy for a few days but at least we could see the view once again before we left.

It was sad leaving the family but we were excited about the adventures ahead. Unfortunately we had discovered a couple of problems with the caravan so we had to make a detour to where we bought the caravan in Bawtry. While they were working on the caravan we wandered around the town for a while and had lunch. Anyway everything was sorted by the afternoon so we stayed at a small caravan site nearby which was a very basic site but ok for the night. 

We had one problem there though as we couldn't remember how to get the water heater to work so we only had cold water to begin with. I know when in doubt read the manual, we did but for some reason they don't write it in sequence and for our 60+ brains we couldn't work out what we were doing wrong!!! Anyway we didn't need hot water to clean our teeth so we went to bed!!! Eventually the next morning I remembered what we had to do and it worked,we had hot water! Then I wrote it all down so I knew what we had to do for next time.

We had a good journey travelling yesterday and arrived in a place called Biston, between Bristol and Bath. We are staying on a farm once again called Cully Hall and have pitched our caravan in a field with 3 other caravans. We are surrounded by fields with a number of horses in them, they seem to have a riding stable here. It isn't as quiet as Wold Farm because we can hear the cars on the M4 nearby and also we are in the flight path for planes going to Bristol Airport but it will be fine for a few nights. We are looking forward to exploring this area over the next few days.

Arrived at Cully Hall Farm

View over the farm

View from caravan window

Beautiful sunset last night

Not quite as we planned!!!

Sometimes things don't go quite as we plan them but maybe that is just a way to show us that we have to have patience. I was really looking forward to this weekend as our new-to-us car and caravan were arriving and we were going to spend the next few days getting to know them.
But as I said things didn't quite work out that way and we are now staying with my daughter for a few days.
Anyway to begin with we weren't able to get our car until Saturday instead of Friday because the solicitor handling our finances didn't put the money into the bank until late Friday afternoon, which was too late for our car to be delivered. But it did finally arrive at lunch time Saturday so we are now the owners of a white 1995 Landrover Discovery. That morning we had moved from the camp site in the rain, hence one very wet awning and then emptied everything out into the unit where we have all our furniture stored. By lunchtime we were also very wet. Once the car arrived we hitched up our old empty caravan and set off for Doncaster where we were collecting our new caravan. We were running quite late by then but we eventually arrived and the rain finally stopped for a while. We were told where our old caravan was to go, nowhere near new ones, please, well it is over 20 years old. It served us well for the short time we had it. Our new caravan was ready and we hitched up and then had what they call the handover where they show us how everything works. Now bearing in mind we had been told it had had a service and had been thoroughly cleaned and valeted, we soon began to realise something was not right, it looked a bit dirty on the outside but it had been raining, inside was dusty and not what I would call clean. Then the chap who was showing us everything began to notice things that hadn't been done so he called his manager over and a maintenance chap and they realised it hadn't had anything done to it. So that was that we were not going to take the caravan then and of course nothing can be done until Monday, so it will be Tuesday before we get it now, hopefully.
They did suggest we take our old caravan back with us again but I thought that would be silly and honestly I couldn't face all that loading and unloading again. So the outcome is they will reimburse our petrol money and bring the caravan to us. I am also hoping we will get something knocked off the final price, I feel that is the least they can do after all the inconvenience. The silly thing is we went with a large company so we wouldn't have any hassles but that isn't always fool proof as we have found out. Oh and it started raining again on our way home !!!
So here we are staying in a house for a few days but it won't be long now and we will be on the road again. But there is one good side to all this as I had a nice long bubbly bath this morning. I wonder if they will ever make a caravan with a bath in it!!!