My plan for today was to get into the Roman Baths before huge queues developed and I actually could walk right in and join a small line, getting in within 5 minutes. Unheard of! Once in, I spent a long time walking through all of the different areas, which was interesting...especially the ruins underneath the baths. The history behind the construction, development and building of the baths is facinating. Google it :)
A couple of hours later and it was starting to get very crowded - lots of school kids ( noooooooooo!) so that was my cue to leave.
What to do next? I decided to walk around the outskirts of Bath which took an hour or two. The buildings are amazing! With equally amazing price tags.
I had some time to kill before I had to check out so I took another open top bus tour. Nice sunny weather, fresh air...lots of medication for travel sickness and hay fever...double doses of each. Magic!
I then walked to the Holburne Museum which was holding an exhibition of Rembrandt and his contemporaries. Not a huge fan of Rembrandt or Dutch painters in general, but it was good to see some of the art work from the Royal collection.
The museum also had three floors of various pieces of art, sculpture and the personal collection from the Holburne family. Obviously a very wealthy and influential family in the 1800s.
Just across the road from here was Number 4 Sydney Place, one of the houses were Jane Austen lived.
Time to head back to Henrietta House to collect my stored luggage and walk to my next accommodation - No. 14 Raby Place. A lovely building but OMG! Try hauling a very heavy suitcase up 6 flights of stairs. No lift this time. Anyway, my gym sessions have paid off and I managed without damage to house,my knees or the luggage.
Ian, from Iron Donkey, had to change his time to catch up with me to Friday, so I will have one more day in Bath before I set off. I will visit a few more museums which I discovered on my multiple walks around.
My final walk for today was suggestec by Muriel, the elderly lady who owns this huge B&B (I wonder how she manages to climb all these stairs every day???) It was along the canal to see all of the locks and the barges that travel up and down through each lock. Amazing to see how the skippers on each barge navigate through.
My room, at high altitude, does have a lovely view but a train line runs along the back, partially obscured but still quite loud, so I have swapped screeching seagulls on steroids and loud Spanish tourists, for express trains every 25 minutes. Will let you know which one is more annoying :)
