More From A Brief Holiday (and a few bits of trivia)

Character

 (Photo circulating on Facebook).

Dawn

 

We were out at dawn yesterday to hunt for a missing purse. We found it at Partner-who-loves-tea’s office; so all was well.  We celebrated by visiting out new favourite café, Mills Café in Upton, for breakfast.  I had the cheese, ham and tomato omelette.  Gorgeous.

A Brief Holiday - Day Two (16^th October 2013) – Part One

It’s Cheltenham and it’s wet!

 “Cheltenham was specifically designed in its 18th and 19th century heyday as a pleasure health resort for wealthy visitors, the legacy of which is an exceptional range of quality accommodation, restaurants and entertainment in an elegant Regency spa town.”  (That's the local tourist board's way of saying it's expensive).

Fountains trying desperately to compete with the rain.

 

I photographed this post-box and accompanying four phone boxes many years ago and have been selling postcards of it on Zazzle.  It was so dark and wet this morning that the flash kept wanting to come on.

And another six phone boxes.  These now have a preservation order on them and, fortunately, are being looked after.  A lot of ones in rural areas are just being allowed to fall to bits.

I sheltered under a Lime tree to take a photo of this church but it was raining far too heavily to get a photo of a lovely Georgian crescent so that will have to wait for another year.

On to the city of Bath in Somerset where we parked in the Pyramid car park which, for future reference, proved ideal for accessing the Abbey and Baths.  You exit the car park through a supermarket and the Library where this display was on show. 

Outside it had just about stopped raining – perfect timing for wandering around outside the Abbey.

Presumably erected in the time of the Victorian temperance movement....

Even on a wet October day the area outside the Roman Baths and Pump Room was crowded.   

 

The city was first established as a spa with the Latin name, Aquae Sulis ("the waters of Sulis") by the Romans sometime in the AD 60s about 20 years after they had arrived in Britain (AD43), although oral tradition suggests that Bath was known before then. They built baths and a temple on the surrounding hills of Bath in the valley of the River Avon around hot springs. Much later, it became popular as a spa town during the Georgian era, which led to a major expansion that left a heritage of exemplary Georgian architecture crafted from Bath Stone.

Edgar was crowned king of England at Bath Abbey in 973.   

On the left hand side of the West front of the Abbey the angels ascend to Heaven. 

On the right side they descend.

There must be easier ways of getting down!

Lots of my Postcrossing friends collect cards of the World Heritage Sites (of which Liverpool is one, by the way) so Bath gave me plenty of scope to buy cards for them.

A picture for Meike and Monica.

And one for Mish.

And this one is for everyone…

Singing a capella, brave soul.

“Is that a camera or binoculars you’ve got there?”

A dead bike??

Excuse me but aren’t we in Somerset??? 

More inn signs.

On the way back to the car we had coffee in this church with it's own little café.

 

And just a reminder in case you had forgotten –