Monday Apr. 10th 2000 Bath Time
14C/57F Mostly Sunny.
Kel
Woke up and it was showering, but it passed quickly and the sun came
out. At least it cleared much of the haze out of the air. Today was our
explorer day to Bath, We had to be at Paddington by 9:15, but by keeping
on track we were able to get out of the room by 8:am This gave us a chance
to hit the breakfast room for toast , coffee, juice and cereal. Feet still
a bit tired and a few sore spots developing in assorted areas,
Really really starting to look forward to the waterbed, While we've been
using Lancaster Gate as our "home" tube station, getting to Paddington from
there is kind of a pain, especially when looking at the map and seeing
Paddington is a block over, a block up and 3 short blocks to the side. So
we just hoofed it straight there, hitting the atm on the way, Got there a
bit early so Len popped around the station and found another disposable
camera...we were running low and knew how much the home-gang likes wading
through enormous numbers of vacation pics.
Our guide was Hillary for this trip and luckily good at marshaling us all
into some semblance of order. It wasn't as large a group this time, only
about 35. We had reserved seats on the train and the trip took a little
under 90 minutes. We mostly read, though I seemed to look up just as we
passed the nuke plant. They seem so much bigger here, but that may be
because there are so many of them. (I'll never forget the sight of them
marching across the landscape like power poles on the way up to York).
At Bath we came out the back of the station and walked past the Kennet-Avon
Canal and along the banks of the Avon to get a nice view of the Abbey and
the weir. We popped up to the street level and crossed the
bridge. It's the last bridge still to have wonky shops on both sides. You
don't even realize you're crossing a the river until you see the steps and
the promenade on the other side. The current bath was built by Beau Nash
and the 2 Woods (Elder and Younger). Hillary was giving us a picture of
fashionable Bath in the 18th century. The Abbey was the last Catholic
monastery built in the UK, between the end of Henry VII and the beginning
of Henry VIII. It hadn't been finished when the reformation hit, so it was
a long long time before it had the fan vaulting all the way down the
nave. The interior is the brightest of all the churches we saw and the
glass is really lovely and of the Victorian era. During WWII a bomb hit it
and blew all the glass out and it had to be redone. Saw some beautifully
carved slabs dated 1629-1689.
The Assembly Rooms were closed due to an Osteoporosis Conference, so we
didn't see much of them. It was fully restored in 1938 and the bombs hit
it dead center in 1940 and had to be redone again. We had lunch in the
garden of a pub and then took in the Gravel Walk from the Crescent behind
the Circus. We took the optional tour of the Roman Baths. Fascinating,
but not enough time to see all before we had to catch the train back to
London. The teacher we saw/had to listen to in on our Hampstead walk was
much quieter on this tour until it was time to go, and then repeatedly
stressed the lack of time. Repeatedly! One of the group never emerged
from the Baths and had to be left behind so we all wouldn't miss our train.
The square at Cross Baths
and Kings Baths are about to be completely redone (glassed over and turned
into a luxury spa, along with new piping run to the hot springs [water
comes out at 46.5C] to avoid the bugs that have made the water unsafe),
and we'd all taken pictures of the "before" area. It is due to be finished in
December 2001.
We ended up sitting with the same 2 women from LA we sat with on the trip
down. It was such a coincidence! We all had a nice chat during the
ride. (They own older houses as well so we had fun talking knob & tube
wiring and plumbing in the English variants).
We were so tired and sore we decided to make it an "at-home" night so we
hit Sainsbury's at Paddington Station when we got in, around 6:30, and just
picked up MicroNuke food. A bit early to eat so we decided to hit the
closest 'Net Cafe. A1 @ 19 Leinster Terrace, and do email and systems
checks. For once everyone at home was online. Sent congrats to Katie
Swenson, who was finally accepted into Mills College. Spent about an hour
there, each of us on a machine. 20 pounds OUCH! Turns out the clerk had
mis-read the register and it was only 12 pounds... still ouch! It was the
most expensive place we'd been to yet. Tromped home and waved food. Len
had the chicken rice curry thing and I had a chicken spinach curry
thing. As the last of the cards had finally gone out from Bath we had a
chance to sit back and watch a show about the airlines black boxes and
tried to figure out what to do tomorrow. I think it'll be cold and rainy
so we're thinking London Dungeon and the National Gallery... indoors things
likely.
