Last day of our holiday today in Bath. Tomorrow we start the trek homeward. It has been a great trip but I think we have exhausted ourselves enough now and will be pleased to be home and stop for a while. Although having my bed made for me every day and not cooking was very pleasant. So this is what it feels like to be a man!!!! Just kidding. Sort of
We headed away from Bath today and walked towards the art gallery at the other end of our road.
Always ready for a sidetrack and discovered some beautiful gardens behind the buildings on the left in the photo above. Huge trees in full leaf and very quiet and peaceful. There was also a charming enclosed garden in memory of George V, with a pond. It was very secluded away from the hustle of Bath and traffic.
Returning towards the gallery we passed a derelict churchyard with graves chockablock, and just had to go in.
What a surprise to find this grave amongst many.
How about that?!!! Not quite correct but that's okay. There was also a crumbling grave that was the site of Christopher Wren's granddaughter's grave. To think in Australia we would have bells and whistles attached to anything that even looked old let alone anything of historical significance.
On towards the gallery yet again, walking through another lovely parkland garden behind the gallery called Sydney Gardens and entering the gallery through the back door.
The Holburne Gallery had an exhibition of Rembrandt and his contemporaries from the Royal collection but we weren't able to cope with that at this stage, overload. So we looked at the gallery's collection, they had some beautiful Gainsborough paintings along with embroideries and a contemporary exhibition which I LOVED by a metalsmith.
The work was stunning.
View from the gallery's second floor down Pulteney Road towards Bath. Our B&B is way down on the left.
It was a busy little thoroughfare. The boat took us up to where there was once a mill and subsequently a weir was built to make sure there was enough water to run the mill in dry times.
Almost back to Bath. Ahead is the bridge lined with shops. Geoff and I have now completed our life's dream of walking over every bridge that has buildings built on it in the entire world. It's been a mighty effort with no expense spared. We've travelled far and wide but can finally say we've walked everyone of them. I've listed them at the end of this blog.
List of bridges with shop buildings on them; Ponte Vecchio, Rialto, Pulteney. Wow we've crossed them all!
Now I'm going to take up metal work, phooey to clay.
It was a hot day again so we decided to take a boat trip up the Avon (Bristol) River. There are 7 or 8 Avon Rivers in Britain, we are told different numbers each time the river is mentioned. The indigenous name for river or running water and when the Roman invaders asked them the name of the river they replied Avon.
On the way back, Bathampton was pointed out to us, it is where Admiral Arthur Phillip is supposedly buried. In 1897 when it was realised he was there and there was a memorial placed in the church and each year on his birthday there is an Australian commemoration.
After the boat trip we sauntered up town for lunch and it rained, we've almost forgotten what it looks like. We have been so lucky on the entire trip as far as the weather goes. We ducked into a fabulous bookshop, 3 stories high and stretching for miles on each floor, oh heaven, just like the old days. By the time we emerged the rain had gone.
Thanks for emails, it is almost impossible to answer them as I can't do so directly without all sorts of effort, so sorry but I do love them. I don't know when I'll be able to post a blog again as in London; hotels, restaurants, trains and busses have never heard of free wifi like other countries have.
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