Advertisement
Well I'm sorry for being so slack and not adding to the blog for so long..... I know how much you all must have been hanging out for the next exciting instalment.
Jane and I made it to Bath on Sunday 22nd May. We spent the next couple of days with my brother David and partner Heather who just happened to be spending a month in the UK. Bath was the point our paths were scheduled to cross. Went to the Roman Baths and was a bit disappointed as I took my towel and a pair of budgie smugglers along for a quick dip and then discovered that it was a tourist attraction and we were not even allowed to dip your hand in the water.... although they were letting a duck have a swim in the warm pool (must be run by the same people who look after Stonehenge).
Spent Tuesday morning looking around another stone circle that surrounds the small village of Avebury. Was a lot happier to find you could wander around and touch the stones unlike Stonehenge which is overseen by Nazi's. I was told that the experience was also free, which further enhanced my excitement
to see these ancient stones. This excitement didn’t last long when I discovered that they managed to relieve me of £5 for parking there for what turned out to be no more then 1½ hours. Not that I noticed there was parking problems with the village having only 2 shops, a pub, a church and a few houses. Noticed later that I could have parked in the pub car park for nothing..... didn’t I feel ripped off!! Jane reckons that I should consider the £5 as a donation to improve the tourist experience for future visitors ..... oh and that I was a tight wad (although she used much more colourful language to describe this aspect of my character than that),
For rest of the day we looked over Blenheim Castle. This is the family home of the 11th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. They don’t seem to mind the tourists traipsing through their house …. er Palace, although they do relieve you of £20 each for the privilege. The Duke did thank us for visiting his little weekender, unfortunately his Grace didn't see fit to grace us with his actual presence, preferring instead to speak to us on a
TV screen that was on a continuous loop. We said goodbye to my brother and sister in law after the visit and headed off to Witney a little town outside Oxford.
We spent Wednesday looking over Oxford and did a tour of a number of the Colleges, some that have their origins back to the 1400's. It was exam time and we found out that tradition dictates they wear a small academic gown to these exams. While optional, most first year students also wear a white carnation on their lapels, and a different colour if they are doing second year exams.
Yesterday we headed off to Chester. The plan was to see a few of the quaint Cotswold villages on the way. Well it pretty well rained continuously all day which dampened the experience and meant we didn’t really stop much to look around. The towns have great names like Upper and Lower Slaughter, Stow on the Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, Chipping Campden and Moreton-in-Marsh. Some where old market towns which meant that that they had a number of narrow streets leading to a central market square. We read that they were designed this way so that it easily directed sheep from
outside the town into the Market Square for sale. We spent most of the day allowing our Sat Nav to lead us up the garden path (literally). It zig zagged us through every narrow hedgerow. After abusing it and re-setting it so that it avoided the "scenic route", it got us onto the main roads, cutting potentially 2 hours off our journey. On arrival in Chester it was yet another Cathedral Experience. I like the way they all say its a donation to have a quick look through.....then suggest that the “acceptable donation” would be £6. I wonder whether they would let me in if I suggested that maybe 50p was all I was willing to donate (then we would really discover that it was actually an "entry fee"). I think Jane and I are sponsoring the Anglican Church during this holiday! We normally end up in the Cathedral Cafe along with the other pensioners for a “reasonably” priced pot of tea.
Chester boasts a Roman history and there are some excavations that reveal an old amphitheatre. When first coming upon it I thought Cheshire Council were doing road works and they had left a pile of stones that the workers hadn’t had time to move. To be fair, with the assistance of the visitor information stations and my eyes squinting.... I really could see the amphitheatre in 46 AD in all its magnificent glory!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.082s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0334s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb