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Published: November 1st 2008
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Day163
Taking full advantage of Carly’s recent 25th Birthday we decided to hire a small car for the trip to Bath and Stonehenge. We also picked up an additional passenger, in Kara from Ballarat that works with Carly for the trip. We set off early Saturday morning with the best weather we have had in weeks.
Stonehenge, has it’s beginnings almost five thousand years ago. Some huge pieces of rock weighing more than 40 tonnes or the equivalent of 7 elephants. The stones stand around 6 meters high above the ground. Unfortunately we were not allowed to get within 50 meters of the stones. It was an awesome experience to see something that big and old. However, after this the experience of Bath was not so grand. Firstly the mighty saints got shat on by the high flying hawks which seemed to deflate us a bit.
We set of back to Bath from Stonehenge, via Deviers. At Deviers we made a detour via the local Wadsworth brewery. Brewing some of England's favourite ales. We purchased our Beer tasting tickets for 75 p each for a 1/3 of a pint and set about testing out a few. The dregs of
warm VB drank on a Sunday morning post a big Saturday night seemed to be an appropriate description of most of the flat warm traditional ales. Having said that not a drop was wasted.
From Deviers we headed back to Bath where we went on the Tower climb of the beautiful 16th Century Bath Abbey. The Abbey has amazing lead lighting and plenty of dead guys buried underneath. The tower climb comprising of 212 steps took in views of the city and the bell towers. For only 5 pound a ticket it was a well worthwhile experience. Next stop we checked in to our hostel the Bath YMCA and with a bit of luck grabbed a car park right in front of the place. However, as we checked in we were promptly told that we could not park their for long and had to move it. This would prove a tough ask. In the ten minutes it took for us to check in a large truck had squeezed in next to use giving us only 6 inches on either side to exit the space. With no one around claiming ownership off the van I encouraged a extremely reluctant Carly
to have a go at reversing it out (As she was the insured driver) and I would guide her. Big Mistake. We didn’t account for the fact that the park was on a slope, there was a huge chain on the drive or the chain latch sticking out from the concrete pillar. Our car troubles returned to haunt us once more as when the car was part-taking of point number two in our 3 point plan the car slipped backwards on the chain and jammed itself up against the concrete pillar with the chain latch embedded into the side of the car. Ooops!! With successive attempts proving unsuccessful Jez jumped in and almost burnt out the handbrake to get the car off the pillar and exit the taboo car space.
An emotional time ensued, however was quickly relieved when we realised that our master cover plus, insurance meant that we were not liable to pay any excess for the repairs. Phew!!
That evening we headed out in the city of Bath for a pub steak followed promptly with a pub crawl from some shanty old pub to Belushi's and The Tavern.
Bath Day 164
We set
out early and after navigating the extremely difficult Bath streets we found our way to the Royal Crescent, a 17th century Built crescent of 30 stately homes for the elite. We parked the car and meandered through the streets of Bath. All of the Buildings in Bath are made from Bath stone, giving them their distinctive cream colour. We walked on further to the Circus, and made our way to the famous Roman Baths. Built almost 2000 years ago the Roman Baths utilise a natural hot spring to provide 45 degrees warm water. It is believed that the water that erupts through the spring (at 13 litres a minute) fell as rain around 10,000 years ago. The Roman Baths were rediscovered around 130 years ago and have been refurbished in the Victorian era, however much of the Roman Baths original features remain.
We strolled around Bath admiring the buildings and River Avon stopping for some local fudge and lunch by the river which was sensational.
Leaving Bath we headed for the near by City of Bristol. Where we checked out the Bristol University and the Bristol Cathedral. We climbed the hill to the local park to find the
lookout it point closed, not to deter the girls climbed through the fence for a better view of the city.
Then it was back to Birmingham, admist typical M 5 traffic, with some fantastic negotiating skills skipped ahead in the third lane and arrived back safe and sound ready for another working week. Jez had farewell's Sandwell Hospital and due to start at Birmingham East-Northern bright and early Monday morning.
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