Taking the waters: Bath and beyond...

School holidays! Time for a really big adventure, rather than our day-trip excursions around Cornwall. Looking at maps and guides, we thought that Bath would be a good place to base ourselves for a few days. Apart from its inherent beauty and interest, it is close to several other places of interest. So, having booked a B&B that actually could accommodate a family of five, we set off on Easter Monday.

It was actually quite warm, and we were happy just to stow our coats in the car, rather than wear them on the trip. We largely drove along the same route we took to Bristol last time, noting the addition of daffodils and blossoming trees in the few weeks since we had driven here going to Ireland. There were also the primroses. Wayne was happily car spotting as we drove along... there do seem to be quite a few posh cars on the roads. I had to navigate, and did some Interesting Town Name spotting. We passed: St Erney, Notter Bridge, Botus Fleming and South Pill. We looked at the huge obvious nests in the still-bare trees. Jackdaws? Rooks? (Ernesettle, Sparkwell, Ivy Bridge and Rattery...) the stone walls started to give way to plainer hedges and fields. Eleanor, now an accomplished historian, pointed out some Tudor architecture. (Buckfastleigh, Goodstone, Bovey Tracey and Compton Dando...) finally we found our way to our guest house in Bath.
What a stately city. Georgian architecture, I pointed out to Eleanor, who is firmly fixed in the Middle Ages. Annie asked, why did our b&b brag of 'Victorian style, but modern comfort' then? That's inside, I said hastily. It was pretty inside, too, although a bit crowded with five people sleeping in the same room. (Wayne and I found the bed a bit short, too, with a foot board stopping us stretching right out. We're not THAT tall, really.)
We drove down to the town to find some lunch and explore. We rather foolishly left out coats behind; it was not that warm after all.. It took us a while to find a sandwich spot, probably just because we were hungry and cold. Once we had eaten, we found many places to eat as we made our way to a bus stop. Law of cussedness!
We opted for a bus tour - inside - to get the lie of the land. It was very interesting, although I had a few problems with the earphones. (Because we were inside and downstairs, we had the remote audio. I thought of Chaucer's Wife of Bath, who was 'somedeal deaf, and that were sothe'. Rats.) Bath has no large modern buildings, overshadowing the old ones. It is the large Abbey Church that dominates the town, just as it would have done for hundreds of years.
So, the church is where we wandered after the tour. The children were handed a things-to-look for sheet ('what animals are carved on the font?', etc), and happily went off to fill them in. Volunteers kept chatting to them, to see how they were going. Eleanor had no qualms about asking complete strangers about things like coats of arms... I guess she thought they were like school teachers. Anyway, it was very interesting, and amazingly light for an old church.
Back we went to the car park, and the house. We walked there to a nearby pub, The Boathouse, for dinner. All very good. It was a rather late night for the children, but we eventually got them all washed and tucked in. Then I had a nice deep bath... as you do, in Bath!
(These pictures are from Day 2. Bus tours and inside churches are not very photo-y spots!)