Avebury then Bath

Sunday 15th October

Smooth start, good run on the highways and before we knew it we were back in England. Decided to go to the Avebury Henge Site, a World Heritage Site which has the largest Stone Circle in the world. We had already decided we would go there instead of Stone Henge because there would be less people and you can actually go right up to the stones - you can give them a hug if you like which some ladies, supposedly Druids, were doing later in the afternoon. We managed to squeeze into the last available car park, pay our 7 pound parking fee, and found a café for soup of the day and g/f roll. Thankfully our Australian National Trust Membership Cards got us into two museums and, later in the day into  the Manor, otherwise we would have been up for another 40 pound. It was great to walk around the Henge and wonder how on earth they managed to get the huge stones (some up to 60 tonnes) into place. A henge is actually the very deep trench which is dug around the stones and it is also quite amazing how they managed to shift so much dirt 6,000 years ago and why they bothered. It was quite warm, about 18C as we walked and some of the locals were in shorts, thongs and tee shirts - on the BBC Weather Report they were calling it an October Heat Wave! - we at least took our coats off. After the Henge we spent time in the Avebury Manor House which is now owned by the National Trust and has been re furbished by the BBC - each rooms furnishings representing a different period of the house's ownership. It was quite interesting and we particularly enjoyed the formal gardens. Another hours drive brought is to Oldfield House in Bath - an up market B&B, where we are in, of course, the Loft Room. It is actually a very nice spacious room and our loft window gives us a good view over the town. A 15 min walk into town for a vegetarian Indian meal concluded another great day.

 

Oldfield Hotel - our window top left

 

Monday 16th October

 

Today was a Jane Austen binge day. It actually started last night with Merilyn, and sometimes Bruce (pretending he wasn't interested) watching the DVD of Persuasion - Jane Austen's last novel, much of it set in Bath. I had downloaded a map and accompanied by an audio app on the phone we toured around 15 sites in Bath associated with Jane Austen, which also gave us a great look at Bath. We set off at 9.30 am, after the essential scrambled eggs and smoked salmon breakfast, and did not return to our room, a little foot sore, until about 7.00pm. The audio included snippets from her books, which added interest, as well as historical information about each site, and we particularly enjoyed the Roman Baths, the Georgian Houses in the Royal Crescent and around the Circus (Latin for Circle), the Assembly Rooms and finally Bath Abbey. Bath certainly is a lovely city with a lot to see. The weather was quite weird today, dense, high level, clouds made the Sun a red disc - reminded us of bushfires in the Grampians, and a very strong gusty wind brought low clouds scudding across from the West coast. It had cleared up by mid afternoon but the wind persisted all day and tonight it seems to be even stronger. Apparently the latest hurricane in the Atlantic has come closer to the coast than usual resulting in severe storms in Ireland, the most damaging in 50 years, and huge waves in Cornwell - where we are heading next. On the evening news it said that the high clouds were a mixture of smoke, from wild fires in Portugal, and dust from the Sahara - both carried up by the hurricane. It could be a wild time in the high loft tonight!