We awoke to the sound of rain upon the roof which was expected but then after an hour there was bright sunshine and yet another sunny day. Another win for us.
Our day commenced with a walk into town which took approximately ten minutes. We did not realize that we were that close to the city. Crossing over the North Parade bridge we got our first glimpse of the famous Pulteney Weir which is always the classical shot of Bath.
It was decided that we would do a Hop On, Hop Off bus circuit of the city so as to get a good overall view of the city. It really is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and possibly because of its uniformity. A lot of what you see is only façade in many cases. Go behind the buildings and there is no uniformity at all.
Most people know of this famous vista of The Royal Crescent consisting of a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping crescent. Designed by the architect John Wood Jnr and built between 1767 and 1774, it is among the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found in the United Kingdom and is a Grade I listed building.
We actually preferred The Circus which was just a block away. It was much tighter and had a warmer feeling about it. The Circus is a historic street of large townhouses forming a circle with three entrances. Designed by the prominent architect John Wood Snr, it was built between 1754 and 1768, and is regarded as a pre-eminent example of Georgian architecture.
Apart from getting off the bus to view The Circus and The Royal Crescent, we just rode around with Toque on the top deck taking in the scenery. In the inner city there are lots of cute alleyways with coffee shops and high end boutiques but not a lot we could take photos of. We didn’t do the Roman Bath thing as we had been in there before and honestly, at £22 to get it, it does seem over priced.
We opted to return to the boat and head down the six locks onto the River Avon. The fifth lock is the second deepest lock on the canal system at 19ft 5 inches and Di did not feel particularly comfortable once she was at the bottom of it. This isn’t us as we were too busy working the lock.
We hung a right out of the bottom lock once we were on the Avon River and headed towards the weir. A weir has appeared on maps of Bath, ever since 1603 and the purpose was/is to prevent the river from flooding the town of Bath.
It was a lot of fun cruising up to just below the weir to get photos and a video of it. We kept a safe distance as all weirs have under tows and Wolfgang would not be impressed if we sunk Ange in Bath of all places.
We cruised down the river for ten minutes to a mooring for the evening. Tomorrow it is to Bristol!!
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