Bath

A couple of days ago I visited Bath for the day. Keeping up with the current theme, where my friends travel all the way from New Zealand over to our fair shores for Summer, I went to see my friend. 

Phil is from West Country areas originally and staying with his parents, so I jumped in the car and met him and the girls in Bath for a whirlwind bit of sightseeing and fun. And with the girls, it's always fun. They inject joy into everything.

We met in front of The Royal Baths and took a tour, I haven't been round since I was a little girl on a school trip so it was nice to recognise a few things from my childhood, had that weird feeling I've been there before. Oh I have.

You walk around diffrent rooms looking at ancient carvings and listening to explanations of how the water pumped through.

Eventually you end up back outside at the main bath where the sun is stll struggling in and out of the clouds. But Indi is the epitome of cool in the photo above right? Oh to be young and tomboyish again! 

We shared some fish and chips and walked around town a bit more. The sun was coming out a bit now and that really helps, especially as we were planning more walking.

The Royal Cresecent in all its glory.

Look at these cheeky faces. This was before they saw my car, because after that, they didn't want to be in dad's hire car any more, they wanted to be in my mini with the top down listening to Taylor Swift. I am just the coolest aunty/friend kind of person ever right? Right?

Check out this house below. I'm a little in love with it. Bath is just so beautiful, I love that part of the UK.

Now at this point, I can't really remember where we drove to. As I said, the girls got in my car and we followed their dad and drove up some steep hills and to the edge of some woods where he went as a teen with his mates. Walked up a trail path for a little while seeing the gorgeous views in the photos above and then slowly, this tower below starting peeking out above us.

Everyone knows I love stuff like this, so I was super excited to see there was a gap probably big enough for me to fit in, let alone the 9 year old child we had with us!

We decided that wasn't the grown up sensible or safe option though and wouldn't let her do it. We had to be satisfied with taking a photo under the gap in the door to see the staircase which wound it's way to the top.

Indi begged us to let her go in, look at her lurking round the door! But we opted to be safe grown ups, said our goodbyes to the giant intriguing tower and headed down towards some mines.

Most of the mines Phil played in as a kid were closed off for safety reasons now or to protect the bats in them. We explored the entrances of a couple though.

At one point we introduced the little Kiwi girls to sticky weed which is fun! Something we all know about as UK schoolkids, but I think maybe they missed out growing up in NZ. Don't think Amelie realises we stuck this one on her back here!

We finished the day with a little walk round these church grounds on the edge of a stately home in Corsham.

See the peacock on the roof above?

The final, final good bye for the day, was a nice pint in an old haunt of Phil's. The girls had the traditional sticky toffee pudding, still made by the same lady 30 years later, and we drank a traditional hand pulled beer while the girls chatted and then played with my hair, as usual.

This was the end result!

It was a pefect day. Thanks, Phil, Amelie ad Indi for entertaining me all day and giving me the best hugs!

XXX