Sunday, 21 January 2018

Winter Break

Malcolm and I returned from our mid-winter break yesterday afternoon having spent a delightful week in Newquay. Initially, we wondered if we had gone quite mad by booking a break away in the UK in January. But it turned out to be a risk well worth taking.
We started last Sunday, by driving down to Weston-Super-Mare for a one night stay breaking up the long journey. On the way, we stopped at Bath, a city neither of us had visited before. Of course, we did all the main, tourist sights, starting with the Royal Crescent.
This row of thirty terraced houses was built between 1767 and 1774 and is some 500 feet long. Grade 1 listed, it remains one of the best examples of Georgian architecture in the UK.
Number 1 Royal Crescent, is maintained as Historic House Museum.
From there, we continued into the city centre and took in the Grand Pump Room.
Built in the Abbey Church Yard, it was largely built in its present form, at the end of the eighteenth century.
The square is dominated at its eastern end, by the imposing West elevation of the Abbey and the main entrance.

This end of the abbey is well known for its rather literal depiction of Jacob's Ladder with Angels climbing up either side of the main entrance door and window.
Round the corner, we had a fine view of the Abbey from Kingston Parade. Flying buttresses adorn the outside of this beautiful building.
We spent a lovely afternoon exploring the back-streets and alleyways of Bath and stumbled upon Sally Lunn's Eating House. . .
at the end of a fine street, which was unusually, quiet!
There will be lots more pictures over the next few days (lots to sort out).

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