Anniversary trip to Bath & Bradford On Avon.

Had a fantastic couple of days away with the Memsahib courtesy of No's 1 & 3 sons and their other halves. For Xmas they brought us a weekend away somewhere & we plumped for Bath as it's been on our list of places to go for some time, we decided to take it around our 32nd Wedding Anniversary which was 7th July. We were actually away over our  Anniversary which was even better.
Arrived at BOA mid afternoon, checked in had a beer then went for a wonder. Delightful river to walk along, weather was nice so it was very pleasant. Took in a Saxon Chapel ( rebuilt in 1857) and the Medieval (12th Century) Tithe barn a little way along the river. Back along the other side of the river, a couple of fly fishermen out ( one caught a 2lb Bluebottle :) )  a Swan meandered along seemingly taking no notice of it's seven Cygnets various Mallard & Coot swam by eventually back to the town and had an ice cream.


Saxon Chapel

River Avon

Tithe Barn

 




Tiles of Tithe barn emailed to Alec.



  To dinner then and that was a treat indeed. The Swan Hotel in Bradford On Avon had the usual pub classics but also a complete Thai menu that we both chose from. I meant to photo each course we had but I got a bit enthusiastic a couple of times & ate the food straight a way. Sorry! But first a photo is of a pint of Swan Best Bitter & a pint of Swan shandy with our Wedding rings to the fore. 32 years & I wouldn't have had it any other way, I love Tara as  much today as I always have, more infact. Just can't believe 32 years has gone by!

First courses ordered and eaten! I had Tiger prawns wrapped in crispy pastry (Goong Salong) & Tara had Thai fish cakes with sweet chilli sauce (Tod Man Pla), our mains photo'd here were Deep fried Hake with garlic (Pla Tod Katian) for Tara & stir fried pork with cashew nuts (Pad Med Ma Mong) for me both served with rice. Bloody delicious! Both rather full after that so we decided we couldn't really do a pud justice so we pondered......... and had a liqueur coffee (whiskey) which was spiffing. Getting an early start to go into Bath in the morning so we knocked it on the head there.

Tara's main course.

My main course eating irons resting as I had already started!



Liqueur coffees.






 

Up with the Lark on Thursday  morning to a rather mediocre breakfast.(The only disappointment of our stay, so much so we cancelled breakfast for the following morning.) A short walk to the station  and about a 20 minute  journey to Bath Spa  & we were sitting outside the Roman Baths just before they opened at 9am. We wanted to get  a good start on the day as the place was soon filling up with tourists. The Roman Baths are truly spectacular and well worth a visit, originally  a shrine to the Celtic God Sulis the Romans called the town Aquae Sulis & constructed a temple in 60-70AD  though the site was extensively added to over the next 300 years of Roman rule. There is much archaeology to see of the excavated baths , their changing rooms, hot ,tepid and cold rooms etc and alot of artefacts put up on walls in their original settings including a head (pictured) that might  represent a Gorgon  though they are usually female and this one definitely has a beard so it could be the head of the water god Oceanus or something completely different. I suppose one of the pitfalls of archaeology is that things are always open to interpretation  & in many ways is not an exact science.
There is also a magnificent  gilded head of  the god Sulis Minerva (photo in black and white).
We spent a good two hours there and would visit again, glad we got there early as it was getting busy as we finished, though we'd brought a saver ticket including the Baths, Victorian galley & Fashion Museum we weren't able to get to the latter as the Memsahib was done in. Not only had we done alot of walking but much of the Baths was on uneven ground & fibromyalgia  doesn't much like it! The Victorian galley was OK had an exhibition of 20th century painters including a couple by Walter Sickert who spent four years in Bath. His were probably the best paintings as in my humble opinion a lot of them were a load of old cobblers! I also popped into Bath Abbey while Tara had a coffee.


Baths from the Victorian terrace.

Gorgon or Oceanus or other god type bod.

 



Sulis Minerva



Original excavated streets around the baths. 

Romans!



Samian pottery found on just about every Roman site you can shake a stick at!

Tara and baths.

Bath Abbey taken from the baths.

Tomb of the Jane Waller wife of Sir William Waller Major General in Parliaments army during the English Civil War. He was meant to be buried with her but ended being buried in London. 

And so to our second dinner and also our Anniversary dinner, had a bottle of Cava with us & had it with grenadine which made it much nicer but nicer still was their Swan Best Bitter, unable to discover the brewer of this beer, it could be Greene King as the other beers were from them.  
For dinner we again went for the Thai. Tara had a chat with the chef at the bar who was a very enthusiastic Thai lady and was able to adapt dishes to suit Tara  and on her recommendation had a whole seabass deep fried with garlic. Tara had the same starter  as yesterday & I had Prawn toast with plum sauce (Kanom Pang Na Goong) and a main of beef red curry with pineapple , Tara had salad with hers and I had noodles (Pad Thai).We managed a pud this time, I had the cheese board (English cheeses) & Tara had a frozen Eaton Mess, this dessert was a bit lack lustre but tasted good.

Forgot to photo starters as the empty plates show.

Tars main of deep fished Sea Bass with garlic. 

My main of beef red curry and pineapple. 

Every week the hotel has a music evening in the basement bar and tonight was blues night. Real blues , the like of Muddy Waters & Fats Waller. It was very good, one chap ( who played the steel guitar photo'd) had his dog with him , who joined in on a couple of songs! Great stuff!
Had a another wonder around BOA the next morning & found a bakery that properly caters for wheat free people so got a few  bits there.  Got home about 3pm  after a fantastic couple of days. 

Blues bar with a steel guitar waiting its turn.