Saturday 17 May 2014

Padstow - Bath

Today , somehow we made it over the highways and byways aof Cornwall, Devon and Somerset to reach Bath. On the M5, I drove at 110 Km/Hr. Cars in the right lane whizzed by at great speed, as usual. Some were in Ferraris, and some were in Minis. All were weaving around the slower traffic, trying to maintain their speed.

We diverted to the towns of Sempford Peverell, and Trull in search of her uncle Boyd's ancestors. The towns are still there but the only time we found a Dunn named was in Sampford Peverell. Private S. Dunn was killed in Egypt in WW1.

We got back on the M5 and carried on towards Bath (after being told confusing things by our phone-navigator). Then we saw a sign to Bath, via the A368. I turned off the wide, smooth M5. The A368 runs along as a 2 lane country road, and then turns into a one lane road going through the windy bits, and the towns. Needless to say, our speed dropped dramatically. Our GPS navigator gave us a few more wrong turns, costing us more time and requiring some U-Turns; - they're definitely fallible.

We finally rolled into Bath just after 3:00 PM. Then the fun started. Bath is a busy town, and the streets can be confusing. The navigator wasn't very helpful. Robyn started blaspeming at the phone, and then insulting "her". Finally she gave me an estimate of the worth of the phone navigator system. None of this was complimentary. She resorted to threats to the wellbeing of the hardware, before we found the correct streets and turns. At about half past three, we rolled down River Street, and found a free parking spot in front of number 42. This was close enough to 48 for me.

Robyn got the keys from the owner, who lives above us on the ground floor
(therefore we are in a basement flat). The flat (really a bed-sit, or studio apartment to us in Aus) is nicely furnished. I suspect it reflects the tastes of the owner, Janet. She has had 2 walls in the main room wallpapered. One wall is striped in beige, gold, cream and white. The other has a wildflower pattern in light yellow, beige and white. I keep thinking I'm in a retirement home !

It's actually lighter and paler in real life.

In a strange twist, the bathroom is huge. It is big enough to be a second bedroom. Mrs beige has been in there too. Super nice and clean enough to eat off the floor. Don't worry, we'll fix that !

The place has position though; we are only two blocks from the Royal Crescent. This is  the place was built in 1776 and has 30 "houses" in a single curved building. Each "house" could be divided up into about 10 flats.

Robyn and the Royal Crescent. The green behind her is reserved for residents of the circle. We commoners had to stay on this (lower) side of the ditch. It's a sort of modern day moat.

We walked around some more, photographing a few grey squirrels in the parkland around the crescent.

 

Then went home to do battle with the washing machine, the dryer, and the microwave/oven. It took 3 attempts to get the oven up to 200 degrees so we could look our dinner. The washing machine sounds like it is about to take off for Mars, and the dryer beeped at us for about 5 minutes before we realised it was finished (but the clothes were still wet).  All part of settling in, I suppose. Now, Robyn is watching British TV at 9:30, and it's finally dark.

 

Bye Bye until tomorrow....

 

Lex and Robyn