At Bath

So, I’ve been here in Bath for a couple of days. The first night I wandered about the city a bit but it was rather late, I’d been cruising all day, and I was bit tired so called it early. But Bath has one of only four bridges in Europe with shops lining it…

I had hoped to do the touristy thing the next day but decided to join some friends

and move down the locks toward the centre of the city. That didn’t prove too successful, there were no moorings anywhere! They continued toward Bristol while I worked my way back up three of the locks before finding a lovely spot to moor for the night.

On the way though was the second deepest lock in England, at 19.5′. I managed it on my own with no issues. It’s tough to control the boat from above, I did it by tying to the long poles running up the sides (a slip line) and opening the paddles just enough to keep it from banging into the walls. Just climbing up after entering was an experience!

Here’s my view for the evening…

I couldn’t leave the boat however, as it was a disabled spot and I had to stay in case it was needed and I could move the boat. Nobody ever came however.

So it’s now the next day, I quickly moved up to the top of the locks and found an amazing mooring, right at the top of a path leading directly (5 minutes) to the centre of the city. I walked into town with a fellow (Rich) that works in the Roman Baths, so he got me in right away, bypassing the line!

A further tour of this beautiful city, and back to the Bath Abbey. It dominates the skyline, and is quite a beautiful church. However, they’re doing a huge renovation of the floor. In Victorian times the stones on the floor were removed and replaced rather haphazardly. Most were monuments (perhaps had people’s remains under them) but were often broken an replaced in the wrong places. In addition, the floor has subsided in locations where heating pipes were added so it all has to be catalogued and removed again. Volunteers are attemping to glean as much information as they can from the writing on the stones, often very difficult to do. Once the floor is stabilized again, they’re going to pipe hot spring water (from the Roman Baths next door) underneath to both heat the building and keep it at a constant temperature. Very cool (and expensive) project.

Okay, gotta send this, have wifi at the pub! I’ve been sending a lot of pictures, which requires quite a bit of bandwidth. So in the next few days I might bore you all and write some words. They’re easier to upload through my phone… I’ve had a lot of experiences, met a lot of people, and had plenty of time to think as I putter along at a couple of miles per hour. I might start putting some of those thoughts down.

I miss everyone and hope you are all well. Please feel free to Email, WhatsApp, Hangouts, Viber, or Messenger me (or just comment on the blog), I’d love to hear from you.