Over the summer, yes a long time ago, we took a few days out, loaded up the car and went for a drive. Technically it was a holiday, but who is really counting. First let me take a step back to the weekend prior to the trip to Bath. We had to take a drive up to Cambridge first to pick up the rest of crew who would be joining us on the trip to Bath. It was meant to be our first visit to Cambridge and were quite excited to see what all the fuss was about. Alas we never made it. We took the dogs with us and decided to stop at a National Trust property to give them a break and to have some breakfast. What was meant to be a relatively quick stop at Wimpole Estate turned into a three hour layover which included breakfast and a long walk out to an abandoned castle. From there we drove through to Bedford to pick up the rest of the party. Below are some images from Wimpole Estate.
The next day we woke up, packed the car and set of for Bath. Fortunately it did not mean driving directly there. We managed to do a detour via Henley-on-Thames for lunch and to pick up a few travel supplies. After which we drove through to where we were staying in Corsham, to a bed & breakfast called Pickwick Lodge Farm. I can highly recommend it, Gill our host was very friendly, it was very clean and comfortable and the breakfasts where excellent. For dinner we made a way through to Bath and afterwards took a walk around town. For me it was really a chance to see what I want to photograph over the next couple of day, but the others were just enjoying the evening out. As we were walking near the old Roman Baths, we came across a group of Morris dancers. I must say, it was the first time I had seen such a happy group who were actually enjoying themselves. In hindsight, it was near a pub, so I suspect a fair few pints of local ale were involved.
The next day we headed back into town, this time to do the Roman Baths tour and for the girls to go to the hot springs while the guys took a walk around town. The Roman Baths were really interesting and we had a great time learning what happened there thousands of years ago when the Romans were in charge. As always it was amazing to see how tirelessly the historians go about restoring places like the Roman Baths so that we can see back into the past to see what our ancestors got up too. While the girls were bathing in the mineral rich waters, I went for a walk around to capture some of the sights of Bath. Below are some of the images from the walking around.
The following day we decided to explore a bit, and ended up going to another National Trust property. This time it was Lacock Abbey. It was one of the locations from the Harry Potter movies but slightly more important was the Fox Talbot museum. He was one of the forefathers of photography having pioneered the calotype process. I was able to stand in the exact same spot where he took the first photograph which he successfully developed. The village of Lacock itself was very quaint and interesting to walk through. Below are some of the images from the day out to Lacock.
That pretty much concluded the trip as the next day we packed up and headed home. We decided to take a detour via Stonehenge to see the famous stones. As we got closer we quickly realised that the place was very popular and after a unanimous decision we carried on driving. We did managed to see Stonehenge though as we drove past. The short holiday was great though and we will definitely head back that way.
