Good morning and happy Sunday.
Right now we are moored "in the wild" (that is, there are no permanent mooring rings in our location, so we had to put in our mooring pins) not too far from Bradford-on-Avon (not to be confused with Stratford-on-Avon), southeast of Bath, near the lock. It's about 60 degrees, and I actually went for a run this morning, because we are next to this miles-long towpath, and I thought I ought to. It wasn't much of a run - lots of walking, because I'm out of shape (for running, at least), plus the gravel is harder to run on than pavement. The pavement here (we are not too far from a residential area) would be hard to run on as well, as the asphalt is full of little rocks. No good for barefoot running, anyway.
Thursday we went into Bath again, to see some of the things we had not seen. We split up with Martha and Larry and agreed to meet up at the Abbey at a certain time. We stopped at Minerva's Art Supplies (where we had stopped the day before) and bought the kids some ink for the dip pens we got at the Jane Austen Center. We also found a fabulous bookstore where we could have spent all our remaining time, and I'm sorry to say we bought a few books (not because of the books but because we have to carry them now). I also got to photograph "Mr. Bennett," a character in costume standing outside the Jane Austen Centre, with muttonchop whiskers and top hat. He has worked there for over 10 years and is supposedly the "most photographed man in England." When we got out of the Jane Austen Centre the previous day, however, he was nowhere in sight; therefore I was determined to get a photo of him today. We struck up a conversation, mostly about conversation: I asked him if he had a lot of interesting conversations, and he said in his British accent, "Not really. Most people - not you - are really BO-ring, like all they do is watch the telly. They're very BO-ring - not you, of course." And so forth. Maybe he liked to be asked about himself; most people find that interesting. Makes me wonder what everyone else says to him that's so BO-ring. Our conversation was cut short when a tour bus stopped by to "ask directions" (a ruse, really) - but I got a photo of Mr. Bennett talking to the bus driver.
After that Giselle was hungry, so we stopped at the Intermezzo Express, where we had eaten lunch the day before, and got her another sandwich, even though it was only 10:30. I think both my kids are going through a growth spurt - they are certainly eating enough. The proprietor, Tony, remembered us from the day before, and we had a nice conversation as we waited for Giselle's sandwich to toast.
We headed for the Abbey after that and met M&L. There was a communion service being held at the front of the church, so they asked no photos there, but the rest of the place was fair game. There was an exhibition of "diptychs," in which an artist had done an illustrated manuscript/calligraphy page of a Bible verse, and the opposing page was a stitched/quilted picture. It was gorgeous, but most of the plates were behind glass and difficult to photograph because of the glare. They had postcards in the gift shop with reproductions so I bought one or two. Giselle bought a deck of cards with monarchs of the British Isles; 52 of them and 3 "jokers" - I don't know my history well enough to recognize two of the jokers, but one of them was the king who abdicated in favor of his younger brother during World War II. I learned that from "The King's Speech." Who says movies aren't good for you? I thought it was a nice souvenir. We had fun later putting them in order or reign.
After we went to the Abbey, we stopped for lunch at the same place where T, the girls and I had lunch on Monday - Gourmet Burger Kitchen. I was able to get another kids' meal (side of corn on the cob and a chocolate shake - yum) and the server recognized us. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. We were right near the train station, so we stopped to ask about trains to Scotland for Monday. The person who helped us was named Tracey, and she made us reservations on an appropriate train. I didn't know we could do that, because we have BritRail passes, but she said, "You paid for your ticket, same as everyone else, so why shouldn't you?" So we have reservations.
Walked back to the boat, and set off toward Bradford-on-Avon. We got to go through our first lock, which was an interesting experience. Larry, the girls and I went up to operate the paddles, and open the gates, and M and T piloted the boat into the lock. We were going "uphill" so we had to let the water in to raise the boat up to the next level. Clever engineering. After that I got to pilot the boat to the "winding" place, where we turned the boat around and headed back toward the lock to moor. We found a place about 1/2 mile from the lock and about a mile from town, but I didn't know the distance until I looked it up last night. We were right by a stairway leading up the the road, and we turned right when we should have turned left (not that we would know this) and walked along a residential street all the way into BoA, as they call it around here. Once there, we found an information center (and M&L bought duck food for the kids to use instead of crumbs to feed the ducks, who tend to follow people around, begging) and got some maps. We walked around town and did a bit of shopping, then walked back via the Tithe Barn and then the canal. It brought us on the path next to the lock again, so we were much closer to town than I had thought.
Time to get going, so more later.
blessings,
wendy
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