Bath

I've spent today in Bath, and for once I had my camera on me while I was somewhere interesting.

For starters, Bath has narrow, narrow streets. There are a fair number in the old city where they haven't even bothered to upgrade them for cars, because you'd struggle to get most cars down them. This one is an exception, which they haven't upgraded so that they can hold street markets in it:


This street has its very own C.M.O.T. Dibbler (for the Pratchett fans):


As well as street musicians:


And this rather hopeful gentleman, who ducked just that fraction of a second too late when he saw the camera:


Bath has lots of nice churches:


(Sorry about the one on its side there. I can't be bothered dealing with it, you'll just have to turn your heads.)

The second of these had a group of people sitting on the steps smoking something they almost certainly aren't even supposed to possess. When I walked past a few hours later, they'd added some quite large containers of alcohol to the mix. It looked like being quite a party.

Something I've noticed is that I don't think I've seen one beggar or homeless person since I arrived in the country. This could be because I only go to nice bits where the police move such people along, or because they're really not there, or because they've all been kidnapped by aliens. Not sure.'

Bath Abbey has some quite exquisite bits:


Again, apologies for the bits-wot-face-the-wrong-way. The problem is that my camera detects which way up it is being held and marks the image with which way it should be rotated. My photo manager and image editor both also respect this marking, and handle it transparently. Only blogger doesn't realise that the image needs to be rotated.

I saw the baths, and the Pump House (much mentioned in certain novels by Jane Austen):


The word 'Roman' is perhaps a bit misplaced there, as most of the building in fact dates from the 19th century.

Actually this is a trend I have noticed in a lot of 'old' buildings. A lot of churches claim to date from the Xth c, where X is a relativly small number. In fact there are a few bricks or part of a wall that dates from that period; the church was invariably destroyed in the X+3th century, then largely rebuilt in the X+7th century, extensively refurbished in the 19th century and has since had significant work done on it.

Not sure why this guy is still hanging around:


Though it may be worth it, since he seems to get lucky on occasion:

You may have noticed, from the more architectural photos, that the buildings of Bath tend to be a fairly consistent colour. They are all made of local stone, called, inventively enough, Bath Stone. I am told that now any new building in the city has to be faced with Bath Stone, to preserve the look.

It's a lovely stone to have built in, but it gets a bit monotonous after a while. I also have trouble finding anything, because all the buildings look the same.

Anyway, it is getting cold now the sun has gone down, and my laptop battery is about to give up the ghost. Farewell!