Biking Along the Canal to Bath

Tuesday, June 25

 

I had a nice early morning walk around BoA as part of an errand to a cash machine.  We should try to find some more time to stroll around town again before we leave.  The weather is bright and sunny so it was finally time to break out the shorts even though it still won't reach 70 degrees.  When I got back I discovered that Marnie had figured out how to open the bathroom skylight which should end the steam buildup we've had whenever taking a shower.  One more mystery with British equipment solved.

 

We hired mountain bikes just around the corner at the canal path and set off for Bath at 10:30.  We met a nice, elderly gentleman at the Avoncliff Aqueduct who had been following a swan and its young offspring for several days and he pointed them out to us as they sat far below the Aqueduct.   This Aqueduct and the Dundas Aqueduct allow the canal to fly over the river and train tracks twice as well as make any further canal locks unnecessary on this stretch of the canal.  You can see us at the Dundas Aqueduct here:

 

 

In the course of the ten mile ride we probably saw nearly a hundred canal boats of varying conditions including a very luxurious double wide canal boat that was for sale for £80,000.  Many people live long-term in their boats much like people in their RVs but short-term rentals are available too.

We parked our bikes at the museum just off the canal at Bath and crossed the Putney Bridge[360°] to eat lunch at another branch of La Tosca before tackling the Roman Baths.

 

 

The tourist experience at the Baths has been enhanced with audio guides which include the option of listening to supplemental commentary by Bill Bryson, my favorite travel writer.  Videos around the baths also help tremendously in visualizing what they originally looked like as do the faux walls that hang down from the ceiling in what had once been a wide, open area in my previous visits.

 

Afterwards we realized that the museum where we had parked our bikes would probably soon lock its grounds so we retrieved the bikes hoping to relocate them.  But vacant bike racks are in short supply and after we finally found a one we discovered that the bike lock was faulty and the bikes had probably not been locked back at the museum.  So rather than return to see Bath Abbey we instead relaxed on the riverbank for a few minutes and then rode back to BoA.  The canal boat residents were relaxing and having their dinners outside their boats all along our canal route back.  

We hit Sainsbury's again when we got back to BoA at about 7:30 and then had our own dinner while watching the first half of "Brassed Off".