Tuesday 28th April 2009

We left Bristol at 8am after the usual morning rush to get the bags out and ourselves down to breakfast. We are off to Bath to see the Roman Baths. The drive is quite pleasant, and we soon arrive at the outskirts of the city. As we are a little early, we have time for some photographs of the buildings which constitute The Royal Crescent – we have a fairly sunny morning, so a good opportunity for photos. After the brief stop we are off to be set down right near the Roman Baths. We have arrived just before 9.00am, so will be the first group into them.
Soon we have our tickets, and our audio guide and off we go to explore. It is quite incredible to be walking around structures and seeing statues from these early days, and the Historical Trust in GB has done a marvellous job in preserving the building as well as making it visible to tourists.
We only have 2½ hours in Bath so after wandering through the museum areas, and listening to the audio guide as well as taking photos, Deb and I went off to see as much of the town as possible. Not a lot really, by the time we found somewhere for a cup of tea.
Back on the bus, we head off to drive through the Cheddar Gorge, this didn’t appear to be much as we started off, but it soon became obvious that it was much deeper than we had expected. We had a short stop for photos, but it had started to rain and blow very cold, so Deb and I stayed on the bus and took our photos through the windows. Ian had explained that the Gorge was the remains of a massive glacier from the ice age, and this was quite obvious to see.
Next we headed for Glastonbury where we were supposed to see the ruins of the Abbey where the early Kings were supposed to be crowned – i.e. King Arthur etc. The ruins had a ₤8.00 price for admission which Deb and I thought was exorbitant, given that we had less than an hour to see them. So we went into the tourist shop as usual – bought some postcards, and brochures on the subject, and then headed off down the street to find somewhere for lunch.
This is our major complaint about the bus tour – there is never enough time to see any of the places of interest – we stop too often, for too short a time – some of the stops have been of little or no interest to us many times. Oh well, you can’t please all of the people all of the time!!!
As it was getting cold and drizzling we opted for an indoor restaurant, but found we had quite a wait for our lunch – anyway it was quite tasty when it arrived – Cottage pie washed down with tea. Back on the bus again, we headed across Dartmoor – where we saw some of the wild ponies, then right on cue, we had frozen rain (sleet) hitting the bus, and the temperature dropped from 8°C to 4°C in the matter of minutes.
We arrived at Widecombe-in-the-Moor, but were only there long enough to take a few photos of the church, stop for a tea break, and but some postcards.
Back on board we headed for Torquay where we were to spend 2 nights – bliss, we don’t have to pack up again tonight.
The hotel at Torquay is quite old, Napoleon is supposed to have slept there – It has been refurbished, and we have been assigned a suite on the second floor. The best accommodation we have been assigned so far – and we have it for two nights.
We have a large bedroom with twin beds, overlooking the bay of Torquay, next to this is a large lounge room with another TV and tea making facilities, etc. There is a large bathroom, with both bath and shower !!!, and a separate toilet – so we are in heaven. The rooms are heated with steam heaters, so we will be able to wash and get it dry.
We go down to the restaurant for dinner, and find that this is the disappointment of the hotel – the staff can’t handle requests for changes to the menu, and once again – we are all herded into one area of the huge restaurant, away from the very few other guests.
The service is very poor, and Deb and I are the last served for each course, so it is quite late by the time we are able to leave and return to our room.