.......... and New Year in Bath.

It is New Years Day, and currently raining, but it doesn't matter because today has been a rest day, and tomorrow the forecast is for fine weather again.  I have had an extraordinary week of good weather - if you can call minus 3 or 4 good!

After Christma, parts of the UK had quite heavy falls of snow, in fact most of the places where I have been walking, yet where I was I just had frost - HEAVY frost!  One day, setting off it did indeed look as if the place was blanketed in snow.  Everything was white and remained so for most of the day, but walking meant that I stayed cosily warm.  With the frosty days the sun came, weak, but sun nonetheless.

This has been a week where I have crossed the Cotswolds, or skirted across them I should say.  Like Shropshire, the Cotswolds are lovely, primarily rolling hills (or that's the part I have seen at least) and because I had been warned about the hills I avoided them on my first day out of Gloucester, choosing to follow the Gloucester Sharpness canal instead.  The hills though were nowhere near as bad as I thought, and once on the tops I was treated to lovely views falling away.

St James church at Quedgeley.  I went in here and had a sing, a lovely thing to do on such a gorgeous day.

The Gloucester and Sharpness canal is very wide.  It was once the widest and deepest in the world.

The threatening weather eventually meant that I had to don my rain coat and put up with a shower for about 10 minutes.

After leaving the canal I headed towards the hills of the Cotswolds, stopping at a village called Cam (I had stayed in the village of Cambridge the night before).  I went to church here, and afterwards I was taken to Marilyn and Roy's home for coffee and lunch, a lovely treat.  Roy has walked the Camino and so we exchanged Camino experiences.  After lunch he kindly escorted me, along with Bertie the dog, up the hill to the path.  Once on the top it was a different world, bright sunshine and people everywhere enjoying the experience.  The frost was forming near their home, and by the time I got to my destination it was well and truly forming along the top.  I chose a lane where trees overhung the asphalt to descend to the village of Wotton Under Edge, as the Old London Road that I was on had already got dangerously slippery from ice and the sun was just setting.

Bertie escorted me to the top of the hill, along with his owner, Roy.

At the top I walked through the golf course, along with all the dog walkers,

and heading towards Wotton Under Edge I had some colourful views of the hillsides.

Leaving Wotton Under Edge thick frost covered cars and the ground.......

.......freezing puddles and the mud, .......

 ......... and making us all "breathe smoke".

At three o'clock it still lay thick in the shadows.

Although I had walked a little on the Cotswold Way, I tended to follow the lanes near it as I was sick of slipping and sliding in mud, but heading into Bath I followed it most of the time.  There were a couple of slippery places, but mostly I could scoot along pretty quickly on the frozen mud.  

Following the Cotswold Way,

 ........ and the views.

 This stretch began as frozen mud, but then got "slippy".  I was several inches taller by the top,........

.......... but I could still smile!

 I finds it quite amazing that paths just go straight across paddocks like here!

 Several of the churches I passed had what looked like " battlements".

There were a few hilla to climb on the last day, but the views were worth it.

Bath has been lovely.  It is not at all as I expected.  I had been told by numerous people about the Roman heritage, yet, apart from the Roman Baths it is really a Georgian town.  The Georgians demolished the mediaeval and Roman buildings to make way for their classic designs.  Much of it was destroyed during the war through bombing raids, and a lot has been rebuilt or restored. It is a town with a lot of history, and because of its importance socially in the 18th and 19th centuries many famous people are associated with it.

 Pulteney bridge, spanning the River Avon.  From here it looks like a bridge, but crossing it it looks like a street, with shops on both sides of it.

 Parade Gardens, Bath, in the frost.

 These collonades were built so that the "hoy polloy", taking the waters in Bath, could stay dry walking from one spa to the other.

 Jane Austen lived in one of these buildings, after her father died, but they are not sure which one.

 The little slate grey box hanging on the side of the building in the centre is an example of a "hanging toilet".  This was quite an advance to have an "inside" toilet.  Because everything in Bath is heritage listed the owners of this building have to maintain the box - probably now used as something like a broom cupboard or similar! 

 As mentioned previously, many of the rich and famous have lived in Bath.  The Royal Crescent, above, had people like Pittman (Pittman's shorthand) and the (Grand old) Duke of York living here.....

.....while in these house on The Circus such people as Doctor Livingstone (I presume), Thomas Gainsborough and Clive (of India) lived here.

The Abbey and the Roman Baths are right in the centre of Bath, with tourists teaming around them most of the day, even wet cold ones like this.  Having said that, today has been quite mild with the temperature reaching double figures, but set to plummet tomorrow!

The Abbey.  This was where the first coronation was held, and over a thousand years later, the same format is still used for coronations - though it must be said it is over 60 years since the last coronation!

 As mentioned earlier, the facades to almost everything are Geoargian in style - even the surrounding wall around the Baths, and the entrance to them (below)

As usual I spent a quiet New Years Eve.  I saw some of the fireworks from my bedroom window, and I certainly heard them!  I have had a treat today attending a New Years Day concert with Laura, an Australian friend now living in England with her young family.  She is a musician and so we were able to chuckle together over the energetic style of the conductor.  We both enjoyed hearing and seeing some good music being performed - a good way to start 2015!  I wonder what else it will bring.

Happy New Year to you all.