Bed, Bath and beyond

Tuesday



Sylvia and I arrived at our hotel in Bradford on Avon, near bath, last night after the golf dinner. We have a very large twin room with period furniture. The hotel itself is quaintly old fashioned with lots of similar furniture, reading areas and so forth, set on large grounds with lawns and gardens.

Breakfast was the traditional Full English with sausages, eggs, baked beans and hash browns.

We liked it enough to want to stay an extra night and eventually we were told they could accommodate us (literally) after initially saying there were no free rooms.

Freed from the necessity to pack, we headed into Bath which was
15 or so minutes away. We opted for a 4 hour parking ticket and headed to the city centre. There are a number of pedestrian malls there and the roads where traffic is allowed are often one way.

Our first port of call was the Roman Baths.These are located near the abbey.

 I had been here some 30 years ago but don't really remember it. I suspect that they have improved things since then.

For a start there are now audio sets where you type the number on the display to hear a presentation on it.

You enter at the top level where you walk around the main bath. This several statues of Roman figures looking down on the baths.
.

 After that you go inside which is more like a museum. There are displays of life of the Romans as well as pices from the original buildings on the site.

There are lif- size movies of scenes from the times.

Also in several places ,they have TV screens which repeatedly play short clips. Many of these show the current scene as you see it, ie the remnants and ruins, and then they overlay this with a 3D rendering of the original buildings.

We spent a good 90 minutes there.

After that we wandered to various places. Sylvia was keen to have a bath bun from Sally Lunn's but the prices were somewhat on the high side. I found a bank and got some more cash and we eventually found a fish and chip shop for lunch.

After lunch, we walked up the hill to the circus, a round park with curved Regency buildings surrounding it. It seems that each of the houses there can be subdivided into up to 5 dwellings.




From there is was a short walk to Royal Crescent, another curved regency building with a multitude of houses perched at the top of the hill with a park opposite - Very Posh and no doubt very expensive.

The circus

Royal Crescent

We headed down hill through the park and eventually back to the car and returned to the hotel via a more scenic route than we used to get there.
After a nap, some reading and computer time, we decide to head out for dinner. We were heading for the city centre but saw a sign to Trowbridge. After heading down that road for some time we realised it was quite an long way off and turned back to the city centre. After much driving around without being able to find a park, we headed out on the road to Bath where we'd seen a pub in the morning. We had a light dinner there.

We have decided to go to Oxford tomorrow and found a guest house near the centre with parking and wi fi.

In a Manor of speaking

Monday

Today I took part in the annual golf tournament which was held at Celtic Manor. This was the site of the 2010 Ryder Cup between Europe and the US, and more recently the NATO summit on the Ukraine problems.

We played one of the other 2 courses, the Roman Road. The Hole signs also had the hole number, par, and length in Roman Numerals.

This course was parkland style and although there were some tress many holes were quite open. If you have ever watched the golf on TV played at these courses and wondered why even the pros have a hard time of it, then I can assure you there is a good reason. It was very frustrating to hit your ball to what looked like a section of lawn and not be able to find it since the grass is a couple of inches deep. When you do find it you're never sure how much the grass will take of the shot, with you ball sometimes coming up 20 or so metres short or sometimes getting it cleanly and going 20 metres too long.

I hired sticks for 35  Pound and the golf cart was the same, so with the comp and dinner fees it wasn't  a cheap day. The sticks were Taylor made SLDRs which weren't bad but they had 1-3-5 woods, 4-9 irons and only 2 wedges, so a few clubs short of my normal bag. I was able to get stiff shafts and a mallet style putter but the driver had 1 de more loft than my own.

I got a ride there with Martin who I had mett prior to this event and we finished up playing together as well. After sorting out my clubs, I joined the rest upstairs for bacon rolls and some chatting and meeting people who hadn't been at the weekend. I wasn't able to find any one else who wanted to share a cart.

I was in the last group, playing with Martin, John the manager of the British office and Tim who I hadn't met before.

I had plenty of time to hit a bucket of balls at the driving range. I'd checked out the clothes at the pro shop and thought them a bit expensive (45 pounds for a polo) so only bought a ball marker as a souvenir. However there was also a discount rack at the driving range/golf academy building where I found a Greg Norman Polo with Celtic Manor badge for 15 and a sleeveless vest with Ryder Cup for only 5.

By the time I got to the tee it was nearly time to go so I didn't have time for any putting practice. The first hole was a par 5 and after pulling my drive a bit to the left and leaving my second short of the bunkers, I chipped to about 10 ft from the hole. One of the others had a longer put on the same line which gave me a clue but I was still surprised when I dropped my for a birdie. I followed this with a string of bogies before losing 2 balls in the brambles on one hole and then also wiping the next after putting my drive on the downslope of the road.

I finished with 15 points on the front despite the 2 wipes so wasn't that unhappy. However the back 9 was a distaste r with 5 wipes in all, many due to lost balls in places where you'd expect to find them.

The round took about 5 1/2 hours with some hackers both in our own group and those in front.

Still the course was interesting, the weather was great and so was the company, so pity about the golf.

I still had time for a shower and change before dinner. This was a lovely 3 course meal, with soup some great steak and a lemon pie.

Sylvia, who had done the castle tour earlier, arrived in time to join us for the back 9. Since I had a cart to myself I convinced her to come and see the scenery but she ended up being the driver for most of the time and was quite handy at finding (other people's) golf balls.

After dinner we headed for Bath where we had book a room for the night. It is in a lovely old house that was once a hospital and out twin room had period furniture and is quite large - probably twice the size of the budget room in Cardiff.

Although we only booked 1 night we have been able to extend for another.

Castle and Bay

Sunday

I was originally going on the coach trip to Pen-y-fayr but the confirmation email convinced me this was more of a hike than a stroll and I cancelled. Reports later confirmed this was a good choice,

Instead I had a leisurely start to the day and then found a laundrette to put through a load of washing.

After that I returned to the games room and another group played the game after which I played Dominion. I also bought a game of Mensa Connections for 10 pound, since the Aussie price was $60, even though it'll probably cause me a some packing problems.

There have been some castle tours but they clash with other events I'd pickled so I used the free afternoon to visit it, stopping for fish and chips on the way.

It is quite an impressive castle and it is right in the middle of the city.  The original walls were a Roman fort and a Norman castle was built on top of it. There is a small round keep with a moat in the middle of the walled area and extensive lawns.

The walls are quite thick with battlements and crenulations at the top. Inside the tunnels you'll find arrow slits for defence and these were also used in WW2 as air raid shelters.

On one side of the court yard, sits the house with some impressive rooms. The Arab room has ornate decorations on walls, ceiling and floor.

There is a great hall, dining room and library amongst others viewable by the public. There were some other rooms that were available for an extra cost.

 
View from entrance

Inside the round keep. It has 360 deg views of the city

 

The remains of the wall that divided the inner and outer courts

Dinner was at a restaurant in Cardiff bay, an former Dockyards area that has been tarted up and now has the arts centre, parliament building and restaurants and bars. It is only 10 minutes from the hotel and most of us went down around 5-30 and had a drink before the meal which started at 7. I found that I had selected my courses when I booked but had forgotten what I ordered. My companion had to look up a translation to see what we had ordered (meatballs it turned out).

Back at the hotel about 10 and I decide to skip the Quiz night and have rep

acked ready to check out and play golf tomorrow.

Its the pits

Saturday

The British gathering is quite different from the Australian one, where most events take place in the hotel and most people are in the same place all the time.

Here there are usually several concurrent options to choose from.

There were walking tours of the bay, the castle, the sports and arts centre and the parliament building and Dr Who locations. In addition there were some coach trips.

 Today I chose the coach trip to the Big Pit about an hour away. It is one of the old coal mines and is still, technically a working mine. This means that you can't take anything down the shaft that may cause a fire or a spark. Apart from the obvious smoking gear, this also means nothing with a battery, so no cameras, phones or even watches,

We were kitted out with a hard hat, a lamp and emergency breathing gear and then proceeded in two groups to take the lift down 90 ftt into the mine. Our guide had been a long term miner himself and so was quite amusing and knowledgeable. We were taken through various tunnels seeing the equipment used in the mining operations which were mostly done by hand right through to the stables for the pit ponies. At one stage we all turned of our lamps just to see how absolutely pitch dark it was.


After this we were able to walk around the rest of the site which included a display and audio visual presentation on mining in general, showing the sorts of machines used on other locations.

Lunch of soup and roll was included and we headed back after that.

This got us to the hotel well in advance of the whisky tasting session. An Economics professor was the presenter and he talked about entrepreneurship in general and then the history of setting up the Welsh Whisky co of  which he was a founder. We then tasted 2 whiskies, gin and a bailey-like liquor.

The gala dinner followed with a Dr Who or dress to impress theme.  There were some quite good costumes.

The 3 course meal was pretty good although service was slow with so many of us. The dinner speaker talked on unexplained phenomena and had been a TV presenter on a show on the same theme.

Afterwards, they had a disco but many of us just drifted to the bar area for chat and drinks.

Lost in the city.

Friday

The British Mensa Annual Gathering started today with Sylvia's first event being at 1pm and mine a bit later. We planned to leave around 10 which would have given her plenty of time.

With the washing and drying and getting ready it was 10-20 when we actually left and it was bucketing down with rain. Just getting out of Worcester seemed to take ages with road works and weather but once out the rest of the trips went smoothly.  As we got further along the rain eased of to a drizzle and then stopped but it remained overcast all day. We had a few navigation problems once we got to Cardiff but soon found the right road and arrived at the hotel with enough time for her to check in but not unload her stuff. However I moved in to my room and hung up the still damp washing all over the room.

This is the budget hotel and fairly basic, with no cupboard for example, but adequate since we won't be doing much other than sleeping in it. The main hotel is literally next door and only a couple of minutes away. I registered and picked up my T shirt before heading into the city to get some small items. On the way I passed a sign that seemed to sum up the weekend.

There was a big under cover shopping mall and I was soon able to find the things I needed.

I then went to a games workshop where we learnt and played a couple of games of Ankh Moorpork, based on the discworld novels, after which we played the inaugural European game of Cogz.








The ice breaker was a buffet dinner and it was a chance to meet new people and catch up with some old friends. One of the locals was dressed up as the Welsh Dragon.

This was followed by a pub crawl, with 4 separate groups circulating the same 4 pubs in the city. I had ducked off to the loo and when I cam back they'd left without me.

I thought I might catch up and headed across the railway bridge. A security guy at one venue said he'd seen then heading in the expected direction but once I arrived in the entertainment area there were so many bars I couldn't find them.I rang the hotel and eventually they found someone who told me the Roma Tavern was one of the 4 so if I got there sooner or later one of the groups would arrive. I got some directions since I couldn't find it ion Google, since it turned out to be the "Rummer". However I soon met up with a different group and the evening was good from then on.

Only had a few drinks but lots of chats with some 30-somethings before heading back around midnight.

Better inside than outside

Thursday

Of great concern was where is my case and when will I get hold of it. I rang the number given to me by Cathay around 8 and they said they had received no paper work. They thought it would be late in the evening at the earliest assuming they were going to deliver it for Cathay and that same day was authorised. They promised to call me back.

No luck with Cathay themselves which just connected to an answering machine. I rang later and they said still nothing but later rang to say they had the case and it would be delivered after 10pm. This did allow us to plan our day of sight seeing without needing to be back at Sylvia's to wait for the case.

We headed to Malvern which is at the top of the ridge between Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Normally you can see vast distances in both directions but it was too hazy today. Yesterday had started the same way and developed into a lovely afternoon, so we hoped for a repeat.

We finished up in Ledbury an Market town with a lot of Tudor and Elizabethan "black and white" buildings.

We saw the wall paintings on the council house upper floor and it was hard to believe the text in particular was the original and untouched.

After that we wandered along the old lane which had a number of exhibits and museums to the church and bell tower at the end.

We then went up the main street past some more lovely old buildings before going back to the car park and off to Tescos. As we were heading back through the centre of town a car pulled out in front of us, so we grabbed the parking spot and had lunch there as well.

We then visited Low Brokhampton manor, which has a cute white gatehouse and a moat.

They had just opened up 6 more rooms done up in different periods to honour the 400 years of ownership by the one family, before being given to the National Trust.

From their we headed back towards Worcester, stopping at a pub on the Teme River for a drink. They had a choice of tap beers called "This", "That" and "T'other"

Our final stop was Little Witley Church which was a long drive up a bumpy unsealed road. It is attached to a large manor house which was burnt out in the 1930's and never repaired, but the church itself was undamaged.

It was interesting enough at first glance with a clock tower with a shiny metal dome but the inside is stunning.

It is baroque style with white walls with gold filigree, stained glass windows and paintings on the walls and ceiling.

after a brief walk past the ruins and the river we headed back, stopping to get a chicken to roast for dinner and a few other bits of shopping.

I got a call promising my case would arrive between 10-30 and 11-30.