Bath

There was a house, and in the house, there was a room, a very pink room, and in that room were two travellers and a brand new laptop, and in those two travellers was a happiness that they had a new home. Yay!

I'm writing from our new abode at 15 Frome Rd, Bath. We are renting a room in a suburb called Odd Down which is up in the hills above Bath. It feels quite suburban, but we recently discovered that a ten minute walk will get us out into fields and woodlands as pretty as anywhere. And, it's only a ten minute bus ride into the city so we feel we've got the best of both worlds.

We have had a week of ups and downs trying to find work. I had a stroke of luck walking into a cafe that wanted someone to start right away but Eddy is still looking. We're sure he'll find something soon though.

We've been on a few walks, including one at twilight to Sham Castle, so called because it's a two dimensional facade of a Gothic castle, built specifically to create a pretty skyline for those crazy Victorians. We also went on a 20km ramble around the Bath skyline on a day that actually qualified as being hot.

On Wednesday we caught the bus to Avebury, site of an ancient stone circle and close to Silbury Hill, Europe's largest prehistoric mound. Perhaps it was the weather, or the sheep everywhere, or just our moods but we found it hard to tap into the mystical nature of the place. Even after a look at "Avebury: 6000 years of mystery," we couldn't quite get there, but were sufficiently entertained while having our lunch by a boy who thought it was funny to keep on throwing his jacket over a big wrought-iron gate. It actually got funny when it got caught and he had to work out how to get it down. Lucky he had a tall dad. We stopped in at Devizes on the way back to Bath. It is just near the Caen Lock section where the canal rises something like 76m over a short area. Amazing engineering. It didn't faze a family of swans at all. Mackenzie would adore the fuzzy little cygnets.

We headed out for a walk a few hours ago after a lazy morning fiddling with the new computer. I'm glad we did because we stumbled upon one of the prettiest places we've seen so far. There is nothing better than following a public footpath and seeing where it comes out. We walked through a gigantic field filled with a pea crop (ew!) and came out a village called South Combe, a mix of glowing cottages, walled gardens and stately manors. The pub there, the Packhorse, looks like its worth a visit so I'm sure we'll be returning sometime soon.

Tomorrow we're off to Cardiff for a look around. It's convenient when the next country is only an hour away by train!

Lots of love, Susie and Eddy

Some photos of Avebury and Devizes: