Rambling around England.

[drron]

The last of the house.



And the first of the garden.

 

[drron]

A varied collection of plants. Recognised quite a few from Australia. As well some great views.

 

[drron]

 

[drron]

A 100 7ear old tulip tree.

 

[drron]

The last of the garden.




Some interesting things in the gift shop.




And the national trust offices on the property.

 

[drron]

It was a lovely morning and very interesting but now the day was about to change. It was time to drive to Exeter to pick up my repaired Apple phone. We had rung and checked and was told it was ready. Well yes I could have taken it with me but it was dead. Not able to be reapaired. My sim card had also died and that night got an email from my provider that I had missed 2 payments and my contract was cancelled. Had no notification the first one hadn't gone through. CBA had assured me all my regular debits would be paid on time even when I locked my card. All the others had gone through.
But at least I got another iPhone 11 for the price of the repair. Will soften the blow a little.
Not only that it began raining. We ended up having a late lunch in Exeter. For some reason only took a picture of 1 building.


Lunch was at a chain -Turkey Bay. Great if you like spicy food. Not so much if you don't. I enjoyed my spicy baby back ribs and didn't see the need of extra spice.



Then back to my sister's place for a long talk fest interrupted by the odd alcoholic beverage and left overs. In between showers I took some more pics of the view.




The Devon flag flying proudly.
.

The only attempt at a sunset we saw there.

 

[drron]

Tuesday and we are headed to Bath to stay at the New Hall hotel by Hand picked. We were booked in here in April 2020 on a prepaid rate. The money was refunded in full before we had decided what to do so this is paying back.
We had 1 important job to do and that was to find a Post Office that was open. A few are shut due to lack of staff. We were driving through the little village of Corston near Bath when I spotted the sign to the post office. In fact it was the village General Store with a woman in a cubicle marked Post Office. We had left the Samling hotel with the key. So Mrsdrron had to buy a post bag from the General Store section and then get the stamps and post it with the post office lady. It was nearly 1400 when this was done. The key was delivered to the Samling the next morning at 8am. Well done to the Royal Mail.
Here is the building.


So while mrsdrron was doing this I took a short stroll around the village.



This is a Nursing Home.







Getting ready for the snow.

 

[drron]

Our office for 3 nights Bailbrook House hotel,Bath.





We went down to one of their 3 lounges and shared a pizza for a late lunch.



And I had an English ale.

 

[drron]

I then went for a walk around the grounds.

 

[drron]

The rest of my walk.

 

[drron]

The view from the room before dinner.



In the old section all the rooms have names. Ours was Valentine Jones. A history of the person is given.


We then went to the main restaurant for dinner. The view from our table and the menu.

 

[drron]

The meal. The first sign of our wavering fitness to travel. I took pictures of the amuse bouche the bread which was delicious and mrsdrron's fish entree. then obviously my mind went blank. Pity it was a great cheeseboard I had to finish.




Breakfast the next morning was a buffet but you could order a hot dish as well.


The next day we both felt exhausted so decided on a rest day. We also didn't feel hungry so ate in the bar restaurant. Here is that menu.

 

[Gladstone Tim]

Did you see a reason, drron, why no menu youve posted has @
a gluten-free notation?

 

[drron]

Did you see a reason, drron, why no menu youve posted has @
a gluten-free notation?

It is just that I don’t take a photo of the whole menu. There has always been a gluten free option.

 

[drron]

Thursday and it was time to see Bath. Not a great day with showers and rain on and off all day. We decided to do the hop on hop off bus as neither of us are that mobile. We got a taxi to the Abbey, We knew the bus started near tha Abbey so walked around looking for the bus stop.









So after walking right around the Abbey we found the stop was just behind where the taxi had dropped us. Not only that but it was less than 5 minutes before the first bus of the day pulled up and we were first on.

 

[drron]

I certainly wouldn't want to drive one of these busses around the narrow streets of Bath.










And these are Royal Mail employees on a 2 day strike. However the passing of Her Majesty that evening meant the second strike day was called off.

 

[drron]

PPre Schoolers being taken for a walk.

 

[drron]

The circus.

 

[drron]

As if it wasn't already hard enough for the driver some think they are entitled to park illegally. This fellow refused to move.

 

[drron]

We now stayed on for a second loop.





But just after this disaster struck. On a straight 2 lane 1 way street the driver managed to drive into the bus stop sign and a lamp post. The rear view mirror was now facing forward. The conductor tried to pull it back into position. The bus driver then said my colleague in trying to fix the problem has put the mirror out of shape so you must all get off and wait for the next bus. Well lady if you hadn't driven into the post this situation wouldn't happened.
We decided to walk to the Royal circus where we had planned to get off.