Bath Time

After breakfast we set out fairly early towards Bath. I had booked an AirBnB flat last night, so we entered its postcode into the GPS and headed out of Lyme Regis. While not yet out of the town, we ignored an instruction to go down a side street, when we could see the main road perfectly well went straight ahead. Soon after, it sent us off down a side road, which got smaller and smaller, which didn't seem sensible at all, so we turned around and went back to the main road again. What the hell is it thinking? I set it for the most economical route, and all we can figure is that it is trying to get us places by the straightest way, so that when the M3 goes round in a big curve, it thinks it's much more sensible to go across country, along lanes that are too narrow for a centre line, with hedgerows or stone walls either side. Lovely English countryside, but not a good way to get anywhere. It definitely did this in one of the towns we came through: took us off the main road that went round in a curve, and told us to take a little suburban side street that came back out on the main road a bit later.

So we started relying on actual road signs. We saw it was possible to go to Taunton, and I wanted to see what Taunton was. Mum has a tea-towel from there, and it sometimes pops up on TV, but I've never actually heard anything about it, only the name in passing. So we decided to make that our coffee stop for the morning. But although we eventually found the town centre (again, no thanks to GPS) there was nothing open. Sunday morning, yes, but NOTHING was open. No

coffee shop, no tea rooms, couldn't even see a convenience store. So that was Taunton.

So then we saw a sign for Glastonbury, and we decided to try again. Much better luck. Still Sunday morning, but plenty of cafes and several hippie shops, and lots of nice old buildings. We had some coffee and cake, and looked at a few shops. And we bought a real paper map, so that we don't have to rely on the GPS (apparently = Go Places Stupidly). I had expected to use GPS on my phone or tablet in the car, but 3G reception has been so bad it hasn't even been worth trying. Anyway, we drove up to see the Tor, the hill which has been the focus of myth, legend, magical lore and pilgrimage for over 10,000 years. But we weren't sufficiently New Aged to be bothered walking to the top. A photo'll do us.

And so we continued on to Bath. We got to the flat at about 1. It's a tiny little place: one in a street of Georgian houses, but it looks as though it was just built in as an afterthought. That's it in the picture, with the red car in front.) The house next-door has rooms built out over onto our roof, and we only have a back door - no opening on to the garden outside the bedroom window. Every other house on the street has a frontage towards the street on the other side, but not us. Awww.

After dropping our stuff, we walked around the neighbourhood and found a pub to have a Sunday roast at. We wanted to do that last Sunday but failed, for some reason I can't remember. Stephen had roast beef so that he could have Yorkshire pudding, but having had it, he wasn't all that impressed. It was okay I think, but he couldn't see

what all the fuss was about.

Another FA Cup semi-final this afternoon, but as Stephen settled down to watch it, he realised with increasing horror that none of the channels on the TV were showing it. Yesterday's match was on BBC, so where was today's? Sadly, it was only on pay-tv, which this flat doesn't have. Luckily though, the Formula 1 was on instead, so that was ok.

After the race we went into town, which is a 15 minute walk downhill from here. All the proper shops were closed, (this was 6 o'clock) but there were a few eateries to choose from. We didn't have a map for the town, but we then bought 2 from a bookshop. We found the baths and the church and a place to meet for a free walking tour tomorrow morning. Sounds like us. We ate at Sally Lunn's, where the bans are actually really good. I sort of thought buns from a 350-year old recipe would be hard and dry (wasn't all their food like that?) but no, they were delicious. For 12.50GBP we got 2 courses and a (small) glass of wine, and Stephen's soup was the best vegetable soup I've ever

tried (sorry mum) and my garlic-buttered Sally-Lunn-bun was great. We both had a lamb chop served on a bun, and it was all good. This is the first restaurant I've been in that had its own museum, which showed the archeological dig that occurred under it. There was Roman flooring, and at least seven levels of medieval stonework. The shop was already a bakery (possibly for a monastery) before this Sally Lunn came from France with her secret recipe for bread in 1680, and could even have been a guesthouse in AD400.