13th July - Did you know that all pasties in Cornwall are Corninsh Pasties?

Bath exceeded our expectations. We expected the cresent and the circus to of course be spectacular, the baths and river to be beautiful, and any other bits of Georgian architecture to be pleasant to see. We didn't expect the whole city to be beautiful building after beautiful building. The city is laid out on a hill around England's only hot spring - which is why the Romans built their Baths here - hence, the name. The landscape means that time and again you have the city laid out before you, either on hillsides above and around you, or laid out below you. Even our Youth Hostel was a lovely old building. We drove around a lot and didn't seem to encounter the housing trust area that every other town and city has (some in major abundance).
We loved driving through it and walking through it, and could probably have happily spent a few days there. However, that was not to be. In the hours that we had there, we walked through the centre of town, admired our surrounds, and spent our tourist dollars on touring the Roman Baths. A fascinating look at history. I never cease to be amazed at what people were doing two thousand years ago, and how little we have changed.
We left Bath at about 3.30 in the arvo and drove for a few hours to get to the south of Cornwall. The first leg of the journey took longer than it may have, because I, in all my wisdom, discouraged Shane from heading up to Bristol to catch the A30 all the way down the peninsula. I claimed to be fundamentally opposed to going up when we needed to head down, and anyway, we wanted to see the country side, not the edges of the motor way. The deal was that we would take minor roads, until such point as we could join a motor way, further down the track. WELLLLL, an hour later, when we had traveled maybe thirty miles, we hit the motorway and were both happier for it. Had we gone my way the whole way, we probably would still be coming.! (English villages are joined by lanes, sometimes only one car wide, and usually slow going, especially if you get caught behind a truck, bus or tractor.)
We bought tea from a Supermarket on the way and arrived at our Yurt sometime before nine pm. The Yurt is a Mongolian tent and is the real deal. The owners had it imported, so you see we are having a double cultural experience whilst in Sthn England. It has a wooden framework, with a cloth outer and inner, and felt inbetween. Problem is that Mongolia is really dry and cold,here it is wet and cold, therefore the fire (also the dinky-di Mongolian kind) has to be lit when it rains to keep the felt from getting soggy. They burn fiercely hot, so then we sit in here with the front doors open and the fire going...but what a view. Behind those cute orange wooden and orange doors is a beautiful look across seven miles of countryside to the ocean beyond.