[Ceiling of the nave in Bath Abbey. Photo is mine.]

Oh! Who can ever get tired of Bath?

~~Jane Austen Northanger Abbey

Like a grandfather clock on the landing of a staircase of an old house, like a circular staircase leading to the dark places in a haunted Irish castle, like an elderly couple at the end of long day of driving, things and people wind down.

We’re winding down. Our fantastic trip from one end of Ireland to the other, and through places in southern England, familiar and unfamiliar is coming to an end. And not an easy end. The discovery of undiscovered places in The New Forest, the easy footpaths through ancient copses and over gentle hills will be difficult to say farewell to. But say it we must.

I’m writing this from the desk in room 3 on the second floor of the Trusted Servant Inn near Lyndhurst in The New Forest. Tonight, Tuesday 23 September is our third night here. I hope to post one more blog after this one. Perhaps there will be a chance to put another one out before we arrive in New York.

But this will be about Bath. We spent a total of eight days in that amazing city.

This is about one day, 19th of September. It was a Friday. I had purchased a copy of On Foot in Bath and had found a walk that began very close to our hotel. The highlights of this particular route was the architecture of the crescents of the northern heights of the city. We chose this walk (#13) because we both love the building styles and the history of the important places mentioned in some of Jane Austen’s novels.

I should have paid more attention to the route, read the fine print, and studied the map with a geographers sense and sensibility. After the first quarter mile it became clear. The rest of the two and half miles were uphill. Yes, up the hill.

Having said that, and after we were back in our hotel, I very much enjoyed the walk. I paid dearly for the experience during the night when the dreaded cramps in my lower legs arrived, just after the witching hour. After the last midnight knell my calves began to tighten in legendary ways.

Here is a look at the famous crescents that Bath is famous for:

[An interesting building very early in the walk. These are ‘ghost adverts’ on the side of the building. They have been there for over a hundred years. Fading now. But still there to remind people of what was sold in the space below. Photo is mine.]

[A Georgian watchman’s house. This is located near one of the minor crescents. I walked around it and couldn’t find any opening for any watching. The little space on the door where the plaque is? What can the watchman see? Photo is mine.]

[The Royal Crescent. Without question, the most famous and perhaps the most photogenic of the six or seven crescent buildings in the city. I saw a notice a day later for a two-bedroom apartment here listed for £2400 mo. Photo is mine.]

[This is Lansdown Terrace crescent. This was at the end of what the guidebook said was an ‘impressively steep climb’, or words to that effect. Not as bucolic as the Royal Crescent, but still striking. Photo is mine.]

Yes, the walk up to this view was very tiring. This is a photo of what the climb did to me:

[I was tired and my back hurt. Photo is mine.]

We had gone about as far as we could go that afternoon. Then we turned a corner and I spied a palm tree. The sidewalk began to pitch downward. We were on our way home. In front of one smaller crescent apartment building was this view of the palm tree and part of the city below.

[The river Avon, one of at least three Avon Rivers in Britain is in the distance. Photo is mine.]

As we descended, the pubs and cafe´s became more common, moving away from the largely residential and high-end hotels of the heights. We turned on the street that would take us nearly to our hotel. But, as bad as I needed a rest and to get out of my boots, there was one more famous place I needed to see.

The Bath Circus. A circus in the UK usually refers to a circular arrangement of buildings. We have Piccadilly Circus in London as an example. But that isn’t truly a circular place, except that it is mostly a traffic roundabout. It’s a bit confusing, thanks to my dicey explanation, but it serves to bring us back to Bath and the famous Circus.

[With attempting to do a pano photo, this is about 25% of the Bath Circus. It swings around for 360 degrees. Photo is mine.]

[In the center of the Circus is a cluster of five plane trees. These trees were mistaken by the author as Sycamore trees. They are similar in the stippled bark pattern, but a slightly different species. Both trees are often seen lining city streets because they are especially tolerant of air pollution. Photo is mine.]

There were more crescent buildings but I think that you get the general idea. Here are a few extra bonus photos of things I thought were interesting. Enjoy…

[Teapots in a store window. Just in front of the Abbey. Photo is mine.]

[More teapots. Photo is mine.]

[And my favorite teapot. Photo is mine.]

A few days after the walk, we departed Bath for the New Forest. On the last day, Mariam had a few things to attend to on her laptop. I took a final walk to the Abbey. I stood in line and paid the £8 to enter. There was an empty seat away from the tourists. I pulled out my copy of The Architecture of Bath Abbey. Looking up, I studied the fan vaulting and the tracery. The columns. The capitals. The stained glass windows. I got up and walked into a side chapel where there was an effigy of some important resident of Bath who was buried here hundreds of years ago. So much history. So many people laying in their graves beneath my feet. One can not help but feel a weight of history. We are here for a moment and then…serious thoughts. Even as a non-believer, I can fully understand the power of beauty to take the mind upward, ever upward…

[The nave ceiling of the Abbey. Photo is mine.]

[The west window. Photo is mine.]