27th May - Waterstones, Avebury and Bath

Today was a moving day.  

The morning was spent in Oxford just tidying up a few things and getting ready for going away. 

Ben had a chance to try his best coffee in Oxford yet (Ratio in George Street).  I was left at the Waterstones book shop to have a bit of a look at the kids section while Thom nipped back to Brasenose to pick up a few games we might want to play while we were away. 

Waterstones

 When he got back I still hadn't made it to the kids section!!! - another great bookstore in Oxford.  

He did come to the kids section with me and wait while I enjoyed some great books and the general vibe of the place.  "Oi Dog" is one of his current favourites. I agree - it is good fun. 

How do you drive from Oxford to Bath in an interesting way?  You drive past Avebury and see some stone circles.  So that is what we did.  On a bank holiday in wonderful weather we were lucky to find a park in the overflow parking.  (and lucky to find any lunch at 2pm )

The Avebury site is a world heritage site.  Built about 1200BC the large Henge (ditch) surrounds the entire village and three stone circles.  Apparently it is one of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain.  We had never heard of it. 

Aerial view of the town showing the ditch and some of the stones. 

We wandered among the old stones and marvelled at the history (along with many others)

There were ribbons hanging in these trees which represent prayers to the spirits in the area.

 The area did feel ancient and special.

We drove on towards Bath and finally found our home for the next few days after a bit of searching.
The house is in the centre of a block , entered via a lane.  We are happy to have 4 bedrooms and to be able to spread out a little.  We are close to Henrietta Gardens and only about 1.5km from the centre of Bath. 

Trevor and I went for a walk once we were settled in , and located a  small supermarket, where we purchased the makings for dinner. One the way we discovered this pretty roundabout with multicoloured flowers and an attractive sculpture.

The evening finished when I finally managed to dominate in a game of Innovation and put us all out of our misery. We won't be asking to play this strategy game again in any hurry and still feel that we have no idea of what on earth it is about.We sure felt old and stupid as we headed for bed after that effort.