Day 34: Oct. 7, 2018 - On to Bath

We rise to a new day, much dryer than yesterday. I didn’t get a great night’s sleep due to my lingering cough/cold, so I’m glad we aren’t in a hurry. After sleeping in a bit, we get ready to face the day and head out in search of coffee. We find it in the ubiquitous Starbuck’s.

We enjoy the coffee and pastry, then head out to explore Exeter a little bit. This was a walled city, a thousand years ago, and it has that typical core of streets that are suitable for walking and not wide enough for automobiles.

We find the city wall, more than a thousand years old.

Old City Wall

We continue along the Wall Path and while passing a couple of people, I hear them talking about trading cards of Association Football (not NFL) players. They mention DeAndre Yedlin! Are my ears deceiving me? I butt in and ask if that is what they said, and get proof:

DeAndre Yedlin Trading Card

I try to explain that Yedlin is American and comes from my city/area, but I don’t think these people care all that much. They didn't even know that Yedlin is American!

We continue on our apparently aimless path and come upon the jewel of the central city...

Exeter Cathedral

This being Sunday, we do not go inside the Cathedral.

Having gotten a good taste of Exeter, we head back to the Car Park and reclaim our VW Polo. We return to the Hotel to collect our bags and head out of town for Bath.

We have another unfortunate session with MapMe; it seems to have trouble quickly updating us when it senses that we have gotten a little off the intended path. Somehow, we find our way back to the desired road and we are back on track for Bath. We find Hill House and park on the sidewalk of the narrow side road while we check in.

More hospitable hosts than Harry and Douglas would be hard to find. We talk about what we want to see and Harry suggests the Historic Walking Tour, as well as 4 or 5 other things we might want to do. Most importantly, we ask him about a good Pub to watch the Man City v Liverpool match that starts in a few minutes. He explains that Bath is more of a Rugby Town, but suggests the Assembly Room. Harry and I hop into the car and he finds me an on-street parking place that we can use in conjunction with the permit he lends us. I wish I could have Harry in Exeter! We walk back to Hill House, then Amy and I head to the pub for the match.

We have decent drinks while we watch. I ask one of the other patrons which team he favored and he explains that he’s more into Rugby. (What did Harry say about Bath and Sports a while back?) The match is a bit of a snoozer and ends 0 – 0, but only after Riyad Mahrez spectacularly fails on a PK called against Van Dyke in the closing minutes of the match. Liverpool escapes with one point.

We then depart the Pub in search of dinner. We decide on comfort food as I have not felt that well all day. We find Ask Italian and have pasta. Quite decent, though at the lower end of the scale for Bath and its culinary reputation. We trudge up the hill to our lodging for the night and collapse after a tiring day fighting with NavSat and narrow streets.