Bath for an Old Fat Pigeon??

After our weekend of Jubilee celebrations, we headed down to the gorgeous old city of Bath (or B-ah-th if you are my children correcting my pronunciation) set in Somerset, England. The city was first established as a spa by the Romans sometime in the AD 60s about 20 years after they had arrived in Britain (AD43).  They built baths and a temple on the surrounding hills of Bath in the valley of the River Avon around hot springs. Edgar was crowned king of England at Bath Abbey in 973. Much later, it became popular as a spa town during the Georgian era, which led to a major expansion that left a heritage of exemplary Georgian architecture crafted from Bath Stone. The city is about a three hour drive from our house. We have been here before but were happy to return for another look.

Here is Sammy and her cousin listening intently at the museum on their audio guide phones. We went with Charles' cousin's family who live here in London but are soon moving back to the states.

An interesting fact I just learned - In March 2012 a hoard of 30,000 silver Roman coins, one of the largest hoards discovered in Britain, was discovered in Bath during an archaeological dig. The coins, believed to date from the third century, were unearthed about 450 feet from the Roman Baths! Wow! Here is Alexandra sitting at one of the large roman baths.

Another view

After an exciting day in Bath, we drove to our Bed & Breakfast which Charles' cousin found online. We decided to book it because we simply loved the name - "The Fat Pigeon." It was an hour or so outside of Bath and we had a bit of a hard time finding it. We were also due to arrive well after their deadline of 8pm so it started to look like we would have no place to stay the night. However, after emails, phone calls and begging as well as getting lost driving through some narrow, dirt roads and last but not least, Sammy vomiting, we came upon this amazing castle-like house.  We thought it could not possibly be our Bed & Breakfast. Well surprise, surprise - it was! We just had to enter from the back. 

This is a photo of the front of the house, I found on the website. The actual name of the house was the Brympton d'Evercy or Brympton House. A little history:  Brympton House was not built in its entirety all at once; instead, it was slowly expanded between about 1220, when it was begun by the D'Evercy family, and the 18th century. It once served as a boys' school during WWII. Today it is occasionally hired out as a location for filming, or weddings, it remains essentially a private residence. During its long history Brympton d'Evercy has belonged to just five families, the most recent owner purchased the property in 2007. (Our camera battery was dying just as we arrived so I get a few pictures of my own but not many.)

This is the wedding hall with wooden benches and ivy crawling up the columns. There were also several old fire pits along the right wall. Gorgeous! (From the website)

The view out the back of the house (From the website)

A closer view of the front door

Night view from the website

This is the ballroom that was just down one flight of stairs from our rooms. The back cabinets you see in this picture were full of dozens and dozens of gorgeous hand-painted tea cups of all kinds.

This is the view from the back of the house in the spring (from the website)

Now for my pictures - this is a view of the back of the house entering into the actual Bed & Breakfast entrance.

The winding staircase with the bell at the top. We climbed this staircase to get to our rooms.

Leading to the front of the house - chicken coop on the left

Our room with the large old fireplace that Abby was afraid to sleep by.

This is the view of the gardens from our room!

This is the view out the back of the house from one of the ballroom windows. Breath-taking!

This is looking out the ballroom window down onto the back porch or veranda

Ok you are probably thinking - enough pictures already - but I can't help it! This place was GORGEOUS! The pictures don't do it justice. I could not get over this view from the ballroom window out the back. It looked like a painting to me. There is a little row boat on the edge of the pond (you can't see it too well from my picture) but it just made it look so idyllic. It was unbelievable!

This is the old chapel and graveyard surrounding it on the premises (this is the only picture I got of it). I must say, thinking that we were just booking a cute little Bed & Breakfast cottage and then ending up with this could not have been a better set up. We were all walking around in complete excitement and amazement! Now will someone I know pleeeease just come get married here so I can attend your weddding?? I think I have definitely managed to go on and on about this house so I will end here and begin another post about our next day's adventures....