Wednesday Wanderings: Bath!

As a kid, I used to have a big red atlas which had big detailed maps of all the US states (no, I don’t know why I had a US-centric atlas apart from a normal atlas). And it had names of all the little towns and villages there – which apparently had the freedom to choose their own names! I found this first-hand when I happened to discover ‘New Delhi’, ‘Bombay’ and ‘Madras’ on the map of USA. In fact, I even found a place called ‘Truth or Consequences‘ in the state of New Mexico.

Back at home in India, I’ve across quiet a range of funny town and street names, for example – ‘Aadha Bazaar‘, a street in Indore, my hometown which translates to English as ‘Bent/angled Market’, to ‘Andheri‘, a suburb of Bombay which would essentially mean ‘a dark (without light) region’ to ‘Kanpur‘, a city in India which would be directly translated as ‘Ear Town/City’.

However, none of these have been lucky enough to become a part of my resume. But, that’s when ‘Bath’ happened – my summer internship after 3rd year of college (absolutely straight-faced note: nothing here alludes to a typical undergrad’s bathing habits). I can safely say, Bath is one of the most charming little towns I’ve visited in my life – located very close to Bristol, about an hour and a half journey from London, its an absolute treat for tourists.

A day in Bath (again, no pun intended) deserves a blog post on its own. However, for today’s photo of the week post, Bath has stepped forward with not only its funny name but its funny warning signs, which are by coincidence (?) all related to water!

Warning sign next to the the famous Pultney Bridge, where the river has some very obvious locks and a depth less than half a feet!

Yes, the stone floors are a bit slippery at the famous Roman baths. (What else did you expect? They are baths!)

My friend Chandni demonstrating excellently how not to fall to the temptation of dipping your feet in the hot water baths and waddling - and yes, she's going to kill me for putting up this pic.

Have you come across any funny town names or funny signs during your travels? 🙂

Duck Race in Bath (UK)

I wasn’t aware of the concept of Bank Holiday before I reached UK, and it was on my first Monday in Bath. Anyway, a surprise holiday is always welcome *grin* and I went down to the main town for a shopping expedition when I came across this exciting race happening at the Pulteney Bridge.

I’ll try to capture the event in a few pictures..

A thousant (rubber) ducks were released into the river Avon at the Pulteney Weir

Oh, wait a second, Duck no. 768 was disqualified for doping charges!

All the ducks move towards the side rail (Just like – in a long race, runners move towards the inner track). Also, ofcourse, there is less turbulence and a steady speed is easier to achieve!

Some of the early leaders!

The commentator (and the referee)

I am half-inclined to believe he cheated! 😛

And the race continues.. Every duck is trying sooo hard!

Very close to the finish line on North Parade Bridge! Duck no. 475 clearly won!! There was a close contest for the second place though!

This annual event is held to raise money for WaterAid is organised with the help of University of Bath Students’ Union. Anyone can buy a duck for 2 pounds, and cheer their duck towards the finish line.

Tequila Sunrise

I got the inspiration for this post when this Eagles song played on a friend’s car’s music system. I recalled the beautiful sunrises that I’ve seen till now – from Bombay to Bath to Bangalore.. I’ve witnessed some very spectacular ones.

The only negative thing about a sunrise is that one has to wake up really early, which can be painful at times, with the pain aggravated if the number of tourists crowding at the place is very large. I remember one of those times, it was at the Tiger Hill in Darjeeling, famous for just the view at sunrise, that I had to wake up despite the super-suhavna (pleasant) weather which entices you to switch off the damn alarm and to go back to sleep. Nevertheless, I did wake up that day, to see fog all around, and the driver promised that the fog usually clears before the sunrise. When we reached the place, the fog was still there, the air was very chilly – the cold biting, and the hilltop looked like the general coach of the Virar fast at rush hour. There were people everywhere. Every-damn-where. And the worst part, the cloud-cover didn’t disappear until it made sure that we miss the sunrise completely. The only ones who must have been happy that morning were the chaay-wallas (tea-vendors), who seemed like god-sent angels to save sleepy tourists from sleep, cold and frustration.

Nevertheless, here are a few of the beautiful sunrises that I’ve been able to capture in my camera (Each has a separate story that goes along with it, but about that, maybe some other day). Enjoy! 🙂

Golf Course, Bath, UK
A general stroll around the university campus on the day we were shifting hostels.

Vihar Lake, Powai, Mumbai, India
I and Anupom went for a walk to the hill-side in IIT and beyond..

Beach Road, Pondicherry (Puducherry), India
Fishing starts early in the day, when the seas are calm, and the catch plenty..

Beach Road, Pondicherry (Puducherry), India
A photographer lost in the beauty of sea of colours in the sky, captured in another photo..

Skandhgiri Hill, Near Bangalore, India
After a 2-3 hour long night trek, enthusiasts wait for sunrise as the skies turn into an unbelievable palette of colours and shades ..

Skandhgiri Hill, Near Bangalore, India
As the sun rises in full glory, it almost looks like its sinking into the darkness leaving a trail of golden light and warmth behind..

Bath Skyline Walk

It all started with the idea of going for a walk. This mostly happens when you are clumsy enough not to book tickets and make plans for ‘nice’ places, and you feel suffocated staying at your lodge because its a weekend. So, we decided to go for a walk.

Luckily for us, one of our friends in the university had suggested us to go for the ‘Bath Skyline Walk’. And surprisingly, we even found a map for the path or trail of the walk on the net. So, we started.

We started from right behind the Eastwood hostels, crossed a rough patch and arrived on beautiful looking greens… And a few sand traps as well. Bells ringing.. ummm.. it seemed familiar. Just as we reached for the printout of the map, we saw a small flagpost as well.

That’s when we realized, there was a huge beautiful golf course right behind the university! It extended as far as we could see, and the lush green (I know we are not allowed to walk on the greenest part). Since the university located on a hill, the golf course also provided an amazing view of the entire area. Awesome!

Thankfully, nobody was actually playing golf at that time. It was not the best idea to walk right across the course, as we later came to know.

 We walked along the edge of the golfcourse and finally reached what we called as the first checkpoint. The Sham Castle, apparently an iron age castle. I may just be using my creativity here, but looking at the enormity and the magnificence of the castle, it is very likely that some bored Indian tourist (who has seen the likes of Red Fort, Delhi) must have given it the name ‘the sham castle’. Or rather, a sham in the name of a castles.

What you see here.. IS the castle. Thats all of it. No illusions. And if you were wondering, yes, its actually possible for a 6 foot tall guy to climb it up. Though, what I fail to understand is, if this is the castle, what were they trying to protect ‘around’ which they built the castle.
Clearly, the English must have different ideas about building a castle (the last assumption is obviously wrong as they do have some real good big castles).

Moving on, we crossed a couple of high-traffic roads as we headed towards the ‘Prior Park’, a National Trust establishment. The guys there did probably con us into buying year-long membership for the National Trust since a ‘lot’ of ‘great’ places come under National Trust and we would be exempt from entrance fees. Which turned out be, well, slightly incorrect.

Anyway, after crossing some construction going on in the park, all the while cussing the guy at the entrance, who didn’t let us enter for free, we reached a boarding school that looked like a palace. That’s the thing about foreign architecture. Everything looks palatial. Then, we finally reached the main attraction of the park. It was a beautiful little bridge across a small lake, a ‘palladian’ bridge (one of only 4 left in the world). It is so nicely set that, somehow, it gives the feeling of, sitting down, relaxing and writing a poem or something like that. (We later came to know that the park was designed by the poet Alexander Pope).

It is not often that you can just sit at a place, look over towards the horizon, see the beauty of nature and human architecture, in harmony, and feel at peace with life. Well, we felt that way that day. Bliss! 🙂

Oh yeah, lest I forget to mention, after the long walk, steep climbs and walks through muddy forest trails, we did realize one thing. We forgot to pack a lunch for ourselves.