Bath

We hired a car for the weekend and this morning, very very early (ok it was 7.30am) we set off to the town of Bath, about 2 hours drive out of London.  In normal form, I sleep most of the way and Mac was left without a wing man - it didn't seem to matter, he got us there without a map or sat nav.

We did a walking tour of the town and took in all the Georgian architecture (stunning!) Our guide had lots of interesting facts and explained where the term daylight robbery comes from.  

A window tax was introduced in 1696 and it worked on the assumption that the bigger the house, the wealthier the occupants and the more windows it was likely to have. The tax was unpopular because it was seen by some as a tax on "light and air" hence the turn of phrase daylight robbery. In an effort to avoid incurring this tax many homes including the lovely big ones, had permanently sealed off or bricked in window panes.

Lunch was a quick whip around Tesco's and off to the park for a picnic followed by a tour of the Roman Baths in the afternoon.  Since our last trip to Bath (circa 1997) an enormous amount of excavation has been done at the site revealing many more ruins and very interesting video reconstructions etc.  The kids had a fantastic day and were totally engrossed by the history of Bath.  All told, it was a much more successful day than our trip to the Tower of London!