Easter 2010 - Bath Marina and Caravan Site

Thursday 1st April


We had planned to go to Bath Marina Caravan site (http://www.bwml.co.uk/marina/ meet my sister and her husband, but they could not make it so we left after work on Thursday and arrived at the site at 21.30.


It was dark so we could not see a lot, the office was closed but our paperwork was waiting for us outside with our pitch number and directions of where to go.


We pitched for the night and settled in for the weekend.


2nd April 2010



Woke on Good Friday and found out that Park and Ride was still running.


It was pouring with rain so we decided to take the


Park and Ride to Bath, we dodged the raindrops but had a good day looking around the little curiosity shops
We had a coffee at Costa in WH Smith and Lunch in Strada -courtesy of Tesco reward vouchers. First time in a Strada but not much choice on menu for me.


In the evening we walked to The Dolphin pub (15 mins away)


We had a good meal,they were doing specials, buy a main meal and get starter free.


- Breaded Garlic mushrooms and Beef Stroganoff - very nice


We decided that there was still a lot more to see in Bath so we would return the next day.

3rd April 2010


Woke to our neighbours letting us know we had a puncture, not sure why, we had not been anywhere in van since arriving on Thursday night. Also on Friday Billy had been looking at the area by the tyre and he would have noticed the flat.

Billy put spare on and then we had to find a garage to fix the spare.


Luckily we found a HI Q not far away, they repaired the tyre and checked all the other tyres. The problem was with the valve, but the guy did not know how it may have happened.


Better late than never we took the park and ride into Bath again, it was raining a bit but not as much as the day before and as the day went on it brightened up.


We had late tea at the Cafe Rouge, again courtesy of Tesco reward vouchers. it was lovely and loads to choose on the menu. I had steak and frites and Billy had beef bourgignon, very good indeed and will be looking for more Cafe Rouges as we travel (tesco vouchers ordered for next trip)


The sun was shining when we arrived back at site so we decided to try out our new awning. We did not keep it up though.


We stayed in reading and and watched tv Saturday night as we had eaten late and arrived back late.


A good day after all
4th April 2010


Easter Sunday, no park and ride and not a lot open

We decided to go for a drive in the camper today. We ended up in Bradford on Avon, where we parked up by the river and walked around town but as it was Easter Sunday it was very quiet.

We found a lovely river walk and ended up in a country park where there was a tithe barn. Great place for picnics, next time we should take the camper here instead of leavng it in town.


I thought it was my first time to Bradford on Avon until we found a car park I recognised. I had parked in the car park before when I worked for EMIS.

After walking around Bradford on Avon we drove to Castle Combe, supposed to the prettiest village in England.

You have to park at the top and walk into the village (like in Polperro) however it is not as interesting as Polperro. It is about a 15 minute walk and it is nice but not a lot to do, there are a couple of pubs but very busy as Easter Sunday. We decided not to stay and went back to the van for lunch.

Whilst we were eating our lunch we had a visitor. A stranger was looking through the front window (she did not realise we were in the van), Billy slid back the van door and asked if she would like to join us. She was shocked and very apologetic but was interested in the van as it was something they wanted to do when her husband retired. We gave her some info and we all had a good laugh about her nosiness.

Prior to this the door was wide open but a coach turned up and a party of Japanese walked by taking photos of us eating our lunch so we closed the door so that we would not become a tourist attraction.

We headed back to Bath and decided to walk to the other pub by the campsite - the Boathouse. When we arrived the car park was empty and there was only one couple in the pub. When we asked about food. They were not doing food that night although they had been very busy at lunchtime.


We left after our drink and decided to walk back to the Dolphin (where we had been on Friday night)

We took a different route but could not find the pub. We found another pub but they had stopped cooking food 15 mins before. We were getting hungry by now, we asked them where we could get food and they pointed us to a pizzeria or Indian down the road.


We plumped for Indian - it was called Desh and very nice, they were not licensed and you could take your own drink. Of course we did not have any with us but useful to know another time.

5th April 2010



Easter Monday, end of break and return to home today.


We did not hurry back as we were not in work on Tuesday.


Left about 12:00 and decided to go home the scenic route,not touching motorways.


We also wanted to look at some campsite on the way home.


First site was Bath Chew Caravan Park (http://www.bathchewvalley.co.uk/) - very nice site, close to village and pub.


We then looked at a few CLs in the Glastonbury area but they were out in the sticks and a bit too remote.


We stopped at KFC here and picked up a bargain bucket of chicken. We could have had a choice of Subway, Dominos, Pizza hut or a burger van but we plumped for KFC. Useful to know next time.


We drove up the road and found a layby where we tucked into our lunch with great views to see.


We did find a nice CL in Othery, near Bridgewater - Thornhills farm (http://www.thornhillsfarm.co.uk/certified-location.html), not far from pub in village and one we will go to in the future.


We continued on our scenic route onto A38 and stumbled on a Caravan Sales place with a good accessories shop.(http://www.somersetcaravans.co.uk/information) We went on to look at some Caravan Club sites - Cadeside, with only 16 pitches and no toilet block,


Another one was Minnows, near Tiverton, which was by the canal and motorway, we did not go in but once past read in the book that you could cycle along the canal path and there are 3 village pubs to walk to along the river. Sounds good.


After this we decided to get on the motorway and head home, arriving home about 6pm