Dyrham Park With Claudio

Dyrham Park, a country estate in the Cotswolds, not far from Bristol and Bath, was an ideal place for us to go for a walk during the second lockdown, as it's such a big open space. And of course, it's also very picturesque.

I went there with my parents at the beginning of August, but I definitely enjoyed it more this time. (Despite the fact that the cat we saw before was nowhere to be seen!) The period of July and the beginning of August was actually one of the toughest parts of the pandemic for me, as it seemed like many of my peers were able to move on with their lives after the first lockdown ended, whereas I had no idea when I would be able to move out of my family home, start my job in Chile, and most importantly, see Claudio again. But then in mid-August, he booked his tickets to come and visit me, and life has been much better ever since!

It was really nice to visit Dyrham again - this time with Claudio, and in a more positive frame of mind. We both enjoyed the trip a lot, as the manor house and its gardens are so impressive to look at.

When you arrive, you have to walk down a hill from the car park to get to the house, and there's a point when you go round a corner and the house suddenly comes into view below. It's really amazing to see.

We had a great time looking around the outside of the house and its gardens, and we also explored the area around the church.

Dyrham Park is a perfect example of a grand English country house, and is quite different from the big houses in Chile, so it was a great place to go with Claudio.

The next place we visited was Bibury, a village in the Cotswolds that is considered by some to be the prettiest village in the entire country...

Lacock With Claudio

Before coming to visit me, Claudio had watched various videos online that showcased the best cities, towns and villages in England. One place that was mentioned in many of the videos was Lacock, often considered to be the prettiest village in the entire country. Fortunately it happens to be located in Wiltshire, the county where I live, so it was an ideal place for us to spend a nice morning outing in November, just before the new lockdown came into place.

I'd been there back in July with my parents, and we'd visited the abbey, or rather its grounds, as the interior was closed due to Covid. Of course, in November the interior still wasn't open, and the grounds must have been much more muddy and less picturesque. So this time we decided to focus on exploring the village itself, which we only saw a small part of before. 

The village really is a very charming place, that makes you feel like you've stepped into the past. 

Unfortunately, I was having some problems with my phone, so my pictures didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but they still do a decent job at demonstrating how pretty Lacock is...

We had a great time there, and it was amazing for Claudio to see all the streets and buildings he'd seen on the internet in real life.

A couple of days later, the whole of England was put into lockdown, and we were no longer allowed to travel far from home. But luckily, we could take advantage of some beautiful places a short distance away, that were ideal for outdoor exercise (which was still allowed). Some places were ones I'd visited during the latter stages of the first lockdown, whereas others were new, or nearly new, to me. Our first destination was Dyrham Park...

Bath

It was a surprise when a new lockdown in England was announced a few days after we got back from Stockholm. At that point, we thought Claudio would be going back to Chile at the end of November, so I felt quite disappointed that we were going to be locked down for most of the rest of his stay here.

After the government's announcement, we only had a few days left of freedom, so we had to decide which trips to prioritise. One thing was obvious: we needed to go to Bath!

In my opinion, Bath is the most beautiful city in the UK and is a must-see for anyone visiting this country. And what makes it even better is that it takes less than a hour to get there from my house by car or train.

I've been there a few times on shopping trips with my family since I started blogging, and as I've mentioned before, I'd always wanted to write a post about it, but never had the chance to see everything I wanted to see there. However this time, Claudio and I definitely managed to see all the highlights, so I feel like I can write a post that does the city justice! (By the way, I've used a few photos from previous trips in this post.)

One thing I really like about Bath is the view you see as soon as you come out of the train station. Just opposite the exit, you can see the picturesque buildings of the Café au Lait café and the Royal Hotel. The whole area has a very grand and European feel to it, as does much of the rest of the city.

Another great thing about Bath is that it's very compact and easy to get around on foot. It only takes a matter of minutes to get from the station to the centre of the city, where you can find all the main attractions, including the famous Roman Baths museum.

Claudio and I arrived in the centre a while before our reserved slot at the Roman Baths, so we took the opportunity to see some other great sights like Bath Abbey, a huge and very impressive building.

We also walked by the Parade Gardens. You have to pay if you want to actually enter the gardens, but luckily you can still enjoy its great views looking down from the street.

A short distance away is Pulteney Bridge, one of the most famous landmarks in Bath. It was actually used in the Les Misérables movie to represent Paris!

In fact, the whole city is full of picture perfect buildings and streets, which we enjoyed wandering round both before and after our visit to the museum.

Something that really adds to the European vibe of Bath is the fact that there are signs written in French. I'm not sure why that is, but I like it!

At 11 o'clock, it was time for us to finally go inside the Roman Baths! It had actually been around 15 years since the last time I visited, so it was almost like a new experience for me. (My mum used to take us there all the time when we were younger, and she eventually got completely sick of it, which is why I hadn't been for so long!)

The museum is both a fascinating and beautiful place, and you can definitely see why people from all over the world come to visit it. In the Roman era, the city was known as Aquae Sulis, and the baths were part of a temple complex, where people came to worship the goddess Minerva.

The main bath is particularly impressive and really makes you feel like you're in Rome. It almost made up for the fact that we weren't able to go to Italy!

The views of the bath with the abbey in the background are really striking. It's easy to see why the entire city has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The views from the lower floor of the museum aren't bad either!

After we'd explored the museum and had lunch, it was time to see some of Bath's regency architecture. I couldn't remember having visited the iconic Royal Crescent street before (although apparently I had been there many years ago!), so it was one of the main things we both wanted to see.

It's actually a little way out from the rest of the city, but the walk to get there is very scenic. On our way, we ended up in another very beautiful street that was shaped like a circle. I found out later that it's called The Circus and that it's also quite famous.

A short while later we arrived in the Royal Crescent. It was great to finally see it, as it was definitely better in real life than it looked in photos!

I also really liked the row of buildings to the left of the crescent. They reminded me a lot of the apartment buildings you can find in Paris.

While we were there, we saw a cute cat outside one of the houses. All cats are kings and queens, so that must be the reason why the street is called the Royal Crescent!

Afterwards we had time for a nice cup of tea before catching the train back home. Both of us had really enjoyed our day out in Bath; it's such an enchanting city that makes you want to go back again and again. I could definitely imagine living there someday!

Since that trip, we've been quite lucky. One of Claudio's flights back to Chile was cancelled, and now the dates of both flights have been changed, meaning that he's going to be here in the UK until just before Christmas - a month longer than originally planned! This meant we could take a mini-break to another amazing English city last week, and I'll be writing about that in the near future.

But prior to that, we had some nice outdoor outings in my local area around Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. Some shorter posts about those places will be on the way soon...