On my March trip to Bath I made sure to pop into Persephone Books at 8 Edgware Buildings, not far from the centre of the city. I’d vaguely heard of it before but hadn’t thought to look into actually going there until we went to visit the Royal Crescent on this trip (a later post) and I noted the bookshop was on the way. They reprint fiction and non-fiction, mostly by women, that has been neglected and would be out of print otherwise.
You may remember that my last visit to Bath was cut short due to Storm Darragh. My friend and I had to reschedule our Roman Baths tickets and chose the last weekend in March figuring, quite rightly as it happened, that we would have some nice weather for our return. Driving in Bath is very much not recommended so we parked as usual at the Lansdown Park and Ride and took the bus into Bath – the Roman Baths are only about a 10 minute walk from where the bus drops you off.
On my way to and from Arundel Wetland Centre I passed by Swanbourne Lake. I decided to pop in for a look on the way back but knew I wouldn’t have very long to explore as it was already quite late in the afternoon.
For my last full day in Arundel I knew that I wanted to spend my time exploring the Arundel Wetland Centre. It’s an easy walk from the town centre – simply walk by the entrance to the castle and continue all the way down the street, over a bridge then continue until you see the entrance on the right – it takes maybe 15 to 20 minutes. Do note that part of the route has no pavement but it’s a wide track and easy to navigate safely. There is of course a car park if you’re driving.
I’d heard that Arundel Cathedral was a beautiful example of Gothic architecture so on my first afternoon in the town I’d gone to take pictures of the exterior before exploring inside a couple of days later. In 1868 Henry Fitzalan Howard commissioned Joseph Hansom (who also designed the famous hansom cab) to design a cathedral that would be in keeping with the impressiveness of Arundel Castle.
Directly opposite Arundel Castle is Arundel Museum which tells the history of the town spanning over thousands of years. It was founded in 1963 by a group of local people who founded the Arundel Museum Society, a registered charity that still runs the museum. It moved to its present location next to the River Arun in 2013. Tickets are £5 though you do get a discount if you show your ticket to Arundel Castle.
The main reason for my trip to Arundel was to visit the castle. I’d seen a video online which inspired me to research more about it and once I saw how easy it was to reach by train I was sold. I will say though that as a visitor and from the ground there is no real way of seeing the whole place in its glory (other than on approach by train) as it is surrounded by trees but the gardens and interiors more than made up for it.
Last September I visited Arundel in West Sussex for three nights – my main aim was to visit the castle but I also wanted to visit the cathedral and the Wetland Centre, all of which will feature in their own posts. I found Arundel to be a really pleasant market town with lots of independent shops and cafes that were reasonably priced. The train journey from Nottingham was quite long, requiring a change in London that lead to a bit of a mad dash via tube but all in all the trains worked well and I was blessed with glorious sunshine for the whole time I was away.
A random round up of Athens things and places:
Do not underestimate the temperatures. Super obvious but I chose to travel mid May hoping that the weather would be a little cooler than the height of summer, which of course it was, but only because summer in Athens that year hit record breaking highs and many of the outdoor sites including the Acropolis shut down to visitors. This was perhaps unusual, though with climate change it’s probably the new normal. The temperature while I was there was in the 28-29C range the whole time and didn’t really let up even in the afternoon/late evenings. I had the idea that I’d do outdoor sites early in the morning and then in the afternoon when it was cooler but soon gave up on that idea and was just careful about keeping to the shade where possible.
As ever, whenever I’m in a new city I take pictures of anything that strikes me as interesting and then I go and research it later. This post rounds up all those random statues I photographed around Athens. The first is that of Yannis Makriyannis. Located not far from the southeast entrance of the Acropolis, though tucked away a little bit in the corner of a small grassy area, this statue is of one of the men who fought for Greek independence in the 1820s. He also is known at least in Greece for his memoirs which were notable for being written in Demotic Greek, the standard spoken language of modern Greece. It translates as language of the people.
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