One of the best measures of whether the tourist season has begun are for some unknown reason the number of Japanese tourists.  We decided to take the bus instead of driving and arrived about 11 am  whereupon we swiftly repaired to the newly refurbished Wetherspoons and had a hot drink .

This establishment has been closed for the last month and what they have done apart from some new general furniture is to make the kitchen more accessible to the main serving area,  a bit more like McDonald’s and other fast food outlets, with an open serving area. We snuck in a couple of croissants from the coffee shop across the road to have with the hot drinks.

We went to one of the Bureau De Changes to offload various denominations of notes which had been lying around for years for some pocket money and got the huge sum of 25 pounds.

We then went to a local art  exhibition space, gallery 23 I think it is called, in York Street just by the Cathedral and to the south. and there was an exhibition on current themes also one on the current Israeli situation.

This reads ‘200 more scrolls like the one below are needed to write the names of all CHILDREN killed in Gaza in the past 230 days

From another part of the exhibition downstairs in the basement

We then went to the Victoria Art Gallery (sample above)  where there is an exhibition through September entitled Toulouse Lautrec and the Masters of Montmatre.  Our local Discovery cards enabling free entry came in handy as the admission was £10.

So far as I understand via one of the staff, the UK in general and Bath in particular was very lucky to get this exhibition as a job lot so to speak. It is going back to Brussels in September where it will resume its residency. Françoise found the occasion too much to take in at one go so she will return on her own at some future date.

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I have a very great attraction to water not so much static water but running water, water blocked by drains, floods, you name it I am fascinated by it. One of the things I would really love to do is to release this captured tree and branches from the River Avon where it goes under the Poultney Bridge.

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Off to the  Holbourne Museum which was hosting 2 exhibitions, Henry Moore in Miniature, and Mr Doodle! Museum Mayhem. We visited the museum in general including the free floors but I was not attracted by the doodles so did not really fancy paying £12.50 entrance so we left.

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An ‘advert’ in the town centre to commemorate the exhibition.

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We went for a lovely walk along the canal, interspersed by rain showers. This is one of the numerous tunnels on the canal

yes it is a real Heron

The canal is very scenic and walkable, in fact most of the length of the Avon and Kennett Canal is like this.  You can walk to Bristol one way or to Chippenham and beyond the other way.

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We went to Morrisons to buy a meal deal of salad, a healthy organic drink, and some crisps (probably not so healthy). All you can eat and drink for four pounds is really not bad and having no where else to sit in the rain we consumed our meals in the bus station. Very down to earth I know but who cares .

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We then realized that we were just about to miss the Bear Flat Artists Bath 2024, open studios and art Trail. This was running over the bank holiday weekend from Saturday until Monday and today Monday was the last day. By this time we were running out of energy so decided to take in three or four of the artists.

Unfortunately, we saw the same type of work as we had done when we visited last year. Artists do not change their style overnight and after 30 minutes of wandering around I decided I’d had enough so I suggested we headed for home which we did.