Prior Park Landscape Garden, Bath

One last post about our road trip through the UK to highlight the Prior Park Landscape Garden and the beautiful Palladian Bridge. Built in the 18th century, the garden is located south of Bath. It was designed by Alexander Pope and Capability Brown (great name!) with funding from Ralph Allen. Arriving when the garden opened for the day, Marcus and I had the place to ourselves. The entrance is at the top of hill and the path leads to a clearing with a view over the garden and Bath in the distance. A winding path took us through the foliage, past a herd of grazing cows, until we reached the bottom of the hill and the bridge.

visiting Bath

Our road trip started in Bath primarily because we didn't want to pick up the car in London and have Marcus learn how to drive on the other side of the road in city traffic. Still, I was excited to see the place Jane Austen once lived in and a town so teeming with history that the entire city is a Unesco World Heritage Site.

When we arrived in Bath, it was sunny and warm. A nice welcome to England and the forecast for almost the entire trip! We dropped off our luggage and promptly went out in search of a pint. After getting in a properly relaxed mood, we headed towards the circular row of houses known as The Circus (images 2, 6, 7). It was beautiful and the sun shone warmly on the houses. Soon after, we found a fantastic vegetarian pub and then took a meandering walk back to our hotel among the old buildings.

The next day was dedicated to seeing The Royal Crescent (image 1), visiting the Jane Austen Centre, and picking up the rental car, which resulted in a long walk along a quiet canal. We left Bath and traveled 1200 miles (about 2000 kilometers) around England and Wales over the next ten days. At the end of our trip, we returned to Bath for the afternoon and had the chance to visit Prior Park (post to follow) and the Pulteney Bridge (images 3, 4).