Buildings, Bombs, Bravura Performances

We had tickets for a Bath Blitz tour this morning that would tells us about how the city was bombed during WWII. But we went to the wrong place (there are more than a few obelisks in Bath, and we picked a wrong one) and missed the start. However, we stumbled into a free two-hour walking tour of Bath that was fantastic. Our fast-talking and fast-walking guide, 


Richard, took us all over the city and was especially informative about Bath's long history and architecture. He took us through the Roman, medieval, Georgian, and modern periods. We saw numerous examples of Bath's distinctive Palladian architecture and limestone structures.




Although we missed our Blitz tour, Richard filled us in on what are known as the Baedeker Raids, because the Germans used Baedekers, German tourist guides, to find their targets. These bombing raids, in retaliation for Allied bombings of German cities, took place April 25 and 26, 1942. Four hundred Bath citizens were killed. This memorial honors those who were lost in the raids, as well as all Bathonians killed in wars since WWI.


Finally, our evening was devoted to a Bath Music Festival concert featuring Stile Antico, a twelve-member vocal ensemble that sings Renaissance polyphany, at the Bath Abbey. The music is--well, have a listen.

The sound was especially moving in the church as it rose up into the soaring space above the nave.

And so, good night.  Tomorrow we're off by train to the Cotswolds.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Jo and I leave for London on Thursday, May 15th, for a month's stay in the UK and Ireland.  I recall seeing my grandparents' passport photo from around 1960; it was a joint passport for husband and wife with the couple photographed together. So far as I can tell, this was not uncommon in the early 20th century--the passport was officially in the husband's name--but was being phased out around the time my grandparents travelled to Europe soon after his retirement. We've relied on Rick Steves for other trips. This is what Jo has done to the book on Great Britain, with plans and Post-its.  
Read more
Image
  We walked to Buckingham Palace this morning for the Changing of the Guard, and this was pretty much the view most of the time. But we waited a while and here came the band. When the crowd finally thinned a little bit, not much, had a better view of the palace. All in all, sort of disappointing, really. Just too many people. A striking thing about much of the area around Buckingham Palace are the many  souvenir shops with heaps of real junk, including gaudy pictures of Princess Diana on plates, miniature Big Bens, etc. Bleh. This is a bittersweet day because we must say farewell to Lisa, who heads back to New Zealand this afternoon on the typically arduous flight: 13 hours to Singapore then another 9 hours home. Brutal. This will be our last day in London before heading out to Bath in the morning, on a tour bus that will stop in Stonehenge. Later today Jo and I will go to the British Museum, and then in the evening to the Globe for a production of Romeo and Juliet. Now that ...
Read more
Image
  No, that ain't London. We spent the night in this rundown Red Roof Inn in Queens, not far from JFK airport.  So, we're off to a rocky start. Our flight out of Rochester was delayed four hours due to fog in New York, so we missed our connecting flight to London by a long shot and were not able to get anything else last night. Rather than sleep on the floor or in a chair, we Ubered to this dump so we could at least get some sleep, and we did. Flights with Delta are pretty much booked up. We decided to bite the bullet and get a one-way ticket with another airline, Norse Atlantic, which will get us into London Saturday morning at 6 am, not bad. The tickets were very reasonable, but Nordic is pretty stripped down--for example, no meal unless you pay, etc. But we're happy to get anything on short notice. With all the delays coming in to Kennedy, the airport was jammed with people in our situation. We'll hang at the airport today; our flight leaves at around 6 pm, and at lea...
Read more