{"id":1019,"date":"2013-07-14T08:05:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-14T07:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=1019"},"modified":"2013-07-14T08:05:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-14T07:05:46","slug":"week-27-big-occasion-in-bath","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=1019","title":{"rendered":"Week 27: big occasion in Bath"},"content":{"rendered":"

The highlight of the week was in no doubt, as it was also the highlight of the year: my son’s graduation from the University of Bath on Tuesday morning. We flew to Bristol on Monday, rented a car, and drove to Bath. We had also decided to do a quick trip to Cardiff so that my daughter could show us all the neighbourhood where she will live during the academic year starting in September. Most of the pictures are from the trip to Bath and Cardiff, but I start with a few of my cycling pictures.<\/p>\n

27_1<\/strong>
\nRio de Janeiro has its famous Jesus statue, and Almorad\u00c3\u00ad has one too:
\n\"_1010292\"<\/p>\n

27_2<\/strong>
\nSand sculpture on the beach in El Campello:
\n\"L1009717\"<\/p>\n

27_3<\/strong>
\nTypical mid-morning scene on the plaza in Aig\u00c3\u00bces, complete with sleeping dog:
\n\"_1010302\"<\/p>\n

27_4<\/strong>
\nRestaurants, Urbanova. One of them, Capricho de Raquel, is very good:
\n\"_1010297\"<\/p>\n

27_5<\/strong>
\nOut of business:
\n\"_1010299\"<\/p>\n

27_6<\/strong>
\nMural on garage door in the centre of Alicante:
\n\"L1009722\"<\/p>\n

27_7<\/strong>
\nAlicante airport, Monday morning. The sign in the shop makes me think of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers:
\n\"DSF3304\"<\/p>\n

27_8<\/strong>
\nWe arrived in Bristol around lunchtime and drove to Bath. As we were walking from the parking to the Royal Hotel across from the Bath Spa train station, our daughter arrived on the train from Cardiff, and the family was re-united. We started off with lunch at a nearby restaurant called Graze, which turned out to be excellent:
\n\"DSF3307\"<\/p>\n

27_9<\/strong>
\nAfter lunch, we did some shopping in Bath, my kind of shopping:
\n\"DSF3313\"<\/p>\n

27_10<\/strong>
\nI also picked up a 1.4\/35mm lens for my Fuji X-Pro 1, and tested it on Mr. Stag:
\n\"DSF3319\"<\/p>\n

27_11<\/strong>
\nWe ended the afternoon at the Green Pub. This was the place where I had my very first pint in Bath, during a visit in the spring of 2007, so it was important to visit it during this trip:
\n\"DSF3326\"<\/p>\n

27_12<\/strong>
\nIn the evening, I went for a long walk around Bath, to enjoy some of my favourite sights at night, such as the Pulteney Bridge:
\n\"DSF3354\"<\/p>\n

27_13<\/strong>
\nTuesday morning I went for another walk. This is a statue just outside Bath Abbey, erected by the local Temperance Society in the 19th century. Its base has an inscription which says “water is best”. I therefore found it ironic to see her wearing a traffic cone as a hat, presumably put there the night before by a drunk student:
\n\"DSF3370\"<\/p>\n

27_14<\/strong>
\nAnd then we all dressed up and met our son at the hotel at 9 a.m. From there, we walked to Bath Abbey where the graduation ceremony would take place at 10. My son had decided to forgo the official photographs, since he thought that I would take better pictures anyway. So we did a portrait session before the ceremony:
\n\"DSF3385\"<\/p>\n

27_15<\/strong>
\nMoses and his friends waiting to enter the Abbey:
\n\"DSF3408\"<\/p>\n

27_16<\/strong>
\nInside the Abbey. The magnificent old cathedral was packed with students and parents:
\n\"DSF3429\"<\/p>\n

27_17<\/strong>
\nMy son about to receive his diploma:
\n\"DSF3425\"<\/p>\n

27_18<\/strong>
\nThe ceremony is over and the academic procession exits the Abbey:
\n\"DSF3430\"<\/p>\n

27_19<\/strong>
\n…followed by the Mayor’s procession. English pomp and circumstance at its best:
\n\"DSF3432\"<\/p>\n

27_20<\/strong>
\nOutside the Abbey, the English weather reared its ugly head, but fortunately only for a short while:
\n\"DSF3436\"<\/p>\n

27_21<\/strong>
\nOur first port of call was the Pump Room where we had a glass of champagne to celebrate Moses’s newly acquired diploma:
\n\"DSF3441\"<\/p>\n

27_22<\/strong>
\nIn the evening, we celebrated with dinner at the Kilted Chef, a new and very nice restaurant whose chef is, indeed, Scottish (but he was not wearing a kilt):
\n\"DSF3464\"<\/p>\n

27_23<\/strong>
\nOn Wednesday morning, I went on yet another nostalgic walk around Bath. Now that my son no longer lives there, I will visit this wonderful town much less frequently. My walk along the river took me past the rugby ground, where this little plaque is a reminder of the sacrifices made by Britain during the 20th century:
\n\"DSF3491\"<\/p>\n

27_24<\/strong>
\nEarly morning on the Avon:
\n\"DSF3495\"<\/p>\n

27_25<\/strong>
\nOne of the house boats on the Avon has gone green since my last visit:
\n\"DSF3497\"<\/p>\n

27_26<\/strong>
\nLater Wednesday morning. My son is getting ready to leave his room at Argyle Terrace, where he has lived for the past two years, for the last time:
\n\"DSF3501\"<\/p>\n

27_27<\/strong>
\nWe then drove to Cardiff, stopping at a rest area just across the border in Wales:
\n\"DSF3502\"<\/p>\n

27_28<\/strong>
\nMy daughter posing in front of a grocery store on City Road. This is the neighbourhood where she will live next year, and as is obvious from this shop front, it is a very ethnically mixed place:
\n\"DSF3507\"<\/p>\n

27_29<\/strong>
\nCardiff town centre, Wimbledon on the big screen:
\n\"DSF3512\"<\/p>\n

27_30<\/strong>
\nWe flew back to Alicante Wednesday evening, and on Thursday morning we went to pick up Cheeta from the doggie hotel. She was already waiting for us in the exercise yard:
\n\"L1009719\"<\/p>\n

And with that, the family was REALLY complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The highlight of the week was in no doubt, as it was also the highlight of the year: my son’s graduation from the University of Bath on Tuesday morning. We flew to Bristol on Monday, rented a car, and drove to Bath. We had also decided to do a quick trip to Cardiff so that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":877,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1019"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1020,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1019\/revisions\/1020"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}