Bath-Part 3: Parks

This post will mainly be a photo journal of some of the parks that we visited during our stay in Bath.  This was one way I could bribe my kids to go do the touristy things.  Another encouraging way was by reading "Hometown History Bath" by Jane Walker.  In the morning we would read about whatever I had planned to go visit that afternoon. The book was excellent because it gave great info in a kid friendly way. The best part about this book was the "Spot This" Sections...the kids had to spot something at each tourist destination. So, while I looked and took pictures. They scrambled to find the hidden object. I'll be talking more about this in future blogs, but it really was brilliant!  

After each tourist adventure, I'd take the kids to some park. This city has a wide range of parks and many that are just lovely for children.  Our first park experience was Henrietta Park, just outside our building. This park is nice for picnics, a quick stroll, or a toss of a Frisbee. But, after discovering the children's playground at the Sydney Park, which was just a five minute walk away. We didn't bother with Henrietta Park the rest of the time.  

We discovered Green Park as we were searching for the open market.  It was a nice little park with some playground equipment for all three of the kids.  When we took Uwe back one evening to show him our discovery, we soon realized it was probably not such a good place to visit after dark. It seemed to be a hangout for punks and drunks.  In fact, at that point it was all trashed up. My son was so sad and just couldn't believe that people would do such a thing to such a great place.  But below are pictures of the kids doing their favorite activity at this park. 

The kids' favorite park was Royal Victoria Park, a 52 acre field with wide open spaces and a HUGE playground.  This place was about a 30min. walk from where we lived. But. So. Worth. It! They had three large sand-pits with climbing ropes, slides, and other exploring type contraptions. They had other slides, swings, and a zip line. And there was an ice cream truck and a coffee shop inside the playground as well. 

Marcus loved climbing up the ropes.  Most all of the slides and climbing had huge sand-pits underneath. 

One of the large open fields to run, picnic on, or just sit and relax!

   

Of course, we had a picnic almost everyday!

    

The girls enjoying time with Papa.

The only park we visited that required an entrance fee was the Parade Gardens.  And the great thing is that we got to go in free. No, we did climb the fence after hours.  The gate attendant was getting ready to lock up and told us we had 5 min.  5 min. was long enough because this a very small park that rest on the back of the Avon River.  

This deserves a caption...this was a "Spot This" item from the book.  It is the statue of King Bladud.
He was a Celtic Prince with leprosy who discovered that the mud where his pigs wallowed could heal him.
He helped to develop Bath after he returned home.