Little Solsbury Hill

I am absolutely awful when it comes to measurement. If someone says something to me using metric measurements, I glance hopelessly at Anthony. He has to convert it into imperial before I can grasp what the person is saying to me.

It's not as though I was taught using imperial, because I wasn't. I grew up with centimetres and millimetres. I always thought the inches on rules were useless. I know my height in metres and my weight in kg. I just can't picture any of it. I need to know miles, feet, stone. It usually goes something like:

Random person: I cycled 20km today.

Me: Oh really? That's... *looks at Anthony*

Anthony: *whispers* about 12 miles.

Me: Oh wow! That's amazing! So far!

I rely on Anthony to help me understand how near or far something is. I trust his judgements of distance far more than I trust my own simply because I really don't know what I'm on about.

Now imagine how it feels when Anthony's guesstimation of a distance isn't just kind of wrong but so-wrong-that-we-may-as-well-have-tried-to-set-a-record. It not only throws him off track, it completely unsettles my view of the world. This isn't even an exaggeration. It can be that bad.

And it was that bad, on the third day of our Bath holiday. Anthony had suggested we walk to the top of a hill just outside of the city centre and have a picnic overlooking Bath. I agreed immediately. I love the rare moments where Anthony suggests something he would be interested in and I wanted to be able to see this view of Bath.

"It's about 2 miles" he said as we packed the picnic basket, picnic blanket and he pulled on his rucksack. "45 minutes there, 45 minutes back" he said as we left our hotel.

He was wrong.

He had not anticipated that we would have to climb up an almost vertical mountain side in searing heat after walking a distance that was at least 8 miles. We barely made it to the top, after fighting ninja's and a small army along the way.

Looking down one of the steeper hills that was so evil, it looks 1000x less steep in this photo.

Okay so maybe that was a little bit extreme. The walk was longer than expected (at least 3/4 miles) and it was filled with a lot more hills than either of us were comfortable with. They got steeper and steeper the higher we got until we reached one that I wasn't even sure was safe to use as a working road. There were no ninja's or small armies but there was an uncomfortable humidity and unstable grassy areas which is basically the same thing.

I swear, by the time we reached the top of the hill I was ready to push Anthony off it for making me walk all that way. He's lucky he's cute and the views were spectacular otherwise it would have been a very long way down.

The pictures don't even begin to do it justice!

The walk back was thankfully a lot easier. It even felt quicker! We popped in to Morison's for some food and headed back towards our hotel; our feet were in desperate need of a little rest. I couldn't wait to have a bath (in Bath, ha!) and hopefully get rid of the pain my poor legs were feeling. I'll give it to Anthony, he's right a lot of the time (don't tell him I told you that) but boy, when he's wrong, he's really wrong. It was worth it though!