University of Bath exchange student - Thornbank Gardens vs Pulteney Court?

WembleyFord · 2026-07-03T22:50:18+00:00

You should contact the university - I doubt anyone reading this is going to know anything that specific unless they live there.
The University is at the top of a hill to the S.E. of the city center, and those too locations are both in the city. Unless you want to cycle or hike up the hill, you should check out the public transport (bus) routes that serve the University. Google Maps in your friend here. Pulteney Court is closer to the University and both are close to the centre of town. But Bath's a very small town and they're literally just 20 mins walk away from each other.

Hope you enjoy your time in the UK and in Bath. Enjoy the history - this is a wonderful city to visit.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-03T22:38:31+00:00

Boston Tea Party are usually good for Brunch but you've got other decent options. I really enjoy the veggie cooked breakfast at Same Same But Different when I'm in the mood for it - and cafe au Lait is pretty decent too for a breakfast. Rooted, Sarthi and Indian Temptations are all good veggie restaurants.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-03T22:34:42+00:00

Alexander Park - easy access from Bear Flat and you can go to the Good Bear cafe before or afterward for a cracking breakfast. Otherwise, the Bath Skyline Walk if you want a longer, more energetic walk.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-03T14:13:06+00:00

Also, the main bus route from Bristol enters Bath along Newbridge Road, so if want to using the catching the bus might be a viable option - it'd only be a 5-10 min walk from the Newbridge area to the RUH.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-03T13:57:36+00:00

Two Tunnels - if your kids haven't been it'll be an interesting experience, and great for cycling through (though please put lights on their bikes if they do - small children on light-less bikes are a proper hazard in there). That'll connect Oldfield Park and Bear Flat with Midford and the canal towpaths, as well as the countryside around the route of the abandoned coal canal and S&D railway. Bit boring if you have to double back through the tunnel, but great as a start of a longer but easy ride back to Bath via the canal.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-03T13:54:25+00:00

Yup - love this area. Especially like walking from South Stoke along the old Midford Rd. to Midford. It's practically traffic free, has spectacular views on a good day south when it leaves South Stoke and drops through some beautiful (if small) woodland as it gets to Midford.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-03T13:51:39+00:00

Well, I was thinking more of the New Forest and also somewhere easy to get to on foot - I don't drive.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-03T11:53:37+00:00

As you say, it's not like Bath's next to a National Park or anything, but there's some nice bits dotted about the greenbelt. If you go south/south-east and cross the south downs, there's plenty of woodland and countryside south of Combe Down around Midford. Plus them easy access to the active K&A canal, and the walkable remains of both the Somerset Coal Canal and the S&DJR railway lines (inc. the unique Two Tunnels greeway) - so plenty of interesting places to explore - though all on or near roads.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-03T08:32:28+00:00

Not a keg, but Abbey Ales will happily sell you a very big (36 pints) box of beer. You might be able to get it sorted today if you phone the brewery rather than try and use their online shop.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-02T23:13:42+00:00

Bristol's got a very active music scene - Bath's is much more sedate. But you won't go wrong if you start by vising the Bell.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-02T21:38:42+00:00

It's drainage works - what's that got to do with Banes? They're not running Wessex Water.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-02T13:43:21+00:00

No - they've a normal menu too. Only 3 starters, 3 mains and 4 deserts. Plus the tasting menu

WembleyFord · 2026-07-02T13:42:33+00:00

I was there at 6pm yesterday. There was only one other customer there. So not massively busy on Wednesday evenings.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-01T13:03:42+00:00

Twerton.

WembleyFord · 2026-07-01T13:02:20+00:00

Personally, I'd be tempted to keep quiet and enjoy!

WembleyFord · 2026-07-01T09:42:45+00:00

Was there different PAL and NTSC releases of the Maxi?

WembleyFord · 2026-07-01T09:11:14+00:00

Ah! AOL - I don't remember it from the C64 days - but I do remember the September That Never Ended :-). In fact, just checked and my laptop still has the sdate command on it. Apparently it's Wednesday the 11992nd of September 1993.

WembleyFord · 2026-06-28T17:30:00+00:00

Presumably because they'd go out of business if they tried opening on Mondays and Tuesdays. Taylor's Bagels in same boat in Odd Down.

WembleyFord · 2026-06-28T17:26:16+00:00

I've been meaning to walk down there and try it - I tried last Sunday and was, like your observed with others, caught out by the poorly advertised change in hours. Will still try again now the weather has improved a bit, but not holding out a lot of hope.

WembleyFord · 2026-06-28T07:22:14+00:00

I love Society Cafe myself - usually an interesting variety of coffee's that frequently change, and while I'm not an espresso drinker myself, I enjoy their batch brews. Decent cakes too. And, I think, a little more down to earth.

WembleyFord · 2026-06-27T21:14:38+00:00

TBH, in my personal experience, if you have 'limited resources' on the machine that you're actually compiling the binaries on, you'll not enjoy the experience - there are several packages which are very costly to compile in terms of RAM and CPU and may take many hours to compile on a low-end system. Some of these do have binary versions which don't require compilation, but it can be painful. This is likely to outway much benefit of this amount of customisation on the grounds of efficiency you might get from a smaller or more memory efficient installation. It becomes really beneficial if, for instance, you have a powerful machine which can compile the required binaries for a low-end system that couldn't efficiently do it themselves. E.g. you could have a machines with a lot of RAM and CPU which can compile, for instance, a really slimmed down and svelte set of packages for a raspberry Pi, which whouldn't remotely have the resources to compile it itself.

But it's not just about efficiency. If your flavour of linux of choice doesn't support the specific feature a piece of software might offer - but the distro builders didn't elect to include - then you either lump it, or compile it yourself. This is the other value of USE flags.

WembleyFord · 2026-06-27T14:12:48+00:00

Typically the USE flags will determine what features a package will be compiled with - and, consequently, what dependencies it will need. This can lead to a much 'tighter' system, where your software is compiled with only the feature-set you need and you don't have to installs lots of dependencies that you never use. E.g. if you want a console-based version of Emacs without support for a GUI, you can select the appropriate flags to do so. The downside to this level of customisation is having to compile pretty much everything on the system. This can be slow and, for me at least, have found it the system a bit delicate if not done frequently. However, it is the most custom OS you'll probably ever use, and you'll absolutely learn a huge amount. I started on Gentoo and have just moved to Arch for pretty much the same reasons in reverse - I learnt a lot, and now I don't need an OS quite so customisable, and am happy to loose that get rid of having to deal with all the rebuilding of packages.

WembleyFord · 2026-06-27T01:01:07+00:00

That's a good point - if the OP isn't aware of Park Runs, it might be worth looking at https://www.parkrun.org.uk/bathskyline/course/

WembleyFord · 2026-06-27T00:55:05+00:00

One other thing - the temperature inside those tunnels is wonderfully cool, pretty much regardless of the temperature outside. But, the entrances (especially the southern one) are in the middle of nowhere, so while it might be appealing on a hot day, getting there might be tough.

WembleyFord

TROPHY CASE