Quite a day

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Throughout my travels, I’ve always had the urge to ascend to the highest geographical points in the areas I’ve visited. Since Bath’s city centre sits in the river valley of seven nearby hills this urge arose when I arrived. This morning I decided to climb one of these hills as part of one of my shorter training runs.

I headed to the north end where there were many buildings on the hill, which would likely mean the running would be more suitable than some of the other hills. It took about a mile and a half to reach the top, with many steep grades along the way. While the roads did provide good running terrain the buildings mostly obstructed the views. However, I was able to get a few glimpses of the valley on my way down.

After I got cleaned up I walked down to the Abbey where a walking tour was to begin at 10:30. I had some extra time so I explored an outdoor art expedition that was displayed for multiple blocks in the city centre. The exhibition, called Earth From the Air, is a set of 120 large scale photographs from around the world. While the artist’s purpose was to convey an environmental message it was a bit lost on me. My lasting impression will be of the awe-inspiring sights and the desire to witness them firsthand.

I also took a quick tour of the Bath Abbey, Bath’s most prominent building, before the walking tour started.

The walking tour was a free two hour tour of Bath, which was provided by the mayor’s office. We walked throughout the city as our guide, a jolly old chap who looked to be about 80, took us through Bath’s history. The tour covered most of the city centre - the Abbey, river, baths, Circus, Royal Crescent and market, as well as by an old pub called Saracen’s Head, where Charles Dickens dined and stayed when he visited Bath.

The tour wrapped up around lunch time. The night before I noticed a Moroccan restaurant near the hostel and thought that would be a nice change. I have never had Moroccan food so I gave it a go. The food was delicious. I had somewhat of a sampler appetizer called mezze, which featured zaalouk, meshoula, shickshouka, hummus, taboulet, falafel, barba, laadas, bakoula, kizzu m’Shermal, feta cheese, an olive and pita bread. Going into the mezze I had only heard of a few of the items and had no idea what most were. Coming out I still have no idea what was what but it was all tasty. For my entrée I had kofta tagine - meat balls in a tomato sauce with herbs, spices and rice. This was also quite good.

Following lunch I met up with a tour group to go out to Stonehenge. Stonehenge is about an hour away from Bath but along the way we were treated to some lovely countryside sights, including one of the famous white horses on the side of a hill and a couple thatched roof homes in a small village.

The Stonehenge sight itself is quite remarkable. While the formation in and of itself is not aesthetically pleasing it is quite awe-inspiring to witness in person just how large these stones are. Adding to it is the belief that some of the stones were brought from Wales, hundreds of miles away.

Our tour bus driver was that business’s proprietor, a 30-something year old named Dan. I was intrigued by his owning a small travel-related business and spoke with him a bit about it after we returned to Bath. Working in a similar capacity would be interesting. But it would have to be in the field - no more all day desk work for this guy.

Upon my return to the hostel, I met a few new roommates for the night - Jason and Daryl from the US, Laura from New Zealand and Tom from Australia. All of them have since left their home countries and are now living in the UK. Jason just moved to London where he’s seeking employment in the financial arena. Have fun with that.

I went out on my own for a bit and to find something to eat. That proved to be quite the task as it was a bank holiday and all the pubs and restaurants stopped serving food at 6:00. I ran into Laura on the street and she was having a similar problem. We ended up having a gourmet dinner at McDonald’s. Chicken and chips for this guy.

We then met up with the rest of the group to tour the Roman baths. We started around 7:30 and were able to witness the sight before and after sunset, with the torch-lit backdrop giving off a much more mysterious feel after dark.

The Baths are the result of a hot spring with geo-thermal heating of the water to over 100°F. While we weren’t supposed to touch the water since it was untreated, each of us dipped our hands in to test it out. As far as I’m aware no one has mutated just yet.

At the end of the tour, we each tried a glass of treated water from the spa. That stuff will put hair on your chest. It reminded me of the water years ago at my grandparents’ place at the shore.

When we got back to the hostel, Tom and I discovered we were without a preferred beverage. While almost all stores were closed at that hour due to the bank holiday we learned from an Eastern European named Derek (pronounced Day-REEK) that we could try a bar nearby but we’d have to drop his name. Tom and I cruised over and asked for takeaway. No go. “Oh. Derek suggested we stop by.” “You know Derek? What do you need? Anything you want.” I don’t really want to know more about the notorious Derek.

After we ran out of beer at the hostel, Jason, Daryl, Tom and I went out looking for any type of establishment that would be open. This matched a search for the Holy Grail in difficulty. After covering half the town, we finally found a place that was open. It was a club - great, I can’t stand clubs.

Fortunately, this wasn’t a normal club. After walking down the steps into the basement of this establishment, we noticed the dance floor could hold about eight people, the bar was hopping and in the center of the room, there was a likely-illegal roulette game taking place.

We immediately turned right and headed to the bar. The selection was lousy but now I’ve tried Budvar - Czech Budweiser (same name, different company than Anheuser Busch). After a few minutes of surveying, we proceeded down a set of stairs into what felt like a very shallow but somewhat wide well where the gaming took place. Each of us bought a stack of chips for a pound and proceeded to lose miserably.

Several more rounds followed and the time came to get out of there. The forgettable walk back brought us safely to the hostel.

Tomorrow I leave Bath to go to Cardiff, Wales.

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Photos

Bath Abbey
The Abbey dominates Bath's city centre.

Earth From the Air
This travelling outdoor art expedition was awe-inspiring.

Stonehenge
A view from the entrance.

Roman bath
The bath from above; taken when we first arrived.

Me at the bath
The bath from below; taken after dark under the light of torches.

Party time
Me, Tom, Daryl and Jason doing a shot of Black Death, which Daryl and Jason picked up in Iceland.