Advertisement
Published: October 2nd 2007
Edit Blog Post
When my parents were here a few weeks ago, they told me to find a good day trip for us. After doing a bit of research, I decided to plan a day in Bath. I started to look into different tour options but ultimately decided that the best (and affordable) way to do it was to travel on our own. So, we took a train from Paddington Station to Bath Spa. It was a smooth, scenic ride that took just a couple hours. Once we arrived, it was only 10 minutes to the city center. We had just enough time to have some lunch before we joined in one of the city's free walking tours.
The walking tours are put on by volunteer guides, and ours was really knowledgeable. Although we did not enter any of the "attractions" while on the tour, it was a 2-hour walk showcasing the main sights of the city. Rome arrived in Bath in the 1st Century and built walls around the city. Today, only one of the gates of that wall is still standing, but they have noted locations of the other gates are on street signs. You can still see the Roman influence
Guild Hall
The "City Hall" of Bath in some of the architecture, but most of what you see now is from the 18th century. Many of the buildings in the city are built from limestone that they call "Bath stone". It was interesting to see the difference between the brand new buildings and the older, aged ones. On the newer buildings, the Bath stone was a creamy, almost butter-y looking color, but as it ages it gets really, REALLY dirty and darkens. Our tour guide was telling us that it's really expensive to wash. For example, it cost 20,000 pounds (roughly $40,000) to clean the exterior of her house and that was 15 year ago! This is largely due to the fact that it stone has to be hand washed and scrubbed. If you were to do anything stronger, you'd wreck the stone completely.
Bath is probably best know for its mineral hot springs. The most well-known being the Roman Baths. After our tour, we decided to go into the Roman Baths. It was amazing to see how much of the original structure was still standing. The pools are no longer used, so it's just a tourist attraction now. The water in the spas was pretty
Streets of Bath
Instead of skinny sidewalks, they constructed "parades" on the streets of Bath gross looking due to lead and algae. It reminded me of the disgusting state of my fish tank. Ew. They offer you a glass of spa water when you leave, but after one look at that water...we decided against it. One of the newest additions to Bath is the Thermae Bath Spa. It's totally modern and apparently expensive. If we had more time in Bath, I would've insisted that we go and visit. If i have time to return to Bath, that's definitely on the list. We also wandered through the streets of Bath a bit, looking through the shops and just enjoying the scenery. Some of the streets were cobblestone, and when we wandered out towards the river, the backdrop of the hillside was stunning.
We finished our day in Bath with dinner at Sally Lunn's House. This is the oldest house in Bath, which was pretty obvious when we sat down. The floor was totally slanted. It actually made me a little dizzy while I was sitting there, but eventually I adjusted to it. Or maybe it was the wine that helped...In any event, we ate traditional English food there that was served "Trencher style". Before plates
West Gate
The last remaining bit of the wall built by the Romans. Do you think those kegs belonged to them too? were used, food was often served on a big piece of bread. Sally Lunn's continues that tradition...with the addition of a plate underneath all the food. In general, I'm finding the food in England to be good. But, I also think that I've had the luck of knowing where to go. The food at Sally Lunn's was pretty bland when we got it, but once I added the salt and pepper...it was a decent meal. It was a nice relaxing meal, but the service was really slow. Luckily, we had a lot of time to kill before our train home so it ended up working out alright.
After our train ride home, we went back to my parent's hotel. I was staying with them until the next morning since our train was getting in so late. Big mistake. THEY BOTH SNORE. And you can tell them that I said that. I went to work the next day absolutely exhausted...but it was nothing that a nap couldn't fix so I have to admit that the trip to Bath was worth it. But DON'T tell them I said that 😉
Advertisement
Tot: 0.166s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.1259s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
frac
non-member comment
dirty bath
my dearest fric, 1. i think the kegs are left over from you and you are a lush, but look who is talking. 2. damn! i wish those baths weren't so GREEN!!! ewwwwwww. 3. if we were to meet at the river avon, how the heck would we find each other?!? miss you lots. xo frac