|
My first sight in Bath was a delightfully English row of red telephone
boxes, so I had to stop for photos of that. We then followed our personal tour guide, Suse, who has been the Bath three
times before, as we walked the short distance into the town centre to our hostel. The centre of the town was gorgeous
in the sun, although I was perturbed to find that the park overlooking the river was private and required a £1 entry fee!
|
| Pultney Bridge and the weir in the Avon |
Megan suggested we stay in St Christophers Inn which is a chain
of hostels. It was a really nice one and I was quite impressed with our swipe card! Somehow it was already quite
late and so we hurried out to get an open-top bus ride before they stopped for the evening. We got a great price for
the bus and I really loved the guide who was really interesting. I have a dreadful retention ability so I
can never remember what I learn on these bus tours, but they are really interesting at the time!
|
| Pultney Bridge |
The Pultney Bridge is one of only a few bridges that has shops down
either side of it. If you were walking down the street you wouldn't necessarily know that you were crossing a bridge.
The only way you'd know would be looking through the shop windows and seeing the river out the other side!
After eating a delicious Italian meal, we went for a night in Bath.
We had been warned that Bath is not known for its nightlife - and we would now agree with that! We started off in Saracens
Head, Bath's oldest pub where Charles Dickens once drank. There was a large contingent of youths, most of them wearing
next to nothing, so we left after one drink and found what appeared to be the liveliest club in town. Unfortunately
we didn't feel our £4 entry was deserved and we left quite early! This did mean that we were relatively refreshed for
our early start on Sunday though.
|
| The main roman bath, down at the original level (the town is now 6m higher than it was back then) |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Gorgon's head, a powerful symbol of the goddess Sulis Minerva, from the ornamental temple pediment |
|
| The main bath |
|
| Me and Suse |
At 9am we set off to the Roman Baths which, surprise, surprise, is what Bath is famous for. The baths
and the whole audio-guided tour were amazing and it took over two hours to get around (the Lonely Planet said allow an hour!)
The baths have been here since the first century AD when the Romans arrived in England. They believed the hot waters
(46degrees at the spring) were spiritual. The site is just incredible and it was amazing to think of what the Romans
were capable of building 2000 years ago!
|
| Megan |
We skipped the Abbey because we just didn't have time, but I vowed
to come back to Bath anyway, so I'll see it next time. We went to the Museum of Costume next, as we'd got a combo ticket at the Baths. I was rather museum and audio-guide weary by this stage, but the museum
was still very intereting. The oldest article of clothing dated from the 1600s. It is extremely rare to have clothes
this old as they usually disintegrate long before. The museum had fascinating clothes from every era from 1600 to the
present day, all presented on, similarly looking, models!
|
| The "circus" in Bath. The houses were built in a full circle, split only by four streets. |
Unfortunately by now we'd almost run out of time before we had to
get the train back to Bristol in order to catch Megabus back to London. The sun, which hadn't been out earlier in the
day, was shining again by lunchtime so we sat and ate our baguettes in the sun before heading home. I just loved Bath
and thought it was the most gorgeous little town, so I will be heading back sometime later!
|
|
|
|
|
