Bath, England
This is a truly lovely town. So much old architecture and class. We arrived by rail and decided 1.8 miles to our hostel wasn’t so bad, we would just walk. Well, after a brief jaunt in the direction that was opposite of correct we found a street map and located the tourist information office (these have become our favorite places in every city). At the TI we got loaded with city maps and info about all sorts of things that looked quite interesting plus many that we didn’t care about in the least. Then we took off for the hostel again, armed with a good map this time.
After walking (and resting) walking (and resting) and walking some more we began wondering if we were actually going in the proper direction. I’ll spare you the details but I can assure you of one thing, walking nearly two miles, most of it up a near-vertical hill, with a heavy pack on your back is not for the faint of heart!
I’m warning you, it was more vicious than it looks.
Yes my friends, this is Bathwick Hill. BUT it is only a small portion of the hill, we’ve already walked back down over halfway!
The reward of our labors? A pretty nice hostel way up on a hill but you couldn’t see anything because of all the trees. We had a ten bed dorm which didn’t turn out too badly. We had to pay for breakfast and internet which was not cool. But we totally did laundry (and hung it all around our bunk beds to dry). Yup, cool hostel, bad location.
After a bit of rest and unpacking we headed back into town to see what we could find. I’m completely in love with these canals and their adorable boats!
We walked across the Pulteney Bridge, so named after some famous guy back in the day…
It was sunset time and the river captivated my attention for quite some time.
There were more delightful boats. Lots of ducks bobbing around and an occasional swan drifted by.
I wanted a ride! Isn’t it just the cutest thing?!
And of course, the wonderful Mary.
We ended our evening with a sightseeing ride around the city on the top of this super tacky bus. Aren’t you jealous? 😉
And then, since there was a bus stop RIGHT OUTSIDE our hostel lane, we rode the bus up for only a few British Pounds. That hill was so much less work!
We headed back down to town in the morning and joined a tour to Stonehenge. It was cool and I’m really glad we got to see it but I’m not convinced that its worth all the hype it gets. Still, we saw it and we have photos to document!
Yes, this is proper proof that we WERE there!
Just a little break and a healthy snack at Stonehenge.
We toured the Roman baths then. It was cool but packed with people and I got a little tired of all the ‘Roman-ness’ of it. Still, I didn’t think it possible to be in Bath and not visit the most famous baths. The water in this one is really tepid and disgusting looking but I would have loved to visit the actual working (and clean) baths.
We found some lunch at M&S (Marks & Spencer), our new favorite store over here, and brought it to the courtyard of the Bath Abbey where we were serenaded with gorgeous accordion music.
And then we went to the Abbey for the 3:30 Evensong service. It was lovely and quite worshipful. This building is so beautiful! We couldn’t take photos inside but t’was quite exquisite.
We’re enjoying real British crisps. These might not look special to you but if you look closely at the white square in the bottom corner…
Are you serious? Potatoes that bear my name?! We didn’t even notice when we bought them but how cool is that? We’ll have to start planting these I’m thinking. 🙂
And so ends another few days and another town. We were off from here to Stratford Upon Avon where Shakespeare was born and lived. Its a lovely little town and I can’t wait to tell you about it!
Rosetta Fern 