A Day in Bath

Yesterday morning we left Salisbury by train and arrived at the ancient Roman city of Bath.  The city is beautiful with all its buildings made of the famous "Bath Stone" and flowers everywhere!  If you are not familiar with Bath, let me give you just a little background from my limited knowledge.  It became a city under the Romans, who built the baths that are fed by hot mineral springs.  After the Romans left, the city basically fell in on itself and was forgotten for hundreds of years.  Finally, the wonderful hot springs were rediscovered and in 1687 Queen Mary, who had been battling infertility bathed here and gave birth to a baby boy 10 months later, the city became popular again and was invalided for the final time...by tourists (that phrase wasn't original with me...just to let you know).  And they're still coming! Yesterday, we joined the invasion and strolled the streets with the best of them!

I'll start the entourage of pictures with our breakfast at the bakery yesterday morning is Salisbury:

Yummmm....double chocolate chip Danish.

One of the best cups of coffee we've had since we've been here.  Daddy was still raving about it in the evening!

Here we are at the train station.

I obviously got a little bored waiting for our train.

Apparently Dad did too.  This is what we keep our camera in to shield it from getting scratched, but Daddy got creative and made himself a friend out of it.  Multi purpose, since it was given to me by Aunt Sandra to be a sock...for the feet.

Posing with my handy dandy train tickets.

It's not even funny how many pictures I took on the train ride.  Not many turned out good, but a few did.  

This is a huge carving of a white horse in the hillside (not sure of the history behind it, but it certainly stands out.)

After the train ride we got a taxi and went to our Bed and Breakfast.  Built in 1874, it has lots of character.  Click here to go to their web site if you want to see more pictures.

It's so cute and quaint.  We are on the third floor of the house.

 

This is my humble abode tucked into the corner of the room...very comfy.

After a spot of tea, we headed out to see the sights. 

We've read that there are 2 million visitors to Bath each year...I think they all decided to come this weekend!

Now, it's time for some really big news.  Remember the lovely Chantmarle Manor?  If you don't, click here to refresh your memory. Well, it is a beautiful place to have a wedding reception, the only difficulty was that I didn't have a guy.  So, I had the reception figured out, I found that Salisbury Cathedral would be a spectacular place to get married, and I even saw a wedding dress in a shop window that would work perfectly; just that one little obstacle...no guy.  Well, not any more.  The match was made today:

Isn't he just dashing!

But, you know, now that I think about it, he's a bit stiff.  I'm afraid it just won't do.  So, don't worry about saving the date...

It never would have worked out.

So, since Mr. Romano and I didn't happen, we went to the Jane Austen museum instead!

She didn't seem too interested in becoming my friend!  But, I won't hold it against her.

The costumes are from the films.

This dress was worn by Fanny Austen in Miss Austen Regrets (relying on memory...hope that's right).

Dad didn't go to the Austen museum with us (I wonder why?)  but instead sat in a nearby park and had a great talk with a guy who came up to him to share Jesus with him!   

We had dinner at the oldest house in Bath. Sally Lunn's restaurant, that's famous for its buns. She was a Huguenot Christian fleeing France and came to Bath in 1680, I think it was.

It was very warm in the room...but cozy and nice.  Under soft drinks on the menu they had all kinds of stuff that I would not have considered a soft drink...I decided to try something new.  I asked our waiter what the Dandelion drink was, when he tried to explain it to me I must have had a questioning face so he brought me a sample.  It was SO good!  So, that's what I got.  It was like a Coke, but not as carbonated, and also a hint of licorice taste.  Yummy.

Sally Lunn's buns are supposedly very good.  They were ummm, fine.  (Nothing to write home about, as they say....then why am I?)

After dinner, at 7:00 we went on a free, two hour walking tour of the city.  It was quite educational and interesting.  Our guide was very knowledgeable.  Here are a few pictures that I got while on the walk.  (In case you're wondering, it doesn't get dark until after nine here.)

  Pop quiz:  Which Jane Austen movie has this in it?

It started raining while we were on our tour so I got to use my snazzy umbrella!  It was all fun and games until my jean legs started to get sopping wet.

 

This is the narrowest street in Bath...it's called Broad Street. Did I miss something?

If this looks Italian, then you're right.  Since "all things Italy" was the fashion when the Georgian city was being built, some of the architecture is an English version of Italy.

This is the River Avon.  Now, don't get this confused with Stratford on Avon.  When the Romans came they asked what the name of the river was.  Well, the Old English name for river was Avon...so there's four Avon rivers in England.

One last picture before we go back out into the city and put our tourist hats back on.  We look so touristy, but everyone else does too, so it doesn't really matter. 

This is outside the famous Sally Lunn's restaurant.

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July...it was very strange for us, being in the country from which we celebrate our independence, but it was fun nonetheless!