Bath Day!

Some time in the recent past, March 13? yes...Friday the 13th...again, Em, Chloe and I hopped on a train and went to visit, dun dun duhhhhhhh BATH! (pronounced Bawwwwwwth). We had the day off so we decided to make the most of it and the train system and dangerous tunnel engineered by Brunel! We knew the trip would be extra...special...when we ended up in the same car as a Hen party (a Bachelorette party) of about 12 outrageous, loud, maybe not so morally inclined ladies with pink fuzzy pompom headbands and equally pink champagne. Never a dull moment...

Charlbury-Reading-Bath Spa! (that was our route...)

Once we arrived, we somehow found ourselves in a candy shop...we had no idea where we were going...what are the odds! But that little detour happened to make us perfectly on time for a free walking tour of Bath! That was a fluke too...we're just lucky...so armed with sweets and a knowledgable tour guide from ...Manchester?? whatever...we made our way around beautiful Bath!

One cool thing about Bath: it is a World Heritage City, there aren't many of those...and you know the ancient Romans? yea, they hung out here, chillin in the bawwwwwths.

There are actually three hot srpings in Bath and the water is actually really hot! I forget the amount, but the important thing is that tonnes of water gets pumped naturally into the baths every day!

On our tour, we saw the Abbey, the Roman Baths, the Pump Room (Jane Austen, anyone?), The King and Queen's Baths, the Cross Bath and some other bath that was for the poorer classes. Yes, Bath became popular because of the healing properties of the hot springs - but I tried the water...no good, no good at all! 46 minerals plus warm temperature...think about that.

Wouldn't you love to go sit in a bath that thousands of skin-conditioned, ill, moulding, sore, and medical-mystery types had been chillin in in the nude for centuries? Doesn't that sound neato!? Don't worry...the water is fresh every day...and there is a brand new state of the art spa for ya'll:)

Anywho, the tour continues...

Queen's Square - beautiful Palladian facade, but looks a bit like a dog's dinner from the back..., The Circus, The Royal Cresent (WOW!)

Interject cool story about Cresent: John Wood, the architect, liked everything to look uniform, that's why he did facades. The Royal Cresent is actually 33 homes, but the lovely Palladian facade makes it look like a unit. Very nice. BUT! All the front doors are painted white, except one - a nice light yellow one. Story goes that 10 or so minutes before the law came in that all the doors must be white, the crazy old lady living in the house painted her door yellow. When she got in trouble, she went all the way to the House of Lords to fight for her yellow door! And she won! So she left it in her will that whoever owns that house MUST keep the door yellow...you go girl!

And now back to the tour...

The Assembly Rooms, for balls, and tea parties, etc., the Gravel Walk (mentioned in Persuasion) and the Georgian Gardens, the Hospital (another one, we saw St. John's earlier in the tour) which is now a research building. And I think that was it...

Then we kept walking and found the Grand Parade, the Pulteney Bridge, Laura Place, Great Pulteney Street, Henrietta Park, the Holburne Museum of Art, and the Bath Rugby stadium...and the Huntsmen, where we had dinner...I love Bath.