The journey to Bath and back again.

Yesterday, I took my first non-official day trip – meaning it was just me and another girl. No groups. Just us. On our own. Luckily, we were only going to Bath, so it’s not like we went to another country and were completely lost. Nevertheless, we went to a place neither one of us had ever been before. But we did it AND made it home all in one piece, so I would say the day was a success.

We left our flat at 8:00 AM, so that we wouldn’t be late for our train leaving Paddington station at 9:00 AM. Well, we live one tube stop away from Paddington, so we got there at 8:15 AM… a little too early. We finally boarded the train at 9:00 AM, and were on our way to Bath. Mel and I ended up in different coaches on the train, and since it was our first train ride of the trip, we didn’t really know if you could get up and switch seats. We both breathed a sigh of relief when we stepped off the train and saw each other because we knew we had both made it to the right place. Go us. :)

When we got out of the train station, we both just kind of looked around and though, “Okay, what do we do now?” It’s a strange feeling because you can read all you want about a place and carefully plan your visit, but it still doesn’t prepare you for that initial feeling of, “Wow I’ve never been here before and really have no idea what to do.”

Bath is a pretty small town, so it was really easy to walk everywhere. We explored on our own for a little while and went into a shop that sells artsy glass pieces made in Bath. The man asked us where we were from and I said, “What? You don’t think we’re from here?” He just laughed and shook his head. Apparently the backpacks, the brightly colored shirts, and loud American accents gave us away. After leaving that store, we found the Jane Austen Centre after some mindless wandering. Apparently she lived in Bath for five years, but wasn’t really a fan so she left. Interesting though that they have a whole centre devoted to someone who didn’t even like the town. Nevertheless, she did get a few ideas from the town for her novels.

We had lunch a Thai restaurant, which was fabulous. I feel like Asian food is all I’ve eaten since I’ve been here, but it’s just so good! Then we found a fudge shop that had DELICIOUS fudge, so of course we had to buy some. (Hello, everyone needs dessert!) I got chocolate with a swirl of white chocolate running through it, and Mel got chocolate too with pecans and a swirl of marshmallow. Both were of course FABULOUS.

After stuffing our faces with fudge, we decided we needed to walk some more, so we went on a free (I love that word) walking tour of the city. It was led by a volunteer who took us all over the city, showing us the where ancient Roman baths used to be and telling us all about the architecture and design of the Royal Crescent and the Circus. The Royal Crescent is a basically a row of houses with the same façade in the shape of half an oval. The whole point of them is for the front of each house to look exactly the same, but apparently one lady didn’t want that. So she painted her front door yellow, instead of the standard white, just to be different. And of course this caused a HUGE uproar. It was so big, that the case was taken to the House of Lords (that would be like the case going to the Supreme Court in the States). Somehow she was able to prove that she had painted her door 48 hours before the law that prohibited this action went into effect. She won her case. And yes, the door is still yellow today.

The Circus is a circle of houses all surrounding a circular road and a grassy area inside that road. The architect of these houses (the same man who designed the Royal Crescent, John Wood) really loved Roman architecture, so he designed them after the Roman Coliseum. The fronts of the houses have the same elements as the outside of the Coliseum – meaning the same types of columns in the same places, etc. Also, there are three ways to get out of the Circus and three ways to get out of the Coliseum. Finally, the dimensions of the Circus are so precise, that the Coliseum would fit perfectly inside. Who has enough time to even think of things like that, I do not know, but regardless, it’s still very cool and really beautiful.

After the two hour walking tour was over, we went and saw the ancient Roman baths because that’s kind of the whole point in coming. (Besides the fun little shops everywhere.) I definitely learned a lot there as well. I had no idea that the main reason the baths were so popular was because they were believed to have powerful healing qualities. People with all kinds of injuries, diseases, and aches and pains would come to these baths in hopes of being healed. The water isn’t quite as beautiful today (the sunlight has encouraged algae to grow), but you can definitely still appreciate the technology it took to build such an elaborate and popular place.

After we were done looking at the baths, we got a little coffee drink and headed back to the train station. I know a lot of people think airports are the best places to people watch, but the train station at Bath definitely had an interesting mix of people. We got on our train, headed back to Paddington Station, and made it home all safe and sound. It was quite the long day, but definitely worth it.

Until next time,
Rachel