Bath

We had a lovely weekend in and around the town of Bath. After arriving we were pleasantly surprised by the fact that although we had to sleep in bunk beds, we had our own dorm room at the hostel we stayed at. After checking in we were anxious to be out side and enjoy the beautiful day. We found a perfect little picnic spot right on a lock.

We then decided to take a lovely stroll along the River Avon and head into town.

After our stroll, however, we were a little tired so we decided to have a lay down in this beautiful garden park and enjoy the sun. (what a rough life)

To explore the city we took a 2 hour free guided tour. It was great to be shown the ins and outs of Bath and hear the little stories to go with it. This is Abbey in Bath. Notice Jacob's ladder on either side. We thought that was pretty cool. Something else interesting about this spot is that it is where the first King of England was crowned and anointed.
The poor in Bath are very well taken care of. If you can prove that you are generally in need of some financial help you could be provided with one of these apartments free of any costs. All you need to do is find your own furniture. Where do I sign up?
The whole reason Bath has become a successful village is because of the three thermal hot springs in the town. This is the new Spa that has tapped into one of these hot springs and is now a world class spa. The building may be ugly and cost over 50 million dollars to build and rebuild but I'm sure everyone who gets a treatment inside thinks that it was all worth it. Sean and I have decided that some day we will come back and spend our whole trip at the Spa. At night we saw through the window that there were couples eating dinner in their white bath robes; we were very jealous.

Another thing that Bath is famous for is being the home of Jane Austin. Here are some pictures from our tour around town. Can't you just picture Jane being inspired to write Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Emma while walking around this town?

Our last stop of the day was the Roman Baths. The Romans built these long ago and traveled from all over for the healing powers of the spring and to worship the goddess Minerva. When the Romans went away no one else used them and they slowly got built over and forgotten. There were a bunch of apartments built in this spot during the Victorian time. The tenants all complained of the heat and the problem of damp. Eventually they did an excavation to discover what the problem was and look what they discovered! They ripped all the housing out and turned the area into a tourist attraction. You can't go into these Baths but it is still pretty cool to look at the history and innovation of the Romans. There are still areas of the Roman Baths that have not been excavated and probably never will due to the fact that they are under the Abbey.
When night came we had a sudden realization that we really have nothing to do once the sun sets. The attractions are all closed, we can't really go enjoy the parks without the sun and we don't drink so, other then for dinner, there is no reason to spend the nights in the pubs with everyone else. All that's left to do is eat dinner... And then what? I have a feeling that we will be experiencing this feeling a lot when we are traveling in April and May. Well, the good thing about Bath is that we discovered a cheap cinema to see movies. We haven't seen a movie since we arrived in London and, as most of our friends know, for us, that is a very long time. On our first night we saw the new Victoria movie which was very good and fun to see and recognize all the places we have been to. After the movie we felt that it was late enough to be justified in going back to our bunk beds which actually ended up being more comfortable then our apartment bed in London.