Bath is a city that has pulled off the English charm! Here's our guide on all things...
Although traveling to Bath is a train ride away from London, it's more than worth it to explore the sights of one of England's most beautiful and historic cities! We left from Paddington Station, and in about 90 minutes we were in Bath. The train station was conveniently located in the centre of town and once we got there we set off to explore.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express which was conveniently located walking distance from the train station, and right on the outskirts of town. We love not needing to use any other transportation method other than our feet when getting around a city, and the hotel was perfect; no taxi needed to get anywhere from where we were staying (breakfast was also included, which is an added bonus)!
There are lots of fun things to do in Bath, we spent a day and a half checking out some highlights. Besides walking the cute streets, here are our top suggestions, in no particular order, on what to do while here:
1. Tea Time
While English tea time was once considered the pinnacle of elegance and fine dining, it has made its modern day comeback into everyday life.
The menu had so many tempting plates, from savory to sweet there were so many things to choose from. We had the afternoon tea which included: a tiered cake stand with a selection of finger sandwiches, buttermilk scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream, homemade cakes, and loose leaf ribose tea.
We are seriously so happy at this point!
Such good scones, but the conundrum remains: clotted cream first and jam spread on top or slather the jam and top it off with the clotted cream? Either way, it's good!
Tea is such a fun thing to do in England, it makes you feel so proper, and was definitely a great way for us to enjoy each others company!
2. Mayor of Bath's Corps Honorary Free Walking Guide
Our Free Walking Guide was AWESOME. I love free walking guides because you meet locals of the area, can take in the city from their perspective of what is important to see, and they are FREE; The Mayor of Bath's Corps guides don't even allow tipping. Our guide was Richard, and he was in great shape for his ripe age of 92, he even out-walked some of the people on our tour.
Our tour started in front of the big Bath Abbey, which is absolutely beautiful; the most interesting thing about the Abbey is the carvings on the outside...
Here it is up close: Jacob's ladder with angels crawling up the sides as if they are climbing up and down from heaven. Later in this post you'll get a chance to see the inside, so keep reading!
We walked through cute little streets in the town, passing lots of fun windows to look at...
Crossing over the River Avon we had a nice view of Pulteney Bridge. If you have seen Les Misérables the movie, it is the bridge Javert uses when he commits suicide. It is beautiful, and reminded us 100% of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
Beautiful Views:
We walked over to the circus, which is not the type of circus you are probably thinking of...no animals sorry. In Latin the word 'circus' means ring, oval or circle, and this "circus" is a ring of houses built in the 1760's.
If you look closely at the detail of the stonework you'll see many emblems like serpents, acorns, nautical and masonic symbols.
The next stop on our tour was to The Royal Crescent, one of Bath's most iconic landmarks: a curved terrace of Georgian townhouses arced around a perfectly manicured lawn.
Selfie in front of Royal Victoria Park!
We ditched our tour group at this point in the tour because we wanted to visit another "must-see" location...coming up, keep reading.
3. Number 1 Royal Crescent
We really wanted to go inside one of the apartments in the Royal Crescent. If you walk along the Crescent, when you come to No. 1 Royal Crescent, you can actually go inside! It is decked out in authentic period decor and furniture.
I love seeing old kitchens, they remind me that we have come a long way, and to be grateful for my electric stovetop!
We really enjoyed all the interactive parts of the house, it really helps you get insight into what life must have been like back in the day, and the staff in each room was eager to explain to us lots of cool information.
Sniffing the spices:
We played some fun peasant games, and Jordan beat me all 7 times...
They even had clothes for us to dress up in...
I may have had to talk Jordan into dressing up too:
No. 1 Royal Crescent definitely had a great view!
4. Royal Baths
We started our second day with Bath's main attraction, The Royal Baths, conveniently located in the centre of town. Well...perhaps it is fairer to say that the town grew around the baths, given that the Romans moved to the area to make use of the hot springs.
The terrace that overlooks the Great Bath is lined with statues of famous Roman Emperors, such as Julius Caesar.
Since the city is built on top of the Bath, you enter from street level, where you are on a terrace that lets you look down into the Baths six feet below ground. The preservation is excellent, it is one of the best-preserved Roman sites I have ever seen! I would recommend getting there early, to enjoy it without the crowds.
The first baths were built in 70AD and over a million liters of 114°F water flows from the mineral spring every day.
Men and woman would bathe together and clothes were usually not worn, but wooden sandals were necessary to protect bathers feet from heating tiles under the floor.
We took the self-guided tour and got up close and personal to the main Bath
The Romans used the baths daily and weekly to get clean, socialize and relax.
The preservation is so amazing, we marveled over it!
While I'd love to socialize in the baths, the water was looking a little too mineral dense and slimy for us!
That is some goo
At the end of the tour we got to sample the water. It was SO disgusting, I can't even describe it. The healing waters of Karlovy Vary were much better. I can't believe people actually drank liters of this water when starting their day thinking it would cure them! Take a look as I try to drink some, Jordan couldn't pay me enough money to do it however he had no problem chugging it down.
5. Bath Abbey
Bath has so many great attractions, like the historic abbey which we walked by on our tour.
Very impressive stained glass depicting the life of Christ. During World War II the images were taken down, and after the war artists thought it would be too difficult to repair, luckily it was done!
6. Sally Lund House
Our last stop before heading home was to the Sally Lund house for a Sally Lund bun. There are people trying to replicate the world famous bun all over the glove, but the one and only place to taste the original is right here in Bath. The house is one of the oldest in Bath dating back to 1482, but Sally lived here in the 1600's.
I really enjoyed their Bun Etiquette:
We tried a dolce de leche, and a lemon curd: both we highly recommend!
And there you have it, Bath, a great place to visit, and well worth the trip!
The two of you make me laugh in those costumes!!! I want to live overlooking Royal Victoria park, have kitchen like that vintage apartment, eat the incredible looking foods you guys tried.....and give walking tours at age 92!!!
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