Bath, England

Our first full day in the UK was spent in Bath (no, not in the bath). What a magnificent place it is. The problem with kicking off your tour in a place like this is that you run the very real risk of everything which follows being, well, a disappointment (I’m sure that won’t happen). It really is the home of Georgian architecture. Fortunately, we really love Georgian buildings – the Georgians really knew what elegance and style was all about (not to mention pomposity).

The Circus, Bath

   

Bath, or Aquae Sullis, as it was known in Roman times, is perhaps best known for its Roman baths. A visit to these baths is about as close as you can get to life in Roman Britannia. It a nutshell, they are simply amazing. Those Roman’s certainly knew how to live (except, of course, if you were unfortunate enough to be a slave). The baths were built atop a natural heated spring, the water being as much as 10,000 years old.

The Roman Baths

The other great stand out today, apart from the four pack of ice-creams from Waitrose for 2 pounds, was the Bath Abbey (or the Yabby, which I kept calling it until I saw it written). This beautiful abbey dates back to 1499, but it was actually built on the site of an even older Norman church which predates it by at least a couple of centuries (over here, what’s a few hundred years between friends). Even for an atheist like me, it was a pretty awe inspiring experience.

The Abbey

 

Typical Bath Street

So, it’s goodbye to Bath and on to Bristol, well, it’s really only a 15 minute drive. Tomorrow, we visit what Bristol has to offer, including the Avon River (which we also walked along in Bath), the famous Brunel suspension bridge, and probably lots more – hmmm, I wonder if they have a Waitrose there?

Pulteney Street Bridge