Bath is known in England for being a place of refinement, royalty and class. It is where many a Jane Austen heroine came to frequent ‘The Pump Room’ and lunch with those in the high society. It was also where the sick and stressed came to ‘take in’ the waters of Bath, and leave rejuvenated and revived. So when two bus loads of rowdy foreign tourists exploded into town, the ambience perhaps was taken a little by surprise.
However, they have little need for complaint, Bath is a tourist town and it is not hard to see why. From the minute you drive in the architecture and general ‘vibe’ of the place is breathtaking. The majority of the buildings and houses are crafted from Bath Stone, the quality of which is still heavily maintained today. After leaving our bags in the hostel we grabbed our camera’s and set off in search of our very own Jane Austen moment.
Of course with Louise as my travelling companion, what is the one thing on our mind 99% of the time whilst travelling?
a) How hungry we are
b) What we have eaten
c) What we plan to be eating later
d) Scoping out new potential places to eat.
Lord knows how we are not broke and the size of houses by now.
So after making the compulsory eating pit stop at a quaint little café hidden in a tiny courtyard, we made our way to the Roman Baths. Easily the biggest attraction in Bath, the Roman Baths contains the baths themselves (duh), an extensive and interesting museum, and The Pump Room where the lesser folk can eat amazingly overpriced high tea and imagine themselves in a terribly riveting conversation with Mr Darcy. Took many a photo overlooking the beautiful waters, and although we were given the option for a taste, politely declined. (We were advised that the almost green, murky water, tastes about as good as it looks…)
That afternoon we perused Bath Abbey and took a stroll down the centre of town. Credit goes to the designers of the shopping ‘district’ who took great care to uphold the architecture of Bath, even in some of the very new buildings.
Saturday night we had dinner with the rest of the tour group at Salamander’s, a ritzy English pub with a reasonably ritzy price list. You only live once though right and when you’re paying 9 pounds for a meal, I still can’t help but read that as 9 dollars which is an unbelievable bargain! (please no comments about the exchange rate and how that is actually about $17 Aus dollars….ignorance is bliss!) Also, Louise and I sampled some of the local Bath cider which was commendably good.
After dinner, we donned our Halloween costumes and headed out. I was having a major stress out because I had misplaced my camera (although luckily someone had it), but once it was recovered I was intent on partying down Halloween style. That was until we got the club the tour had recommended and were greeted by a virtually empty room, except for the token creepy old guys that stand in the corner and do a very unfunny Joey Tribbianni ‘how you doing’ impersonation…
So with that, we moved on to a pub a few blocks down that was pumping. Despite the fact that it was playing SAW on all 4 television screens (it took all my strength not to scream and cover my eyes), the music was good so I was forced to overlook their interesting choice of Halloween entertainment and bear it.
The next day saw us up bright and early for destination: Stonehenge! Now Louise and I had both heard very mixed opinions about this wonderfully weird stone circle. Some had said it was exactly what it sounded like ‘a circle of rocks’ and one of the not so lovely Eastern European guys on our trip commented ‘we have much better rocks than that in the Czech Republic’.
Uh huh.
So we armed ourselves in the only way possible – talk it down a lot and then if it’s bad you aren’t disappointed and if it’s good, you will be pleasantly surprised. And that is how we came to be standing in front of Stonehenge and commenting in awe ‘actually it is pretty cool’. It still amazes me how they even got there (not that anyone really knows). They say the stones originate from Wales. So how the hell did they get all the way to Southern England? Somehow I don’t think Bob the Builder and his team were around to lend a helping hand…
After saying goodbye to the mystifying mystery that is Stonehenge, we travelled on to Avebury; Stonehenge’s awkwardly less popular cousin. There are more rocks at Avebury and they encircle the whole village which is actually creepily cool. Whilst we were there, we witnessed a very strange procession of people walking through the rocks – they looked like they had misplaced the address of the Harry Potter convention and were chanting and banging on drums….
The strangeness of the English? Exhibit A….
On the way home we visited a quaint little farm shop, where the bus stocked up on home made goodies. I think the ladies working in the shop nearly had a heart attack, there had never been so many people in the shop!
From there we started the 2 hour journey back to Leeds (LOVE that England is so small!) tired but satisfied we had indulged the young Jane Austen, and weird rock worshipper, that lives within us all.
Was I just a little excited to be visiting the very places that have leapt from the pages of Jane Austen?
DEFINITELY
Were aliens from outer space trying to use Stonehenge to contact earthlings?
MAYBE
Could I ever be convinced to try the ‘amazing’ Bath water which looks like it had been scooped out of a muddy puddle?
PROBABLY NOT!
X
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