12 Flights 7 Weeks: Bath

I had planned Bath as a short stop over because I had heard it was a pretty city. Besides the train tickets to Bath and bus ticket back to London were really cheap and couchsurfing it would make it a cheap and fun time waster before Morocco.

Turns out I had severally underestimated the charm of the city. And I had a very nice host which always makes a city twice as charming. Richard met me at the train station and we headed back to his place.

The first night was fun. We hung out and drank wine and I asked a zillion questions and he was nice enough to answer them all. The poor thing didn’t know what he was getting into by hosting me. haha.

But the real fun started the next day! Since it was the weekend he showed me around Bath. We saw all the good sites.

We started the day at the Circus!

Not the best picture but it consists of three curved segments of town houses. It used to be called The King's Circus. It was designed by John Wood the Elder, but he didn’t live to see his plans turned into reality, due to his death less than three months before construction of The Circus began in 1754. His son, John Wood the Younger, completed the build in 1768. The grassy area with trees in the centre of The Circus was once a reservoir that supplied to water to the surrounding houses, although this became a garden for the residents in the 1800s. During the Bath Blitz in 1942, part of The Circus was badly bombed, demolishing several of the houses. They have now been reconstructed and restored in the original style.

Next up the Royal Crescent. It was built between 1767 and 1775 and designed by John Wood the Younger and is of course a great example of Georgian Architecture. It has this huge lawn in front of it that over looks Royal Victoria Park.

We took a stroll through the gardens and down into the town centre.  Where we saw the Roman Baths. They were constructed around 70 AD as a grand bathing and socialising complex. It is now one of the best preserved Roman remains in the world. 1,170,000 litres of steaming spring water reaching 46 °C still fill the bathing site every single day. The Romans believed that this was the mystical work of the Gods but we now know that the water source, which comes from the King’s Spring, fell as rain water around 10,000 BC. It costs £14 to go in and well I didn't budget for it so it was outside only for me! It was still really pretty to see.

And the Abbey of course. I didn't go in the first day it was closed for something. here has been a place of Christian worship on this site for over 1,200 years. Since 757 AD, three different churches have occupied the site of today’s Abbey: first, there was an Anglo-Saxon Abbey Church, pulled down by the Norman conquerors of England soon after 1066. Then, a massive Norman cathedral was begun about 1090 but was larger than the monastery could afford to maintain and by the end of the 15th century was in ruins. Finally, the present Abbey church was founded in 1499, the last of the great medieval churches of England. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 by order of King Henry VIII, the Abbey lay in ruins for more than 70 years. The valuable parts of the building had all been taken away, for example the beautiful stained glass windows were ripped out and the roof was stripped for the lead. It wasn’t until 1616, that much of the building we see today was repaired and in use as a parish church.

Then we crossed Pulteney Bridge (It's there on the left of the picture).

Pulteney Bridge, together with the Ponte Vecchio in Florence (been there seen that. haha), is one of the world's most beautiful bridges. Like the Ponte Vecchio it is one of a handful of historic bridges in the world with shops built into it. Built for William Pulteney by Robert Adam, the bridge was an attempt to connect central Bath to land on the other bank of the River Avon and make Pulteney's fortune. In spite of its practical origins it is surely the most romantic bridge in the world, best viewed from Parade Gardens park by the crescent weir. And we did have a wander about in the gardens.

  

Then the best part… we went and had tea! Like seriously I don’t know how he put up with me because I was hardcore flipping out about feeling British. Because it was seriously the cutest tea shop! I was in love.

Originally my plans had been to just spend the one day in Bath and catch a late bus to London. But I was kind of totally in love with the city and Richard was nice enough to let me stay on an extra night.

So after walking around some more I was tired as fuck and we headed back to have a quiet evening of watching TV and then youtubing the weird accents of the UK. It was grand!

The next morning it was an early start since Richard had work. But that worked fine because my bus left at noon and I wanted to see the abby and walk around some more. Since he was going to work on the train and the Megabus stop was right by the station we walked together and he showed me where to catch the bus.

After saying good bye I went off to hike up a hill to Alexandria Park. It was a tiny bit of a task with my pack on. Apparently the path up the hill leads to school because there were adorable English kids in uniform booking it up the hill and I was just there dying a little bit. 

By the way it was such a hike because the park is situated on Beechen Cliff. It's a cliff. The pictures I took of the trail don't do it justice. But it was totally worth it for the view! 

Come on that is a seriously gorgeous city! I’d like to live there.

The walk back down the hill was easy peasy. I went to the Abbey next.

And the stained glass windows!!!!!

Then I hunted down some postcards and a coffee. Then it was time to head to London. My next adventure was about to begin! But first I had another day in my favourite city!

Side note:: all history facts are from the Bath visitor site.

Cheers,