Beautiful Bath
If we were to all sit down and think of things in true English fashion, our minds would do nothing more than picture the beautiful city of Bath. It is a small little town in the middle of nowhere. The windy road takes you down into a beautiful valley surrounded by rolling green hills and overwhelming amounts of green trees. And of course, you know Bath is worth the trip because Rick Steves says it is the one MUST SEE side trip from London. As usual, I would have to agree with Rick.
We started our day off in Bath with a little walking tour. The guy who is in charge of all of us USD kids, Paul, gave us the short history of the city. We saw all the great sites: the bridge, the circus and the royal crescent. Like the rest of Europe, Bath is very well preserved. Many of the buildings date back to the 16th century. If you are a Jane Austen fan you will see that many of her movies (ok, not hers, but you get what I mean) were filmed in Bath. She lived in Bath for some time, but according to local legend hated the city. Not sure why a few of her books have large sections that take place in Bath or the area, but apparently she did not like it. Speaking of Jane, while we were in town there was a Jane Austen Festival going on. All the locals were dressed up and sporting umbrellas, corsets and knickers. It was most comical when we would walk by one of them all dressed up talking on their cell phones. My favorite was this man dressed in military uniform talking on his iPhone. Classic.
After our walk we were able to split up for a bit. Stephanie, Megs and I went to the British Fashion "moo-ze-umm." We tried on hoop skirts and corsets, not very comfortable at all. My favorite thing was the models with the wool speedos on. I couldn't help but laugh trying to think of people swimming in wool based speedos.
Later we met back up with our big group and entered the Roman Baths. The first thing they told was that we could not touch the water nor could we swim in it. I was very disappointed. Apparently the Roman Baths are the only hot springs in England. I'm not sure I believe that but Ill take their word for it. The building is very well preserved and the museum part of it offers a lot of educational tid-bits about life during Roman rule in England.
Bath its self was beautiful. We also made a quick stop into the Abbey, very well done. They also have an American Flag over an American senator who was buried there in like 1864 or something. It was an odd sight considering what Nationalists the Brits are. When you make your way out to England I suggest you take a nice side trip here. It is beautiful, breathtaking in a way.
Check back in soon. I will be posting pictures from our Punting excursion we took last night!
You may want to watch the video HERE, the pictures will be bigger.
