Bath

November 11, 2017

Although many people are interested in Bath due to its connections with the Romans and the Roman baths they left behind, I was interested in Bath for another reason: Jane Austen. My fellow Jane Austen fans will understand for sure, but for those of you who aren’t quite sure of what I mean: Jane Austen lived in Bath for around 5 years of her life. It’s said to be a great inspiration to much of her work, but also a distraction because there was much to do and explore. If you’re familiar with Northanger Abbey you may remember that the heroine, Catherine, goes to live in Bath for about 6 weeks, so the whole plot centers around her time in Bath. This novel was her first to be published and it’s a great coming of age story, I found Catherine to be really relatable, but this isn’t book club, so I won’t go on anymore about that haha. The point is that my interest in Bath stemmed from reading about it in Northanger Abbey, which is probably my favorite Austen novel! 🙂

So the day started out early, but with coffee all things are possible (haha). My Romanian friend also went on the trip! It was fun to tour the sites with another person. When we first got there, our tour guide took us right outside Bath Abbey, where a Remembrance Day ceremony was going to take place shortly.

We decided to watch the ceremony before starting our exploring. At exactly 11 am, everyone grew eerily quiet. A solemn trumpet ballad echoed softly as everyone stood in attentive silence. A large cross memorial laid in front of the entrance of the Abbey (pictured below). After a few minutes, the military personnel that were standing near the memorial made their way into the church and everyone dispersed. I think there was more to the ceremony inside the church, probably, but we decided we’d move on to do some touring! It was really interesting to see, though. It made me think of all the Veteran’s Day concerts we had in school. We started out in elementary school with cute choreography and singing patriotic songs about the U.S. (s/o to the song “We the People” for forever ingraining the preamble of the constitution in my head, whether I wanted it there or not). One of my favorite things to do when I was in band in high school was to play songs for all the different branches of military. As we played, the veterans or active members of the military would stand during their song. Not only were the songs catchy, but it was a great way to honor our brave servicemen and women. Anyway, it was a cool to see how they mark the occasion here and reflect on how we do it in the U.S.

The Roman Baths museum was right next to where the ceremony was, and since it had started to rain (how’s that for symbolism?), we were glad to get inside. The museum was actually really amazing and fascinating. Apparently, where Bath is involved, they only really know about it from the perspective of the Romans, who claim they were invited to live there. I’m calling BS on that, though, and most people do because, ya know, the Roman invasion and all. 😉 Anyway, the baths crumbled in around the 6th century after the Romans left and were later excavated by archaeologists. Anything above the level of the great bath (see the picture below of the, well, giant bath), were additions in the late 19th century, but everything below that is what’s left of the Roman Baths. The Baths were constructed around 70 AD and is one of the best preserved Roman remains in the world (according to visitbath.co.uk so some bias might apply haha). As you went through the museum, it took you on a journey of what life would be like when the Romans occupied Bath. They had all kinds of incredible artifacts, including currency, headstones, various statues, and even a coffin. As we got into the areas that would have been portions of the Baths, they had large screens (I didn’t even notice them at first because they were transparent) that showed clips of what would have gone on in that particular room. They had a really great one where the temple used to be. The temple was built around the hot springs and used to honor the Roman goddess Minerva (goddess of wisdom) who the Romans saw as the equivalent of the goddess Sulis, which was who the shrine was originally for. There were remains of the large table-like structure where sacrifices were once made, and the screens showed the Romans hanging around the site and what it had looked like back then. As we continued through the museum, we finally got to the main attraction: the great bath. This is where people would have gone to swim and relax. There were little alcoves around the area where people would sit and socialize (I’m sitting in one in one of the pictures below). There were also different chambers leading from the great Bath. These were for different things like changing rooms, hot baths, and cold baths (sitting in a hot bath was for opening the pores and getting rid of toxins, then jumping into a cold bath was for closing the pores and preventing toxins from getting back in). We even got to taste some of the hot spring water, which is supposed to have healing properties. It tasted kind of metallic, so I don’t know that I’d go around drinking it too much, but hey, when in Rome (Bath), right? 😉 The Romans took the whole “go big or go home” thing seriously when it came to spas, haha. It’s easy to see how a place like this would be the center of a town. In fact, I’m wishing my town had a place like this. Maybe then I’d take exercise more seriously 😉

Next, we took a quick trip in to check out Bath Abbey. I personally love looking inside all of these gorgeous churches around England. They are simply stunning. We wandered around for a bit, and since it was Veteran’s Day/Remembrance Day, I lit a candle in memory of my dear grandfather John Zentner, who was a veteran himself. ❤

Food was our next priority haha. We got German sausage from a street vendor that was really good and wandered around for a bit. We saw a gelato place when we first got into Bath, so we had to make our way back for a treat, of course. Once we had our ice cream, we decided to roam around a beautiful park called Parade Gardens that was nearby. It was beautiful and right next to the river Avon, so it was a great place for some photos. 🙂 After exploring the park, we decided to head up towards The Circus and Royal Crescent. Also, the Jane Austen center was this way. I decided to go on a tour at the Jane Austen center, and really enjoyed it. It was really interesting and it was set up in a house that was on the same street and similar to the one she lived in for a period of time. If you’re a fan of Jane Austen and if you’re ever in England..12/10 would recommend. 🙂 It had great information on what life was like for her back then. You could even sit down at a desk and write using a feather quill and ink. If anything, attempting to write like that has given me an even greater respect for her skills as an author – only the strongest could survive writing an entire novel like that 😉 haha! It also gave me a greater respect for whoever invented pens. 😛

After the Jane Austen center, we walked up towards The Circus, which is a circle of historical townhouses built in the mid 1700s. The middle of the roundabout featured a few gorgeous alive with fall colors and the architecture of the buildings was stunning. I really have gained a newfound appreciation for architecture since moving here. They didn’t have near the things we have now to assist with building, yet they were able to create these beautiful buildings with intricate details. It’s truly amazing when you think about it. Speaking of architecture, we also made our way up to the Royal Crescent, which is a row of terraced houses in a crescent shape. They are Georgian buildings also built in the 1700s and No. 1 Royal Crescent is either the oldest or one of the oldest buildings in Bath. From there, we got to explore a gorgeous neighboring park and more of Bath as we made our way back to the bus meeting point.

W had some time to kill before the bus headed back to Oxford, so we popped into a little tea shop called The Mad Hatter where I had a cream tea. For my fellow Americans, a cream tea is a cup of tea and a scone with cream and jam. It’s a nice little afternoon snack, for sure! 🙂 The scone I had was delicious! As much fun as the day was, it was nice to sit down and relax. All too soon, it was time to head back to Oxford. We had a great view of the lights of the city from the bus, but soon it rolled out of sight and I fell asleep haha, concluding another fun day trip to what is now my favorite part of England.

Now that I’ve finally been to London, I can say it’s one of my favorite places on earth, but Bath just has a certain quality to it that I really love. London is fantastic for visiting and exploring, I could spend the rest of my life wandering around London and getting to know all the quaint, hidden areas, but Bath is somewhere I could live. In fact, I could 180% see myself living there (sorry, mom and dad), but in the words of my girl Catherine, “Who can ever be tired of Bath?”

Until next time,

❤ Meg