Bath aka Tea Time with Jane Austen

The second place we went to in England was Bath.  Bath (aka Bath Spa) is a little town that has been a "resort" like retreat town for English people for centuries, even having a Natural Spring Bath that dates back to Roman times!

The main park in the center of Bath

Right in the main town square of Bath is the beautifully constructed Bath Abbey, which has been the center of the town since it was built.  It is also the home to one of the many decorated pigs around the town.




One of the reasons we picked the town of Bath as one of the places we stayed in England was because of our Grandmother.  Our Mamo is very interested in genealogy and actually traced our family back to a man who was the Mayor of Bath way back in the 1600s!  When we walked though the Abbey we looked for his name but were overwhelmed by the amount of plaques there!  They covered just about every wall and foot of floor there was!

 

As we walked through the town, we saw some pretty entertaining things.  Street performers were everywhere, and we got this picture of a particularly talented man playing the violin and slack lining and dancing around all at once!


We also went to see the other famous buildings of Bath, the fancy "Circus" round about, and the huge row of houses called "The Royal Crescent."

They're really awesome buildings to see, and very different from anything else we saw on our travels.  The Royal Crescent also has a great park in front of it (well, after the divider of the private, do not enter lawn for looking lol) where  people gather, lay in the sun, play ultimate frisbee etc.
We actually had some beautiful sunny weather before the rain clouds moved in so we could hang out on the lawn at the royal crescent.  Also, on the free tour we took of Bath we learned some pretty cool things about the Circus and the Crescent, like how they mirror images of the sun and moon, and the various types of architecture used, and the meanings of some little details, like the pine cones on the Circus pediments, and how the architect strategically planned the whole area to give you "architectural surprises" as you walk through it from Great Pulteny Street on through the Crescent to Victoria Park.

One of the most beautiful places in Bath is the Pultney Bridge.  It reminded us a lot of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence because it is a beautiful bridge with shops all along it, though it definitely has an English charm instead of an Italian flair.  Right at the base of the bridge they built a sort of water waterfall fountain in the river, it's really quite beautiful and so peaceful.

 Once you cross the bridge, you can go down the stairs to the riverside walk and take a stroll along the River Avon or even take a ride on one of the several narrow boats around town.

 

 Views from the Riverside walk looking back at the main square area in Bath.

  While we saw lots of preparations for events for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee when we were in London, there were plenty more in Bath.  Flags, banners, and even Royal face masks were everywhere!

On the day of the official Jubilee, there was a concert in the park in Bath so we went to go hang out and experience some Brilliantly British Celebrations!  The headlining band of the day turned out to be the ABBA tribute band,
Bjorn Again, who were thoroughly entertaining to watch, fancy costumes, cheesy dance moves, fireworks and all!!!  It was a truly strange experience, standing in a slightly rainy park with about 300 locals from around Southern England, watching them celebrate their Queen's diamond Jubilee by wearing 60's attire in red white and blue and attending an ABBA cover band concert...we couldn't have planned it if we tried :)

The other big reason we picked Bath as one of our destinations is because Erin in particular is a huge Jane Austen fan.  I mean she's read Pride and Prejudice (and Sense and Sensibility) about 100 times and P&P is pretty much her go to rainy day/lazy day movie.  Jane Austen actually lived in Bath for about 5 years and several of her novels incorporate places in this beautiful little town.  There is a Jane Austen center in Bath and we couldn't resist the opportunity to go check it out, I mean just look at that adorable man all dressed up who stands at the door to greet you!

The center gave you an idea of the biography of Jane Austen, had some real artifacts from her life, as well as some super fun interactive "fan language" lessons and an Austen-attire dress up section.  We had lots of fun going back in time to see the world of the legendary author.

 Another place in Bath that is featured in Jane Austen novels as well as being a draw for people for many many years is the Pump Room. 

It's a tea house that's attached to the Roman Baths, and is an absolutely lovely place to have afternoon tea.  We had to wait a little while for a table because the place is always packed, but it was so much fun sitting, having our extremely English afternoon tea, listening to the string quartet play, and eating yummy scones with clotted cream and jam!

Tea for two!!

There is also "Spa Water" on the menu, which is water that comes from the spring in the Roman Bath, but after watching a few other people try it and seeing their... less than enthused faces, we decided to stick with our tea :)

After tea time we headed over to Great Pultney Street, to see the house where Jane Austen lived during her time in Bath.  It has a lovely plaque and I have to say it was at the end of the most fashionable street in Bath.  Erin filled me in on some Bath trivia, and told me that Great Pultney street is so wide (which is pretty unusual for these little English towns)  so that people could drive their carriages down the street and turn them around in at the end of the street without backing up or going down a side street, so that they could go back down the street and be seen by all the who's who again and again! 

can you see the "bathrooms?"

We also got to walk down the garden pathway that is pivotal in the "Persuasion" novel, and see the beautiful Gregorian gardens all along the way.  When we took the walking tour of Bath, our guide also gave us the little fun fact of just what the little elevator like parts in the corners of the buildings were.  They were in fact a solution people had before indoor plumbing came into play, and were little rooms that hung out over the sides of the buildings containing trap door like mechanisms that would just drop the "business" out of the house! Gross!  He assured us that now the houses are in fact equipped with updated bathroom facilities, but the drop rooms remain there for posterity.

 These pictures are of that waterfall fountain over by the bridge, which had special lighting effects in place for the Jubilee!  It was a beautiful transitional lighting scheme that went from purple to blue to green and back again and was a great accompaniment for the projection light show on the actual bridge itself that highlighted lots of British things, from crowns to famous Brits and more!

 As we were walking home that night, we saw the most awesome "moonrise" that I've ever witnessed.  When we first saw the light from the moon rising we thought it had to be something else like a beacon or something, and as it rose it put on a beautiful show!  It was gorgeous!!!

 I've mentioned a couple things from the walking tour we took in Bath already, and here's a few more little bits from the tour.  It was given by a older man who had lived in Bath for most his life and had definite pride in his town.  He had a great sense of humor and threw in lots of little quips about his wife (and the many things she wouldn't allow him to do and the few she would) and was so interesting!  It was misty raining on and off the whole time but we managed to keep up with him as we wandered around his beloved Bath for an afternoon.

The archway above, which we actually were looking down at, was one of the original gates into the old city.  It highlighted just how many times the old town had been built upon, over and over again, so that the current town is almost a story higher than the original town was back in the ancient times (and even since the 1600s).  Another fun fact about Bath was this castle in the picture to the right.  It can be seen up on the hills surrounding Bath from the main city, and Erin and I had actually noticed it when we first arrived in Bath.  Our guide pointed it out to us on the tour and told us that it is in fact not a castle, but just a fake castle front, put in place by Bath Tourist committees in the 1800s to "beautify" the scenery and draw classy people to the area and give them something to look at on their picnics! Haha!  Well it's apparently still working for them these days, we were fooled!



 Our guide often talked about the less obvious aspects of Bath, like the fact that when building the houses and buildings in Bath, there was a special stone used all over which unifies the town, but because it was so expensive, only the fronts were adorned with this special stone, and the backs often were left with an unfinished or lower class look, contrasting the polished facades in front.  He also pointed out to us the beautiful iron work in the front of many of the houses was not always decorative, but used to be the way people would snuff out their torches when they got home before they went into the house!  Pretty cool!  And here's a close up view of those drop bathrooms I was describing earlier, which made me glad I was born well after indoor plumbing was established and never had to deal with that kind of situation!




 The bed and breakfast we stayed at in Bath was on the south side of the town, up on the hill that surrounded the area.  It was a bit of a hike walking up that hill to go home every day, but the view was well worth it!  The owner told us about a trail behind the house that gave an even better view, so on our last day in Bath we decided to hike up there and check it out.  After a brief wrong trail detour, some poison something or other that Erin got on her foot, and short run back to the B&B for some first aid creme, we finally found our way to the correct trail and were rewarded with a fantastic view of Bath!!

 We stopped and had a snack on this bench that had a quirky little quote on it and saw this little guy slide on by as we were hanging out.

 From up on the trail Bath looked like a little storybook town, and we took some time to admire that awesome view, and watched it improve even more as the sun went down and the lights started to come on, adding little twinkling lights to the pretty little town.  Perfection.

 Bath was such a lovely place to spend a week, and we loved getting to relax a little after the crazy pace of London the week before.  It was truly a cute little English town, with great history and stories and the best tea we've had anywhere!