Bath

Bath is a gorgeous town, in muted shades of sandstone cream and pinky-beige. Even in the rain, it’s very regal (or is it just that I’ve read too many Regency romances set here, which are all about the peerage, or at least the upper vestiges of Society?)

The B&B is another gorgeous one, situated in a terrace along one of the main roads into town. Lovely rooms, full English breakfast delivered to your room in the morning, not too noisy even considering the road, and it boasts free parking up the back for our large beastie of a hire car. Yes, it took about 10 mins of inching backwards and forwards to the sound of the parking sensors beeping in an ever-rising crescendo to get it parked, but it’s there until we leave tomorrow morning.

The English brekky this morning was yum, especially as our hosts had kindly sourced GF bread and sausages to add to my plate, as well as the welcoming biscuits yesterday afternoon.

We set off to visit a few of the must-dos of Bath (or at least, the must-dos for us. Or me, anyway…) The Roman Baths complex was our first stop, and we were amazed at the well-managed and organised centre. There are free audio guides to listen to as you wander around (multiple languages, for adults and separate ones for kids, plus Bill Bryson doing a couple of commentaries at a couple of exhibits as well), as well as info beside most exhibits, and video reconstructions of Roman life and people, plus a couple of actors looking pretty cold out next to the pool in their Roman costumes. Definitely worth a look for anyone heading to Bath.

We paused briefly for a snack at the very poshe and very famous Pump Room. R had the Georgian Elevenses: a cup of hot chocolate with cream, a glass of The Bath Waters, and a Bath Bun with cinnamon butter. Yum! I fortified myself with the waters for wusses: Bath Waters mixed with either lemon or strawberry (mine was strawberry), and gluten free scones with jam. More yum!

Bath Waters taste kinda like you’d expect: very mineral-y, and warm. Too warm, but not hot. Just… strange. Not an experience I’ll pay for again!

Next stop was my Mecca, the Fashion Museum. Housed in the old Assembly Rooms, the Fashion Museum has huge amounts of stock. The exhibits show a select few, and have cupboards and racks full of other items behind them!

This is the Silver Tissue Dress, which is the oldest complete dress they have. It’s about 350 years old. I don’t think I’ll get that long out of any of my garments!

They have corsets and crinolines to try on for adults, and children’s replica clothing for them, too! I loved the corsets, as each was made almost like an abseiling harness – webbing and connectors and canvas, with instructions like this one: This way up, and Front and Back written on them!

I especially loved the “behind the scenes” section, which showed the nineteenth century in clothes for each decade as if they were in the storage areas, with annotations discussing the various changes to the female silhouette as society’s attitudes changed, and the variations in materials and fabrication as England moved into the Industrial Revolution. Very, very, very cool.

The twentieth century exhibition was also exhaustive, showing a diverse range of designers and shapes as the century went on.

The Assembly Rooms upstairs were also really interesting. I could picture the heroines of some of my favourite Regency-set stories there, peeping at their heroes over their fans, hoping to be asked to dance.

Our next destination was the Jane Austen Centre, which many, many people have looked pained at the idea of. Actually, as we were standing on a corner checking our map, a pair of locals asked us if we needed any help, and were a bit disapproving of the idea when we told them what we were looking for, saying “that’s not my favourite place”! It turns out the museum was opened by a couple of pub owners, and it’s got a very strong reputation as a place to rip off tourists! (Especially, I might add, as Jane Austen didn’t like Bath at all!) In any case, I was after some souvenirs, so we wandered up and visited the gift shop at least, purchasing various Austenish tatt, and taking a picture with the Jane statue and the (real) doorman.

We stopped at this point for lunch at The Salamander, a pub around the corner, starting with local brews of cider and porter, and pigging out (hur hur) on pork sausages and mash, and pork belly with black pudding and mash, respectively.

Once we could walk again, we waddled up the hill to the Circus, and on to Royal Crescent, an imposing semi-circle. Number 1 Royal Crescent, a house restored to Georgian gorgeousness, wasn’t open, so we satisfied ourselves by watching other tourists taking photos of the vista and wandered past the Royal Victoria Gardens (spying a squirrel on the way) and back to the B&B for a refresh before heading out for dinner.

We went to the Garrick’s Head Pub for dinner, which was great. R had the chowder for entree, oxtail for main, and I went straight for the steak with salad and thrice-cooked chips (yum). We both had homemade icecream for dessert before waddling (again! I’m sensing a theme here) back to the B&B to pack up before hitting the road again tomorrow, this time to Wales.