5/31: Bath time with Frankenstein’s Monster

So, we visited the Ancient Roman Baths in Bath, England and it was a very fun day trip. Personally, the Roman Baths themselves were a little bit underwhelming, but I think that is mostly due to my already having visited them before with my parents a few years ago. They had not changed much, but finding out that all the walls which were built to show scale were not attached to the ruins but hanging from the ceiling was pretty interesting and something that I did not pick up on during my first visit. My biggest critique with the Bath’s is that the recordings that play at various stations dragged on and on. Some of them were upwards of five minutes and it was very hard to retain the information that was being dumped on me (Amelia recommended switching to the kid’s version, which was much more entertaining and I feel like I learned more from those recordings than the “adult” ones.) The few hours that we got to walk around the city of Bath, however, were absolutely phenomenal. The group I was with went through the Mary Shelly Museum, which was mostly about Frankenstein and his Monster, and that was one of the coolest things I have done while abroad. It was very touristy, but learning about Mary and Percy Shelly and their tragic history was fascinating. My favorite part, though, was learning about the history of Frankenstein in Pop-Culture, from his first film appearance in 1910 to more recent stories like I, Frankenstein and even the theatrical adaptations of the story (one of which included Benedict Cumberbatch who alternated playing Frankenstein and his monster in the 2013 stage play.) There was a book accurate animatronic of the monster in the Laboratory Room which was huge and as the lighting in the room shifted, the expression on his face did as well and I found that to be extremely cool to watch. The museum was also showing the 1910 silent film in the attic, and we sat and watched the entire movie, with snacks provided. The tour ended with a haunted house in the basement, which was very fun and a great way to end it. After the Museum, I got a sandwich from a tiny shop down the road for only 5 pounds, and the owner of the shop was a super nice guy who sliced the tomatoes by hand as he made the sandwiches. It was one of the best meals I have had in England. Overall, the trip to Bath was an awesome time and I could have spent another five hours there, just walking around and seeing the town. 10/10 Highly Recommended.