Bath! Bath! Bath! What a wonderful place is Bath! Our first day trip has come and gone and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. We were hit with the overwhelming history of this place the moment we arrived, as we walked straight out of the train station to the Roman baths. We each were given little phone-like listening devices and then went on our merry way following along with the stories of the baths. One of the most shocking and interesting things I learned in the first moment of the tour was that these baths were uncovered. I, wrongly, assumed that they had always been a fixture of this city and just stayed as everything else warped and changed. To learn that these baths were merely a hypothesis for so long, just to be eventually uncovered was fascinating. I also enjoyed learning about the architect and how the influence of his time shaped the baths to how we see them now. The rest of the tour was informative, beautiful, and fun. I did drink the water at the end of the tour, which I don’t necessarily recommend to anyone. I didn’t hear the warning of the person from my audio device say that it had a “distinct taste” before I went up, filled up my cup, and took a huge sip of it. I immediately regretted that. I tasted very salty and minerally, and that wasn’t something that I personally loved. If you want water that tastes like it has come straight from the cracks of stone, it’s perfect, or maybe just take a tiny sip.
After the Roman bath house I walked around for a while, went to a charity shop, and got loaded fries with vegan chili (it was wonderful!). I then met Claire, Sarah, and Reece at a pub and we all sat around and talked for a while. Bath overall is much quieter than London, and significantly mroe pedestrian friendly, so it made zipping between all the different places super easy. After our time at the pub, I quickly popped over to the Jane Austen Center to pick up a few gifts from the gift shop. I was actually quite disappointed because a lot of the “special edition” books they were selling were the exact ones you could get in Barnes and Nobles and Waterstones, but I found some non-books and a bit more unique gifts for the people at home who I was shopping for.
Then we all met up as one big group and got to do what is probably my favorite thing so far, the pump room. We first walked into the fanciest room and sat down to a very formal place setting, where they had us pick out our tea. I picked Jane Austen tea because it reminded me of my sister, and it was wonderful. Then, I was surprised with vegan food!! I got my own tea tower full of AMAZING little foods. I had scones with whipped butter and strawberry jam that I could’ve kept eating forever. There was also a pea pastry thing that was delicious and a chocolate cupcake that was to die for. I tried crème brulé for the first time, which was lime flavored. Overall, 10/10. There are some hilarious photos of the shock and joy on my face when the food came out because I was so overwhelmed and didn’t expect it at all. None of us thought we were going to be eating, just getting tea, so the surprise was great.
We then said our goodbyes to Bath and hopped back on the train to London. It was a very short stay but a highlight of the trip so far!
Theatre in London U of A 