Anyone who knows me knows I’m a HUGEEE history nerd. Some of my favorite time periods to learn about are the ancient Romans, and Jane Austen’s Regency era. Bath is basically both! Spoiler alert, I LOVED it there. Everything from the museum, the town, and the train ride from Paddington Station (even if I didn’t realize it was an hour and a half train ride and I didn’t bring my airpods).
Once we arrived in Bath, we went straight to the ancient Roman baths. These were SO cool. A lot of the architecture was Victorian, as a lot of it was rebuilt during that era, but the original Roman architecture was my favorite. I liked getting to walk around and learn about the people who lived in Bath before the Roman’s took over Britannia. Can you imagine living back then, and all you know is your town, and then all of a sudden these guys pull up and say they’re taking over and they just combine their god with the god you believe to live in the holy hot springs your town is based around? That must have been SO scary.
Once we got down to the actual baths portion of the museum, Sophie and I dipped a finger in the water and rubbed it on our jewlrey. Both British and Roman women would toss jewlrey into the baths and springs as offering to the goddess Sulis Minerva, so it felt like some form of good luck. I did convice myself my finger felt weird afterwards though. Still waiting on the brain eating amoeba to get me.
Once we left the baths, we were all HUNGRY! So we strolled around the town, looking for somewhere to eat lunch so we didn’t have to wait till we got to the Pump Room. We found a place where I could get gluten free pizza, so we stopped in there. It was SO good, though I did overstuff myself.
We walked down to the Jane Austen Centre, but didn’t have time to do a tour. As much as I love Jane Austen, I was okay with that because I worried about it being a little touristy. So, we just decided to be Jane Austen herself and stroll around Bath. As we walked and I took in the architecture, to more I realized how much I genuinely liked Bath. It’s really a beautiful town, and it felt like a quaint town in the country side (while also having an Anthropolgie and Lulu Lemon). Maybe it was because you could see the hills and tree through the buildings.
After our stroll, we made our way to the Pump Room. I got a whole gluten free tea tray to myself and it was honestly really good. Did I eat a lot of it? No. I was still stuffed from lunch, but I ate more of my tray than I should’ve. I got a yummy-licious berry tea that I would honestly drink every day.
After the Pump Room, we made our way back to the train station where, once on the train back to London, I took a semi-decent nap. Overall, I really liked Bath. It had a certain charm that reminded me of a costal town in the states, or maybe even a ski town. Anyways, I wonder if anyone has ever jumped in the Roman baths.
Theatre in London U of A 