Bath

Our Experience in Bath

As the trip slips further and further away from my mind, I find it increasingly hard to remember every single detail from the trip. It tells me that I should write as soon as I return from the trip and not wait until after many months to write.

In any case, Bath was an amazing city, we approached by train and started to see all the picturesque scenes that looked right out of a postcard. The train station is located on the south part of the city in the downtown area. All the special places can be walked to, if you feel like walking.

Bath and Beautiful

One of the places we visited, after checking in at the University's "hotel room", was the Bath abbey where we were toured around on the upper levels and through a series of winding up stairs. We went to the bell rooms where they showed us how they managed to play the tunes with the bells when the time is right. It all started with one man for each bell, but apparently they had troubles with keeping the men sober so they could go at night and ring the bells. Eventually they changed into an electronic system that plays the tunes now.

From inside the Abbey

The trip up and down the 212 steps was a bit tiring at times, but it was way worth the effort. We got great views of the city at the top of the Abbey and also caught a glimpse of the Roman Baths (we didn't visit them because the queue was kilometric)

Jimmy Spice restaurant, great buffet!

Afte the exercise we wanted a nice meal to recover our strength. We found a great buffet place called Jimmy Spice, it had great Italian, Indian, Thai and i don't remember what other kind of food, but it was amazing. If you are hungry and cant think of what to eat, this buffet is for you! (No, I don't get paid to advertise it)

Later on we went around to walk around the city. There are some walkways next to the river that offer great views and also some places to sit down and have some snacks and a drink.

Bath, great city

From the picture above, you can see the bridge and on the right side, below the building, there is a small pathway and some stairs. There is a cafe & restaurant called Riverside. We had a cup of wine and some great snacks from there with the view of the river.

The next day we went to visit Jane Austen house where I bought my copy of Sense and Sensibility. I love the movie but i guess i needed something to read in the long train trips and why not something I wanted? I have to say that sometimes the language was a bit confusing, but it always happens with old books and writers.

We also walked to the "The circus" roundabout that was just a few meters away and then we went to the Assembly rooms. Bad idea, we didn't like the place, it was very lacking. The rooms were completely empty and it looked just like any other big hall for modern day parties and weddings. Nothing impressive and we thought that what we saw was very lacking in relation to the admission ticket price.

We then went to have lunch at the Loch Fyne Restaurant. I have to say that it was a great restaurant. I really really fancied some scallops and the restaurant had some as an entry, I asked If there was a way they could prepare some for me as a meal and they agreed and made a new dish just for me. It was great by the way, I was very happy with the flexibility of the restaurant and the quality and taste of the meal.

After our nice meal we went down to the downtown part of the city again, we went first through the Royal Crescent (that was about the same height as we were from the restaurant) and then headed downwards towards the city. When we reached downtown, we went to a park called Parade Gardens, we paid a small maintenance fee to enter and look at the beautiful garden. They had a lot of beach-like chairs for people to rest at, some benches around the park and an ice-cream shop.

Rivers and Gardens

There were many interesting 'plant sculptures' around the park. A lot of work and dedication was poured into this place and the end result was a fantastic experience.

The Park of Bath

On the sad note, it was really bad to see how many people have zero consideration for others and zero regard for RULES. there was a rule about not climbing trees, and there were some kids,of course, doing it, and the parents taking picture... *sigh* insane, and very annoying. Also the same family later on was playing with some balls, and there was also a rule about NOT playing with balls. Anyways after getting quite annoyed at those people, we continued our journey.

The next day we visited the Thermae Bath Spa. A spa with many things to do and experience. There was pool at the top of the building on the roof, so you had the great view of the city while enjoying the comfort of the thermal water pool and the hydro massage spots around the pool. The place took me back to my childhood by looking at all the roofs and Mary-Poppins looking chimneys. Inside the building there was another pool and also a room with saunas. I'm not too fan of saunas but it was interesting there because they had 4 rooms with different 'scented' saunas. It somehow gave you a sense of healthiness, hehe.

Another place we visited, once we had seen most of the city and almost like a closure to our visit to Bath, was the Little Theatre. A small movie theater close to the Thermae Bath Spa.

Little Theatre where we saw Tree of Life

The theater was very small and cozy, yet it had comfortable seats and very friendly staff. They didn't take credit or debit cards so cash out before you go there. Inside it was decorated very old-school, the projection area for the movies even had the famous red curtain and all. It was like a trip back in time! to a time i hadn't been born probably... but nice! :D

We saw the movie Tree of Life and I'm sad to admit we didn't like it much. It was very bizarre mixure of reality versus surreal, If i'm allowed to describe it like that. It was the first time that I saw people leaving the theater, 3 couples left before the movie was finished, and I compleately understand why they did it.

In conclusion, Bath is a great city that needs to be visited. You will enjoy it :)

My Reviews

Accommodation

The Hotel. University of Bath, Woodland Court:

At first it was a bit confusing because there are two Accommodation service centers in the campus, and of course we went to the wrong one. After being redirected we found the Woodland court. very nice area with a lobby with free internet access through the computers there, you only needed to pay a small deposit fee for the card to access the computer and upon returning the card, you got your money back. Excellent service there. 

The room:

The room was spacious and the bathroom was very good too. It was very modern/university-like. There was a kitchen nearby where we could store food in the fridge or heat up a meal. On a funny note, you need to pass the key in order to lock the door of the room, Don't forget to do it!

The breakfast:

Sadly this place didn't include a breakfast, but it was easy to buy something at a Sainsbury and store in the uni for later use.

No tv:

There was a computer screen which we thought was a tv. It was one of those tv/computer screens but with no antenna. Naturally we tried everything to make it work and we went to see if in the lobby they could change the cable or do something about it. They said there were no Tv's in the rooms and they couldn't do much about it. On the bright side, there was a Common room just across the hallway and there we could watch tv. There were very few people in the area, so the tv was all for ourselves.

In the city

Stamp of approval:

Buses: From the university we only needed to take a bus to get downtown. We had two choices and both had a ticket that you could buy the return ticket as well and it was cheaper. Great for us!

Stamp of disapproval:

Roman Baths: It looked like a great place to visit, we saw it from above and it was quite nice, BUT there was a very, very long queue and we chose not to go. We were not going to spend 2 hours queuing for it.
Assembly rooms: We thought this would be a great place, we paid the entry fee and it was a complete disappointment. One of the very few rooms (and by very few I mean 4) was closed and the rest were just, empty rooms really. I expected some kind of setting so we could see how they were used before. Not worth it and totally Not recommended.