Bath

We caught the 11:45 to King's Cross (with not that much time to spare), and were off to Bath. I was a bit late getting out of craft group, and I had not really thought about how long it would take on our bikes to get to the station.  But we made it, and had seats on the express, so that was what mattered.

 We caught the Hammersmith line to Paddington with plenty of time to spare.

It really is a lovely station. We wandered a bit, buying sandwiches, and looking into the London 2012 Olympics shop while we waited for them to post a platform number.  We had seats reserved on this train, which was probably a good thing, it was mostly full.

Alex got right to work. The reason for our trip is a talk he is giving on Friday in Bristol, so this is a working trip, as well as sightseeing.

The sun was out when we arrived, and Bath really is lovely.

This is the Pulteney Bridge, with shops right across it. We went across it to get to our hotel, which is not too far down Great Pulteney Street.

A nice place, even if our room is in the basement (under the dinning room, as we discovered this morning!) We checked in and then went back out right away to walk around while things were still open.

 

We saw these in several parts of the city. They are advertisements for Banana Republic, and they are just a waste of bike racks! I did not see so many full bike racks here, so maybe they are not needed, but it does seem silly.

 We went into the Bath Abbey, which is lovely.

One of the things I love about Bath is how many places I can remember from Jane Austen books. Who else knows who lived here?

 The street itself is not particularly Georgian now, full of regular shops.

The Jane Austen Centre is new, I think, since I was last here. Or maybe I was not such an avid Austen fan then. It was closed by the time we got up the hill, but we have it on our list for Saturday.

The Circus.

The Crescent

Alex had the good camera, check his Flickr stream for more.

The Abbey looked great lit up at night. It is strange to think that the people who built it could never have seen it like this.

We had dinner at a pizza place called the Real Italian Pizza Company. Nice, but a bit empty. Which was fine, since they were training a new member of staff, and that took plenty of explaining.

We ended the evening at the Coeur de Lion, famous for being the smallest pub in Bath.

I downloaded Persuasion for my iPad, and read it for the rest of the evening once we got back to the hotel.

Comments

[Coralie]

Hi, I just told Chris Blair that you are in Bath and he said you should "go to the Pump Room for tea, particularly if they have a string quartet playing". Love, Coralie

[Christy]

Just finished judging history day. Gray to see so many Casti girls!! There was one in my group about Charles I. Connections everywhere. :) I have been busy with reading the entries, grading and comment cards so haven't been caught up. Thanks for all the fun.