Bath

The drive to Bath from London takes just over two hours. While most of that time is spent on the uninteresting motorway, once you turn off, the road to Bath offers sweeping countryside views around every turn. Crumbling stone walls in farms, hills patterned with grassy green patchwork and little towns that are merely more than a few houses thrown together. This area fulfils those typical imaginings most foreigners have of the beautiful rolling English countryside.



The town itself is also something special. Sandstone coloured historic terraces line tight streets, rather congested with traffic on a Saturday morning. We found a long term car park close to the town centre and sights that was reasonably priced. Then it was time to walk around, enjoy the shops and the sights. Unfortunately, not the weather. But one gets used to that after they have been in England a while.



One of the main reasons people come to Bath is to see the Roman Baths. They are very historic… unfortunately, entry is expensive and we were skint so we didn’t go in. We did take a peek for free by going in to the Pump Room area. There is also Bath Abbey, the Jane Austen Museum (anything with a picture of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in its logo has to be pretty good!), as well as lots and lots of shops and green spaces. There is also an indoor market hall with some cool shops, the river Avon, as well as a historic theatre. One of the great things about Bath is that all the sights are really well signposted, and you can easily walk between them without the need for a map.



One of the prettiest attractions is Royal Crescent, a curved set of terraced houses overlooking lovely gardens and the countryside. The Circus is also very impressive architecture.



After we had walked around Bath, we decided to take a drive up one of the hills where we were treated to a vista of the town. We also stumbled upon an old estate which had great views over the surrounding countryside.