The City Formally Known as Aquaes Sulis

For only 25 pounds I was able to purchase a round day trip to Bath by train. It was worth every penny, as the City of Bath is quite a remarkable and beautiful city. I looked into various tours before hand, and eventually purchased a tour from Tourist Tracks, which happened to be two different walking tours of Bath (total of 5 pounds, really cheap!) that took me to most of the attractions in the city centre. If you ever have the chance to go to Bath and would prefer to walk the city centre rather than taking one of the guided tour buses, or are a little adventurous, I would highly recommend the tour. Just purchase the MP3 from Tourist Tracks (through PayPal) and they will send you a link to download the tracks and two maps of the routes.

Before starting the first tour, I grabbed a chance to see Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths. Bath Abbey is considered on of the last great Gothic abbeys in Britain, complete with the amazing architecture. The East Window on the opposite end of the abbey from where you enter depicts the entire story of Jesus. Needless to say, it’s massive. Connected to the abbey (and underground) is a little museum that displayed the abbey’s past, even pieces of the previous abbeys that rested on the area before the current one.

The Roman Baths was worth the 9.50 entrance fee (student). The history dates back over 2000 years, and much of the uncovered ruins are still in their original spot. It took a bit of time to get through the museum, and sometimes I did get bored of the audio tour as it tended to drag on while the audio points were only metres apart, but seeing over 2000 years of history and artifacts was completely astonishing. Included in the ticket they gave you a free tasting of the filtered bath water, which was supposed to have healing abilities, but it left you with a bitter and rather disturbing after taste.

For Bath Abbey photos click here.
Roman Baths Photos click here.

The first tour took me around the Abbey and the Roman Baths, past the Royal Theatre and to the Royal Crescent just off of the Royal Avenue. From the Royal Crescent I went to the Circus, and back down to the Abbey. More details on the various locations are given with the photos from the link below.

For photos from the first tour please click here.

The second tour took me across the River Avon, up to the Kennet and Avon Canal, down to Sydney Gardens, past the Holbourne Art Museum, down Great Pulteney Street and Pulteney Bridge and back to the Abbey. This one felt longer and more strenuous than the first, mostly from the long walk along the canal. Though it was incredibly peaceful, the trail was muddy and slippery, while walking under the bridges became a pain since the puddles often took up most of the path. The bottoms of my blue jeans were brown by the time I got to Sydney Gardens.

For Photos from the second tour please click here.

If you ever want to see a city with culture, history and amazing Georgian, Gothic and Roman architecture, I highly recommend Bath. Stonehenge is also really close, but I did not get a chance to see that sight this time around. As for the ride back into London, due to a technical fault on the train, we were not able to reach full speed on the tracks. When the train came to Bath it was 25 minutes late. By the time we got to London it was 48 minutes late.

Links to the photos will be up in a moment, just as soon as I get the photos on the internet in the first place...