Wednesday 9th August
Our visits to Bath was not initially scheduled on this RTW trip. Our revised plan involved us leaving Bristol one day earlier than originally scheduled so that we could have an overnight in Bath. Hindsight is very clear and I should never have allocated as much time, maybe not any time, to Bristol.
We were pleased to see the sunshine this morning as that would make for more pleasant driving conditions. I still hadn’t overcome the stress of yesterday’s hedgerow driving in the rain and didn’t want any repeat! We made a brief stop at Castle Combe on the way, hoping to find a cafe for Mark, but there was only one man selling coffees out of his front door so we gave that a miss. It was the most picturesque Cotswolds village though and there were loads of other tourists visiting and taking photos.
Our accommodation for the one night in Bath was at The Abbey Hotel where I had chosen a room that came with the description ‘suitable for travelers with lots of luggage’ and that described us perfectly. We found our hotel and were able to drop off our bags so we then went on to have lunch and on to take a 2 pm free walking tour. Bath was very, very busy. It was something like being dropped into Saint Marks Square in Venice, on a sunny day. There were people everywhere. It was a lovely and festive atmosphere but very crowded. I asked one of the girls in a cafe if this was unusually busy, due to the fine weather, but she said that this was normal and that it’s always busy in Bath.
Our afternoon free walking tour was run by Bath’s Corp of Honorary Guides and it was very worthwhile. Our guide took us along the more heavily and, then, more lightly trodden streets of Bath and gave a great potted history of the area. This is an activity I would highly recommend if you’re ever in Bath and they run twice a day and you don’t need to book. The main item of interest that I picked up on the day dealt with the reign of the Georges in the Georgian period. Queen Anne died with no surviving children and so a a new monarch had to be found. Apparently 56 Catholic relatives were overlooked so as a Protestant could be installed and this ended up being George 1 who was from Hanover. He didn’t even speak much or any English and did not reside in the country so that is how the Constitutional Monarchy, that we have to this day, evolved. It evolved so as to cater for an absent Monarch!
The walking tour finished at around 4 pm and we then went back to the hotel so as to check in and get our room key. Our room was large and lovely and at complete odds with the Booking.com rating of 7.7. Remember, that tragic apartment in Liverpool was rated 9.4! You really do need to filter through all the aspects of a hotel you are after when searching accommodation and make sure you check the Google reviews as well. This hotel was in a fantastic location and was luxuriously comfortable for our one night stay and, most significantly, it had a kettle!
Our plan for the rest of the afternoon was to visit the Roman Baths but the time slots were sold out for the next hour so we decided to book a session for the following morning. We were both rather tired after a fairly full day so we went on to have an early dinner, opposite our hotel, and an early night.
Thursday 10th August
It was the most glorious sunny morning so Mark ventured out for a ride and I went on a walk. It was lovely to see the city in the early morning light and without the crowds. We had breakfast in the hotel, which was very good, before heading to visit The Roman Baths. We’d been here many years ago but there have been vast improvements with the presentation and tourist experience. Ticket entry comes with an audio guide and the commentary takes you on a one-way path through the Baths so it was rather well organized chaos as the Baths were VERY busy as they are very popular. Our audio guided visit took us two hours to complete and we emerged at 11.30 am which allowed just enough time to walk back to our hotel and make the 12 noon check out.
We had greatly enjoyed our short stay in Bath but we both wished that we had factored this visit in on our initial travel plans, and we also wished we had at least one more night here. Bath is beautiful and busy and is a most enjoyable place to visit. I would definitely suggest visitors tack on a visit to Bath if they’re ever in this part of the world and I would also advise to stay at The Abbey Hotel. We have an overnight at Heathrow tonight with an early morning flight to Paris on Friday where we pick up a car and drive 3 hrs up to Lille.
