travel dates: June 11-13, 2019
The city of Atlanta began life in 1837 as a stake driven into the ground, marking the endpoint of a proposed railroad connecting the southeast to the midwest. Homes and stores started to spring up around the stake, and the settlement was named Terminus, because that was exactly what it was supposed to be. But in 1845, before any trains had even made it to the tiny town, the name was changed to Atlanta–a shortened version of “Atlantica-Pacifica.”
Bath, on the other hand, is named Bath because there’s a (Roman) bath there.
You’ve got to admire a city that resists any kind of poetic renaming attempts, reasoning that it already has a perfectly serviceable and descriptive name to use.
If anything, Bath went the opposite direction with utilitarianism in naming. The city’s Roman name was Aquae Sulis, or “the waters of Sulis” after the local goddess Sulis Minerva.
We spent two nights in Bath after leaving London, and it was a truly enchanting place that all of us fell in love with.
I talked more about the Halcyon Hotel apartment we stayed at in this post; to sum up, we loved it, partially because of this view:
It was also in a great location, walking distance to pretty much everything. I recommend finding somewhere like that if you can, because driving in Bath is NO FUN. And parking is challenging, although there are several lots throughout town that offer short or long term parking.
We visited the Roman Baths on our first morning. They were the main reasons for stopping in Bath, and they didn’t disappoint. As with most every site we visited in England, they did a great job of keeping kids engaged (admittedly, this is probably a more amazing feat at the V&A than at the Roman Baths, which are already pretty fascinating for kids).
There was a kid-focused audio tour for Abe, which he very much enjoyed. There were several different audio tours to pick from, in fact. They had the standard one, one with Bill Bryson, and then ones that focused on specific aspects of the baths (an architecture one, and maybe a couple of others). The older kids listened to the standard one and I think also the Bill Bryson one. At least Ari did. He reported that Bill Bryson was a little grumpy in it.
Admission is £22.50 for adults, and you can get a family ticket for 2 parents and up to 4 kids for £62.10 (online prices include a 10% discount). Once you’re inside, you get your first view of the baths:
Before heading into the museum area, which is a mix of the excavated ruins of the baths and exhibits about them and about the town in Roman times. There are a number of characters who bring the story to life via hologram like images projected on screens.
You see the main bath again, this time up close on the lower level:
And explore several other rooms that have been uncovered:
There are some costumed interpreters, too….not a ton on the day we were there; I would guess there are more at busier times:
At the very end, there’s a fountain where you can taste the water. It is…not very yummy:
After the baths, we went back to the apartment for lunch and then I bought a new camera at the camera shop in town, because of my how old camera had died back in London. An exchange at the camera store nicely encapsulated my perception of the British: the (very nice! very helpful!) clerk at the camera store asked me some polite question about how our trip was going, and I, although not usually confessional with strangers, was right in the middle of the whole lost license/driving in England/Dave’s mom being sick and not making the trip/lost credit card string of fiascos, so I said something vague about how it had been good but not without complications….then immediately regretted it as the poor guy looked terribly uncomfortable and just sort of smiled awkwardly at me, clearly completely unequipped to participate in any sort of conversation about my problems. Then we went back to talking about my camera purchase and all was well.
So far, my very limited international travel experiences suggest that people tend to live up to the reputation their country has. So Canadians=EXTREMELY friendly and the British=SUPER polite but also kind of distant. All of which makes me suspect/worry that Americans are, in fact, SO VERY LOUD. And we did find the English eerily quiet–mostly on public transportation–to the point where I felt like we were being terribly rude when we spoke in (what I think of as) normal tones. And, of course, it doesn’t help that there are six of us, so we tend to make some commotion anywhere we go.
Anyway.
After lunch, armed with my brand new camera, we did our second Treasure Trail of the trip. I talked more about these in my London post, but basically it’s a scavenger hunt that takes you all over a city or area of a city, exploring lots of little hidden places you’d likely never find on your own. And Bath is a city made for wandering, so this was the perfect way to spend some time seeing it with a little bit of guidance.
Our second day we checked out No. 1 Royal Crescent, a house museum depicting life in Bath in the late 18th century.
Admission is £10.60 for adults; family tickets (2 adults and up to 4 children) £26.20. There’s an introductory film and then a self-guided tour of the house, with guides available in each room to tell you about what you’re looking at. They have a scavenger hunt for younger kids with a small prize at the end for completing it.
We had better luck with restaurants in Bath than in London, for whatever reason. The night we got there, we ate at Slug & Lettuce, which was right next door to our apartment and therefore a very attractive option on an evening when we were exhausted from the trauma of driving in Bath. Slug & Lettuce is a chain, which made Ari a bit resistant to going there, but we all liked it and found the food good and the prices very reasonable.
But we were most excited about eating at Cosy Club. When Gus was little, he had a long running club called “the comfy cozy club,” and all of us were regularly invited to attend meetings. I don’t remember exactly what happened in the meetings, but there were a lot of comfy pillows involved. So when we discovered a restaurant by the same name in Bath, we knew we had to check it out. And it turned out to be a great pick that we all would have enjoyed even if it had had a different name. Restaurants in Bath are so pretty. Everything in Bath is so pretty!
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