If not an old shoe, it felt like a familiar shoe when I completed my trip to England by pulling out my Oyster prepaid card and swiping it to enter the Underground to board a Picadilly Line train to Padington. Everything had gone smoothly right down to sleeping which I forced myself to do for several hours in transit. When I strolled off the plane to Customs it felt like the start of a great day; I wasn’t dragging and cursing life. A good first stride in to a familiar and comfortable shoe.
Not wanting to schlep around my suitcase all day, I made my first stop my hostel in Bristol where I checked in and stored my bag in a locker. Then, back on the train for a 10 minute ride back to Bath, a town I’ve previously visited and been blown away by. It has strong Roman influences viewable even today. However, this visit would be different. My plan was to avoid the town’s key feature (the Roman baths) and take in the rest of what was in and around the once-walled city.
My first stop was the tourist information office where they provided me with a walking tour map. With that I set off on my way to explore. So what is there to be seen? A crazy number of interesting sites, among them:
– Jane Austin’s home
– the Royal Crescent
– medieval walls and gates
– the Circus
– Pulteney Bridge
– River Avon
– the Parade Gardens
– Baths Abbey
This place is tight! So much in so little space. It’s a seriously impressive ancient city and I can see why it does a brisk tourist trade. They really do a good job of maintaining the buildings and streets and keep the town very pedestrian-friendly.
By day’s end, where “day” began 3,500 miles away in a different country, I found three site closed in Bath that I’d still like to visit. The postal museum is the site where the first postage stamp was made, the Penny Black of 1840. The Museum of Bath at Work consolidates into one building all the key trades practiced in Bath over the centuries. The Building of Bath Collection shows how the Roman Baths were constructed.
Gosh, I wonder if I can squeeze them in after Stonehenge tomorrow?!
Think I’ll give it a try!
by 
