Your business card is your name: Bath It is a city that the Romans conceived, designed and built in the year 52 for relaxation and enjoyment. Something they did with little clothing, naked and soaking in natural hot water baths. Outside of those magnificent ancient thermal baths that are preserved and that can be visited, but not used, there is a city of Georgian architecture, made of honey-colored and elegant stone, crossed by the Avon. River that crosses, among others, the Pulteney Bridge; one of the few in the world with premises inside.
Bath, in the west of England – and neighboring Bristol, about 20 kilometers apart – is a small, quiet, spa city. Quiet today, before its chronological line was shaped like saw teeth due to the ups and downs suffered throughout its ancient history; architectural and religious reforms, social conflicts and two world wars, among other episodes. The authors Jane Austen and Mary Shelley spent some years of their lives here and UNESCO has found plenty of reasons to recognize its Roman heritage; the thermal baths, their Georgian architecture; buildings such as The Circus and The Royal Crescent, symbols of a splendid 18th century, and their natural surroundings.
10.11 By train from Bristol
To Bath Spa (1) It can be reached in an hour and a half by train from London Paddington station and in 15 minutes from Temple Meads station in Bristol, a city where there is also an airport. The frequency of trains is high and ticket prices are about 40 euros if traveling from London and about 10 euros from Bristol.
The Roman Baths in Bath (2) They are what today’s spas aspire to be. It is a dual complex in which there is room for the mundane and the sacred. In addition to relaxing by taking a hot bath, exercising in the gym and/or talking, the site worshiped the goddess Sulis Minerva. Some bathrooms are unique due to their size and the hot water that continues to flow. The visit that can be made today—without using the pools—follows a route that in the past it was possible for users of said bath to take: there are air-conditioned rooms, massage rooms, jacuzzis, a caldarium and a large hot water pool. Once the visit is over, anyone who still wants a therapeutic bath can go to the modern installation of Thermae Bath Spa (3)on the roof of a building near the Roman baths and with views of the entire city.
12.00 Bath Abbey
During the tour of the Roman baths, bath abbey (4) is seen. There is no way to hide this 16th century Gothic temple, which was previously an Anglo-Saxon church and later a Norman cathedral; always located around the old city wall. Once inside, its stained glass windows and the fan vault that covers the central nave of the abbey capture attention. The good thing about visiting it is that one can be amazed when contemplating it.
13.00 A typical bite
In Bath there are a large number of restaurants to eat at. If you want to opt for a historical one, Sally Buns (5) it’s a good option. It is a tea room that also serves food, and is located in one of the oldest houses in the city, dating back to 1680. It has a museum kitchen, the same one where a legendary baker, Sally Lunn, escaped from France because he was a Huguenot, he baked the first Bath Bunn—a regional specialty that is like a kind of roll or bun made with yeast based on milk and sugar.
14.30 A traveler and two writers
Each of the three museums below are linked to a person: Sir William Holburne, Jane Austen and Mary Shelley. The Holburne Museum (6) It is the work of Sir William Holburne, a nobleman who was going to be a sailor, but when his older brother died he inherited the family title and a curious fortune. Thus he decided to travel to Italy, the Alps and the Netherlands, which awakened in him a taste for collecting: sculptures, paintings, porcelain, silver, etc. He took care of the collection that he put together together with his unmarried sisters; he did not marry either. Before dying he donated this collection to the city. The Jane Austen Center (7) It is associated with the writer of the same name, author of books inspired by the Georgian era and who portrayed high society and the British middle class. The center in question is located in a Georgian-style house where she lived. In the building next door is the house of frankenstein (8): a space to learn about the world of the writer Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, a novel he began writing in Bath in the winter of 1816-17.
16.00 Work of the Woods
The Circus (9) It is a construction designed by architect John Wood and completed by his son in 1768. The complex in question is three curved segments of semi-detached houses that form a circle with three entrances. From a drone view, The Circus shows a key-shaped figure, a Masonic symbol, something that is often repeated in Wood’s buildings. If you look closely at the facades of the houses you can distinguish snakes, acorns and nautical symbols. It was no secret that the architect was interested in druids and prehistoric stone circles, like Stonehenge, from which he took his diameter for The Circus.
Related to and very close to this resort, The Royal Crescent (10) It is a set of elegant three-story homes arranged in the shape of a half-moon in front of a green meadow that gives way to the Royal Victoria Park (eleven). Its architect was also John Wood, Jr. In one of its 30 houses there is a museum dedicated to the daily life of the time and a five-star hotel, The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa.
17.30 A Tim Burton-style cemetery
South of Royal Victoria Park, across the River Avon, is St. James Cemetery (12). A cemetery inaugurated in 1861 that today is delimited by a main street, a school and train tracks. It has a gothic appearance, typical of the universe of film director Tim Burton. In it there is a chapel surrounded by a green mound in which the graves are located, many of them with the tombstones half fallen and covered with grass that grows without government. Those that stand straight look like sun loungers without umbrellas. In 1942 the cemetery suffered the damage of a bombing during World War II.
19.30 A fish and off to bed to read Jane Austen
The Scallop Shell (13) It is a grilled fish and seafood restaurant, accompanied by fries, without the splash of vinegar that they usually add in many places in the United Kingdom. Without being in Galicia, the flavor of their zamburiñas is very similar. And so with everything. That its manager is a native married to a woman from Cádiz gives guarantees. Before going to sleep, for example, The Francis Hotell (14)very close to The Circus, it is not a bad idea to read a few pages of Jane Austen and thus put into context what has been seen during the day.
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