Bath, United Kingdom

Choo-choo Thomas coming, as Brady would say!  We set out on another weekend train adventure to Bath in our pursuit to ensure that we get out of London and see various parts of the United Kingdom.  Bath is known as a visiting spot for the who’s who of the UK, home to the Roman Bath Spas, residence of Jane Austen for many years and is known for excellent Christmas markets. 

We of course selected Bath for the Jane Austen bit.  Quote from Cory, “I’ve never heard of Jane Austen.”   I say, “She’s an author.”  Cory, “Oh yeah, she had something to do with Pride and Prejudice right?”  I really shouldn’t give Cory too hard of a time as although I have read a couple of her books, I certainly can’t tell you anything meaningful about the books.  Despite the lack of literary knowledge on our parts, we did make sure to get our picture taken with her outside of the museum. (Yes, I do have a black eye in the photo if anyone notices.  Going on 2 weeks of a black eye due to a Brady head collision.)   However, we couldn’t fit the tour into our busy schedules.   I will tell you that Miss Austen was quite the productive young lady.  She actually wrote 6 full novels, had 2 unfinished novels and countless other short pieces and most of them were written when she was in her teens, 20s.  Her life was cut very short due to what they believe to be Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 41.

In all seriousness, the primary place we wanted to visit was the Roman Baths.  Very cool to think that hundreds and hundreds of years ago the Roman’s worked out a sophisticated spa setup.  Despite living in a time full of hard manual labor and lack of modern conveniences, the people still made time for relaxation and spa treatments.  Brady was not too interested in learning about the Romans and keep insisting we go see the “BIG, HOT Swimming pool.”   We raced through the 2 hour self guided tour in a record 45 minutes.  Brady keep saying “Brady get in.  Let’s go swimming Mommy, Daddy.”  You are actually not allowed to touch the water, I think it’s a bit on the toxic side.  Fortunately we were able to keep Brady out of the water.

After the Roman Baths we visited the Bath Abbey.  Something pretty cool that they do during the Christmas season is have hourly 20 minute Christmas services.  We decided to attend and about 5 minutes before the service started Brady informed us that he needed to go poo-poo and proceeded to do so standing in the aisle.  The good news is he is still in diapers, the bad news is there were no restrooms in the Abbey and they were closing the huge doors to get in the church making it difficult to get out.  Brady and I snuck out, and managed to get back about 5 minutes into the service.  He then decided to announce very loudly that he needed his BANANA and needed to go get it out of the stroller.   Lesson learned, do not attempt to go to a church service without being properly prepared.  I guess what was I to expect from the little guy since he had nothing to read, play with or eat during the service.

We may get some boos from the crowd for this one, but Saturday night we opted for TGI Fridays for dinner.  Cory and I both enjoy our chain restaurants and are really missing US food.  The only US places that we have been since arriving in London have been Subway & McDonalds which don’t really count and Chipotle which of course is awesome.  When we saw the TGI Fridays we couldn’t resist.  It was AMAZING.  I think the amazingness partially goes back to us missing US food, but in all seriousness we had really good food and some of the best service we have had since arriving in the UK.  In general the people in Bath were quite friendly and helpful in comparison to London.  We had a 15 minute chat with a security guard who apparently is a huge Obama fan.  He was so excited for us to have Obama in office and is thinking that it will be really great for the US.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him I didn’t fully agree so we just played along and then chatted about the weather and the high cost of living in the UK.  (weather and cost of living are always good conversation bits).

Hotel fun after dinner.

On Sunday we enjoyed a few historical sites and then set back for home.  We had a nice weekend and crossed another UK city off the list!