Saturday, Jan 13, 2024 🙂

I am currently studying abroad in London and with that, I am trying to make the very most of my 4 months here in the UK and Europe. To begin on this, my friends and I decided to take a day trip to Bath, England; a place that quickly became incredibly interesting and beautiful to us. Below I will highlight some key details of our day trip for those who wish to see the city through my eyes or take it as inspiration to eventually see it through their own.

I did lots of research and planning on my own because of how briefly we’d be encountering Bath, but I found this to be a great way to build excitement for the trip and foster a deeper connection to the city as well. Bath is so incredibly rich in history so I really recommend doing research if you plan on visiting! They have a great, extremely comprehensive tourism site that I’ll link here.

Sally Lunn’s Historic Eating House

Our train arrived in Bath at 9:50 a.m. and we were sitting in Sally Lunn’s Historic Eating House at 10:00 a.m. when it opened. The restaurant and museum is famous for their “Sally Lunn Bun” made with a recipe from the 1600’s. As any good Englishwoman would, all six of us got a Sally Lunn Bun and tea. The restaurant’s placement inside of the oldest house in Bath (1482, to be exact), combined with the world famous buns that we were served made this a wonderful kick off to our day. 

Roman baths

Visiting the Roman Baths was a no-brainer and to say it was a highlight of the day would be an understatement. At just £20 for a tour of the Baths, ruins, interactive museum and incredibly comprehensive audio tour, this experience was beyond worth the sticker price. Walking around the museum and baths, trying to absorb the plethora of fascinating information and history in one of the best-preserved Roman remains in the world was so incredibly enriching. 

Vintage markets/shopping through the city center

We did a decent amount of aimless walking around, just going in and out of cute stores that caught our eyes. One of our stops was Fudge Kitchen, where we were given warm samples and watched the bakers make the fudge right in front of us! This was really cool and delicious. We didn’t have much luck with any of the stores, but it was great walking through the open air markets as well that they hold every Saturday. Fun fact: Bath is home to the first recorded farmers market.

Prior Park

Another “must do” in Bath was walking through Prior Park! Prior Park is a beautiful landscape garden with one of four Palladian bridges in the world, dating back to the 18th century. Entry to the park is about £10, but we ended up just walking around the outskirts of the park and viewing the Palladian bridge from about 100-feet away because we couldn’t find the entrance and were in a time crunch. This was just as great as we walked past a sheep farm, ogled the bridge and hiked up a little hill that revealed a stunning Sound of Music-esque grassy field.

Tea with Jane Austen

Leaving the luxurious field behind us, we booked it to our reservation at the Jane Austen Centre’s Regency Tea Room for “Tea with Mr. Darcy.” Here we enjoyed refillable tea and an assortment of pastries. Jane Austen is dubbed as “Bath’s most famous resident” and so we felt that we just had to honor her by breaking metaphorical bread (tea) in a place dedicated to her legacy.

The Bath Cider House

We ended our day at the Bath Cider House where we got drinks, watched a football match and played Uno (thanks Mom) while waiting for our bus back to London. It was great to close off the day in this atmosphere immersed in modern culture after learning so much about the historic culture of Bath.

Honorable mentions:

I don’t believe in regrets, but if we had a bit more time in Bath, there are a few more things I would have liked to check off. Here they are:

• Herschel Museum of History – In 1781, William Herschel discovered Uranus from a homemade telescope in his home that has since been transformed into the Herschel Museum of History. This was an experience that I really would have loved to partake in, but time had other plans.
• The Holburne Museum – A hotel transformed into a museum filled with sculptures, porcelain art, renaissance paintings and the former ballroom, laid out for a banquet.
• Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein – Mary Shelley wrote much of Frankenstein, the first science fiction book ever written, in Bath. The museum offers an interactive experience detailing the iconic book which I believe to be a very fun and interesting thing to take part in

Takeaways:

• Wear comfy shoes! The buses seemed to be pretty easy but we ended up walking everywhere out of convenience so plan accordingly!
• People watching and just walking around the city and trails was so rewarding! There were so many interesting street performers and cute dogs in the city center. There are so many options for going through this city cheaply. 
• The people were not incredibly hospitable. I understand that this isn’t a large issue for everyone, but this was sad for me coming from a tourist town myself and placing such high value on human connection and (safe) conversations with strangers. Was I upset that no one we passed on the hike returned my greetings? Yes. Will I live? Also, yes.

Bath is a very special place and I feel so fortunate to know that after a quick 8 hours and 20,00 steps completed on the other side of England. It was a great day in good company, with rich history and a charming city. It’s a wonderful thing to have the opportunity to discover another little corner of the world, and I can’t wait to share where my travels take me next! Cheerio!