28/10/08
We wake up very early today to continue the exploration of Bath city since we will only be here till afternoon. Quickly took our breakfast at the café, and started our journey. The weather was very cold and very misty also… Maybe it is still early and the streets is almost deserted..
I got a free map from the hotel last night and it made us easier to find the locations. We first walk along George streets to the Circus, but ended up in the Royal Crescent. The Royal crescent of Bath is actually the town municipal office built in half a circle.. There is a special features about the Building in Bath, the basement level is used as office, the ground one are usually shops and the 1st and 2nd storey is house. And we gotta know from some advertisement of property agencies, it cost £300k..The road got abit confused here as we keep on circle around the housing area. We at last manage to walk out of the maze to The Queen’s square. The Queen square is a park builds a monument to commemorate the 25th years of Reign for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The weather is really cold and we spotted some frost on the grass in the Garden.
We went to another place call The Circus; The Circus is the similar building built in a full circle like Royal Crescent. From there, we drop a visit to the museum of Costume, a museum stored all kinds of costume from the corsets to the futuristic costume. We didn’t pay for a visit inside of course….
We continue or walk to pass though the Royal Theatre and then stop at the Gothic Bath Abbey.
We enter to the Abbey as soon as it opens at 9 am, No one was there and it is not prohibited to take any photos.. So, we have the abbey all by ourselves to explore. Bath Abbey is the tallest building in Bath. It is where the first King was crowned and has over 1600 years of History. The interior of the abbey is just so beautifully decorated with huge stained glass window… I really adore stained glass window..
As usual, there are tombs of some Kings…. The choir area too is nice… I think the photo describe better than words.
They actually expect a donation of £2.5 for up keeping of the abbey.. But, again we didn’t pay!!! We are so cheapskate…
We then continue our walk to the Pulteney Bridge on the River Avon. The Pulteney Bridge is an ornate stone bridge crossing The River Avon of Bath. Completed in year I773, its one of the four bridge in the world with shops across the full span on both side. The view of Pulteney Bridge with its three classical arches spanning the width of the Avon just above Pulteney Weir is synonymous with Bath.
Bath is a small town unlike London where you can actually explore the whole town by foot.. We finished explore the whole Bath town left only the landmark of Bath, The Roman Bath! We have to check out from Hostel to avoid extra charges, and carry our small but heavy luggage with us.
Entrance ticket to Roman Bath is not cheap either, and adult entry cost £10.50. The Roman Bath is actually a thermal spring used as center of public bathing and socialization by the Romans. The Roman bath is the only Hot springs in Britain and was believed to discover by King Bladud and his swine. Again, you’ll be given an audio guide upon entering to the Bath complex and DIY on all the information and histories of The Roman Bath.
The building is 2 storey high, the upper level is where the Terrance over looking the Great Bath located. On the upper level of the Bath Spa, you will see many ancient artifacts for example like the statues of god and goddess, offerings to the god that the ancient Romans thrown into the sacred spring, coffins etc…
At the center of the site is the Sacred Spring. The hot water in the Great bath rose from here. It is closed for public visit; you can only peek on a small window to look at the Sacred Spring. A Temple was built next to the spring dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva, a deity with healing powers.
This magnificent centerpiece of the Roman baths is a pool, lined with 45 sheets of lead, and filled with hot spa water. It once stood in an enormous barrel-vaulted hall that rose to a height of 40 metres..The bath is 1.6 meters deep which is ideal for bathing and has steps leading down on all sides. The management has prohibited the tourist to touch the water as it is untreated since thousand years ago… but out of curiosity, of course I touch it!!!! It is warm… and it will left some sticky yellowish mud like thing on your finger… hope its not poisonous! Of course its not, I believe many people will do like me… The more you warn people not to touch it, the more curiosity it builds to people.
There is a restaurant named The Pump Room in The Roman Bath. Each entry to the Roman Baths are entitle to a glass of free hot spa water… I doubted if it is the real spa water, it is just some salty warm water flow from a fountain in Restaurant… But anyway, it’s a free thing; better believe it as real hot spa water.
It is about 2 something when we finished at the last attraction of Bath. Can’t bear with the heavy luggage after a few hours walk, we choose to sit down at the bench just in front of The Roman Bath. Overlooking the busy street of Bath… There are people playing with some kind of circus fire tricks, playing flute just to ask for some donations, families, couples walking on the streets…
The weather is chilling, so we decided to get a steaming hot dog. The feeling is just so nice to gulp a mouthful of steaming hot food in the cold weather! 100% satisfaction…. It is still some time to go before we catch our next train to go back to London… We take a walk at Bath city’s shopping street, New Bond Street! There are so many nice boutiques here… River Island, Top shop, Dorothy Perkins, Debenhams, H & M, New look… Saw a very nice shirt from Burton that I wanted to buy for BB, but thinking that I need to bring along that shirt to travel around Paris, nvm…I have 2 days of shopping in London when I am back from Paris.
We again bought some food from Marks & Spencer to eat on the train journey back.. Marks & Spencer is not something very branded only rich people can afford back in Malaysia… Our train travel back to Waterloo station London start at 4.04pm and reaches London at 6.45pm. We have some personal matters to settle before going on the Eurolines bus to Paris. Our Eurolines Bus that travel to Paris will depart at 10pm, and reach Paris at 5am the next day, the reason why to travel overnight on bus is to save on a night accommodation! We have to check in with our passport and ticket at the ticket counter… There is a long queue for it and even the night bus is full!
Boarded the bus and there we’ll be leaving UK and starting our adventures into the French Land! The bus stop at the Dover port for a custom check, we all have to get down to get our passport stamp, standing in the midnight of winter in port is really no joke, I am shivering until I get back in the bus…The bus then drive onto a P & O Ferry that bring us across the ocean to France… I never knew I’ll have a chance to travel to France via the sea, Yeah!!!! But what we can do is rest ourselves on the high-class deck; the journey took about 1 hr 15 minutes until we reach the Calais Port of France…. We get back into the bus and continue all the way to Paris… Sleep all the way……
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