{"id":4523,"date":"2004-05-13T20:05:20","date_gmt":"2004-05-14T03:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/?p=4523"},"modified":"2010-08-08T06:41:49","modified_gmt":"2010-08-08T13:41:49","slug":"bath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alephnaught.com\/Blog\/2004\/05\/13\/bath\/","title":{"rendered":"Bath"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Well, Aviva is 50 today – guess she can join AARP finally. We got up (was Aviva a little slower?), ate and got to the Paddington train station to catch first class seats to Bath. I started reading a book about The Troubles<\/span>, by Brian Feeney, in Northern Ireland that Aviva bought in Dublin.<\/p>\n

We got off the train 1 1\/2 hour later, bought a pair of tickets for a bus tour and took off on a double-decker around Bath.<\/p>\n

\n

\"This<\/a>

This was our ticket for the bus tour<\/p><\/div>\n

We got off at the shopping area and stopped to pet a Jack Russell Terrier that was really cute – dark brown! We walked over to the Abbey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

\"A<\/a>

A side view of the Abbey in Bath<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A detail from a memorial in the interior wall of the Abbey<\/p><\/div>\n

\"One<\/a>

One of the ends of the Abbey<\/p><\/div>\n

\"An<\/a>

An exterior detail from the Abbey<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\"Another<\/a>

Another memorial detail from a side interior wall of the Abbey<\/p><\/div>\n

The Abbey was constructed between 1499 and 1611. The side walls inside are covered with memorials for people buried around the Abbey. The roof is quite amazing – its a Victorian reconstruction of a Tudor fan-style ceiling.<\/p>\n

\n

\"A<\/a>

A timeline copied from the brochure for the Abbey<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A view of the fan-style ceiling in the Abbey<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A view of the fan-style ceiling in the Abbey<\/p><\/div>\n

There is a large pipe organ inside the Abbey. There are also a lot of nice stained glass windows inside.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Stained<\/a>

Stained glass windows in the Abbey<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Stained<\/a>

Stained glass windows in the Abbey<\/p><\/div>\n

\"And<\/a>

And here's the pipe organ<\/p><\/div>\n

Next we walked over to the Baths<\/a>, which gives the city its name. These baths go back to pre-Roman times, where early Britons treated the warm waters as a religious center. The Romans built a complex around the hot spring. It was rediscovered in Victorian times and rebuilt\/restored\/built anew then. There are continuing attempts to open a new spa near the spring.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Here's<\/a>

Here's Aviva standing in front of the baths - the lower part goes back to Roman times <\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A view of the baths from the upper level<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The centerpiece of the pediment of the temple at the baths<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The ticket for the Baths in Bath (front)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The ticket for the Baths in Bath (back)<\/p><\/div>\n

We shopped and snacked. We found the Green Street House, which is a spa that was featured on the BBC just the night before – turns out the owners are two women who are putting their life’s savings into the business, and the BBC was following their efforts. I got to meet the owners and talk with them briefly – they were very nice. If we’d had time I would have gotten a massage (always a good idea on a vacation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

\n

\"The<\/a>

The back of the brochure for Green Street House in Bath<\/p><\/div><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

We got back on the bus and drove over to Pulteney Street – its a famous street in Bath for shopping and strolling. At the end is Pulteney Bridge<\/a>, which is the only other bridge in Europe with shops on it (the Ponte Vechio Florence is the other; this bridge was modeled slightly after that bridge).<\/p>\n

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\"Pulteney<\/a>

Pulteney Bridge - the stores are in the windowed areas<\/p><\/div>\n

We strolled through Bath to the train station. We asked a cabbie for a suggestion for dinner – he offered up Woods, which is a small restaurant just off the Circus, a circular housing and office complex. The food was very good – we wanted a nice dinner to celebrate Aviva’s 50th birthday and she got one!<\/p>\n

\n

\"The<\/a>

The Woods Restaurant<\/p><\/div>\n

We got a cab back to the station and had to wait – we missed the 19:22 train and had to kick around til the 20:41. So, we hit an internet cafe (I sent an email to the team at work there); we talked with a young woman from Dallas, TX who was spending two weeks with her family from Taiwan in England. We walked around some more.<\/p>\n

\n

\"And<\/a>

And here's Aviva, at 50, trying to figure out how to get out!<\/p><\/div>\n

We waited at the train station – our train was delayed on arrival at the station 10 minutes. Then, we had to sit on the train at the first two stops – a the second stop, we had to change trains because they were having problems with the hydraulic system, so we didn’t get back to London til 23:00. We caught yet another cab and got to our hotel – we crashed quickly!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\nTranslate<\/span><\/a>\"\"\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, Aviva is 50 today – guess she can join AARP finally. We got up (was Aviva a little slower?), ate and got to the Paddington train station to catch first class seats to Bath. I started reading a book about The Troubles, by Brian Feeney, in Northern Ireland that Aviva bought in Dublin. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[833,823,143],"tags":[2392,827,834],"class_list":["post-4523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bath","category-england","category-travel-foreign","tag-bath","tag-dublin-london-2004","tag-united-kingdom"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t