Taking the waters in Bath

Next stop on the study tour is Bath.

The weather puts on a gorgeous day for us so that the local bath stone takes on a golden glow as we drive into town.

Our hotel is uphill from town - about a 15 minute walk in, possibly longer for me on the walk back as it is quite steep.

First stop is the Roman baths. The exhibit here is really well put together. You get an audio guide as part of the entry fee and there are lots of large projections showing how the Romans would actually have used the baths - also a Bill Bryson commentary option for some areas. I found it fascinating and well worth a visit.

Right next door is the pump room. Although I couldn't quite face the 22.95  (around $50) per head for the full afternoon tea (just call me 's Stingypants) we managed to have a nice afternoon tea with live chamber music in the background. After so many years reading Georgette Heye novels set in Regency Bath - how could I resist!

Just a few streets away the Assembly rooms have been restored. We didn't go to the costume museum which is in the same building - but I loved looking at the a actual rooms where so many scenes I had read had been set.

Bath was a lovely town to walk through and seemed to be filled with lots of shops and cafes that we wished we had time to explore.  We all wish that we had left Cardiff sooner and spent longer in Bath.

To finish the evening off - the pub up the road from the hotel serves an excellent meal. We have it pretty much to ourselves. We also turn out to be the only guests at the hotel that night - in spite of the insistence from the guy who checked us in that we move the car over to allow more room for others to park. Oh well.