Day 24 – A day out in Bath

Today was spent in the historic city of Bath. Bath has origins back to at least 50 AD. Kylie decided to drive to a park & ride car park and get a bus in. So much easier than trying to find somewhere to park in Bath as there is nowhere really to park.  Such a busy place, mainly with tourists!  When we got off the bus, we saw the sign for the Jane Austen centre so we thought we’d hit that first up.  The centre had the history of Jane Austen’s brief life in Bath.  Firstly a lady gave us a talk which explained Jane’s life and the various residences she lived at.  Then we went down to look at the displays of dress during that period. Also there was a short movie that we watched which went into detail on her life in Bath and her opinion of the city changed from a good opinion in her first book, Northanger Abbey, to

her bad opinion and hate of the city in her last book, Persuasion.  These opinions are greatly reflected in her writing style in both books.  Whilst looking through the exhibitions one of the ladies working there was sitting down doing cross-stitch, of course I had to stop to chat.  All staff there where period costume as well, anyhow this lady asked if Kylie and I were mother and daughter!!!  I quickly rectified this, much to the amusement
of Kylie, this proves my case for not wanting to be grey haired yet!!!!

When we finished in the Jane Austen centre we walked around to the Assembly rooms nearby. Unfortunately they were closed for a wedding so we did not get to see the chandeliers that are worth around £1,000,000 each!  They have weddings every day over here, not just the weekends like in Aus.

We decided not to go into the baths and also refrained from trying the ‘healing’ waters which apparently taste quite foul. There was a Big Bus tour here, so we bought tickets for it as it is a great way to see the city as it is very big and hilly. It is a very busy city. When the city tour finished, we changed buses to do the skyline tour. We sat on the top deck as per usual, but had to be careful of the low lying tree branches, I got hit a few times when not paying attention. 

Next stop was Prior Park, which is owned by National Trust. The original homestead  is a massive house on top of the hill which is now a Catholic school. Kylie and myself walked the gardens and took photos of the Bath Skyline. At the bottom of the gardens was a Palladian bridge which is one of only four built. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/priorpark/