Splish splash, we were goin' to Bath

In this episode, we watch some fields through a window, Mary stands in front of some rocks, and Tyler finally goes for a bath. 

We left early on Sunday to take the train from London to Bath, which is a delightful "small" (actually about 80,000 population) town settled in a valley created by several hills.  Our reason for going to Bath was three-fold: 1) we were told it has an "olde towne" feel, 2) it is the location of the only natural hot springs in the UK, and C) it was close enough to have bus tours to Stonehenge.

Side note: Trains are awesome.

Our trip from the train station to our bed and breakfast made us both want to die, as the train station was in the valley, our B&B was on one of the hills, and we were too cheap to get a taxi or bus ticket.

The view was nice, though.

During check-in, our host gave us lots of suggestions for things to see.  One of her suggestions that we managed to catch in time was a two-hour guided walking tour of the city.   We learned quite a lot about the development of Bath from Roman times through modern day.  Luckily our B&B had a nice garden to relax in, because we were tuckered out from the walking.

Circle-shaped buildings were apparently trendy for a while.

We took breakfast to-go the next morning and practically ran through town to get a bus tour to Stonehenge (we underestimated our walking distance).  Luckily, we got the last two open seats on the tour (next time, plan ahead).  The tour was very cool, with lots of interesting tidbits about the countryside on the drive there and back, and plenty of time to explore Stonehenge with an audio tour.

Aliens.

See? Not that big

Back in the city, we lunched on some local cuisine (pasties!) and headed to the only reason someone stuck a city in this valley: natural hot springs.  The springs have been used semi-regularly since the Romans, but gained much fame during the Victorian period, when it was very trendy and posh to visit Bath for a season and partake of its "healing" waters (any water is healing when you're not drinking it through lead pipes).

Not pictured: Health

The center of town has a nice historical site with the top half from the Victorian period and the bottom half the original Roman baths.

Many centuries of architecture

Right next to the bathhouse was the Bath Abbey, a beautiful old church.  For a small donation, we were able to wander around the inside and marvel at the beautiful fan vaulted ceiling and stained glass. 

Beautiful stonework

That's a lot of glass

Shiny.

Outside the Abbey.

We also took a walking comedy tour around the town with cheesy jokes and comedy magic tricks.  Not really pertinent to Bath, but enjoyable nonetheless.


Stay tuned for the next installment of Mary and Tyler: International Travelers where we head to Cardiff, Wales.