Bath (Tuesday):
Monday night we took a night ferry from France to England. It was great to travel while you slept – you didn’t have to do anything. When we woke up in the morning we were getting ready to dock and we were off for another full day of exploring.
We started our exploring England in Bath. This really is a fun little town with lots of fun European shops on all the streets. And if you are into Jane Austen genre, this is a perfect place! We started out with touring the Assembly and Costume Museum. If you remember from some of Jane Austen’s books the characters (or people from the Regency period) would go to the Assembly for dances. The Costume Museum part of it basically showed how fashion had changed through the years . . . comparing and contrasting the styles. My favorite of all were the empire waist dresses from the Regency period. I think they are so elegant.
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We toured ‘No. 1 Royal Crescent Museum.’ The crescent is actually a row of townhomes or row houses side by side in a crescent shape. The museum is set up like a typical aristocrat’s summer/winter home in bath would have been in the late 18th century. We learned many little tid-bits there. Did you know that women would shave off their eyebrows and glue mouse hair on with fish glue for their eyebrows?! Every wonder why woman started using beauty marks? They used them to cover up scars on their faces from small pox. Ah, the price you pay for ‘beauty.’
You can’t visit Bath and not go to the ‘Jane Austen Centre.’ It was neat to learn about who Jane Austen really was, her family, and the time she lived in. It’s amazing that even though Jane died at the age of 41, she has left so many wonderful classical books that are revered generation after generation. Such a great talent! It will be neat to read and watch the movies of “Persuasion” and “Northanger Abbey” as both were set in Bath. We also learned of a recent BBC movie that came out about Jane Austen called “Miss Austen Regrets.” I was anxious to add that to my Netflix queue as well.
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When we walked into the gift shop after the tour it was a girl’s paradise with books, movies, gloves, pictures, etc. Then above the cashier’s desk there was a framed picture of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy and the price attached said “£ Priceless” – we debated about getting one for our bedside tables, but what would our husbands think?! If you haven’t read, “Austenland” by Shannon Hale, read it. You’ll understand more of the significance of that – it was great!
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We were able to tour the Roman baths as well. I was amazed that these were thought to have been healing. They were green and smelled strongly of sulpher. There were even signs telling people to not even touch the water.
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To end our day in Bath we ate dinner at Sally Lunns Resturant, which is said to be the oldest house in Bath. I actually have a ‘copy cat’ recipe for Sally Lunn bread that I make occasionally and never realized it came from this famous restaurant in Bath. We had a delicious dinner and enjoyed their Sally Lunn bread as well.
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