Beautiful, Bountiful Bath

Any number of day trips may be undertaken from Oxford, our home base in the UK. Blenheim Palace is probably the most popular one, but we chose Bath for our escape-from-Oxford day.

Austen, Gilbert and Sullivan 

Almost everything I knew about Bath before our visit came from Jane Austen novels, movies and TV dramas, so the day was full of new information and surprises. Now, I knew the term “Sally Lunn” from The Sorcerer, ( a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta), but I only knew that it was some kind of bun. Still, this was one “bee-in-the-bonnet” pilgrimage for me (since I am a dyed-in-the-wool G&S and Lamplighter fan.)

Sweet Sally Lunn

Arriving in town at nearly noon, we walked along the North Parade Passage from the bus station and quickly encountered Sally Lunn’s Historic Eating House, a tea room that is considered the oldest house in Bath.

Sweet Sally Lunn’s

The building itself dates from the 1400’s, as evidenced by its Roman-era foundation (there is a tiny museum in the basement.) Sally Lunn came along in the seventeenth century, a French Hugeunot immigrant who brought (or made up) the recipe for the brioche-like “bun” popular ever since as a base for sweet or savory fillings. Only a servant at the time, her buns became so popular that they have carried her name ever since. The tea house entry is tiny; the host and servers trip a little dance in and out of narrow passages connecting the kitchen in the back to the ground floor tea room and the upper dining room. Small rooms in English tea houses are more the norm than the exception, and we were duly ushered to a prime table at the back of the ground floor tea room. Did I mention it was lunch time?  I ordered a steak thresher, half a Sally Lunn with a lovely, tasty stew-like topping that was just as delicious as the daughter’s Welsh Rarebit. Naturally, we ordered Sally’s own blend of tea to go with. The hearty meal left us feeling ready to explore, and we found our way downstairs to the basement museum and gift shop where we bought two more buns to take back to Oxford for our snacking and breakfast pleasure. Now, don’t imagine that a bun is the size of a muffin. Light and airy as they are, they seem the size of a small to medium sized cantaloupe. At Sally Lunn’s, most of the offerings have half a Sally Lunn as their base, the top for sweet toppings, and the bottom for savory. However, you can eat all you want if you buy some to go. With our own buns boxed and bagged, we had no trouble carrying the precious cargo around Bath for the day.

A Roman Holiday

The Celts were already worshipping the goddess Sulis, who the Romans appropriated as Minerva

Next up, and highlight of the day was yet another World Heritage Site, the recently restored Roman Baths. Now I am a hot springs aficionado, and have visited Roman baths in various states of preservation in different parts of the world (Pompeii, Masada) but this restoration really brings the hot bath experience to life. When the Romans discovered this excellent source of natural hot springs, they built a resort town along with a sophisticated spiritual center and elaborate baths. Falling into wrack and ruin over the centuries, the town of Bath nevertheless has been an important holiday destination for the English over the centuries. Although, I must say the Brits left the best part (the baths themselves) languishing for a very long time.

We did not have time to enjoy all three options at the Roman Baths  

 (we skipped the Fashion Museum and Victoria Art Gallery), but we did take a leisurely approach to viewing the Baths, where the audio-guided tour has you meander past the main pool, up the stairs to the open air gallery, and back down through the many rooms the ancient roman architects designed for the then state-of-the-art bathhouse. With heated floors, dry heat rooms, massage areas and more, I cannot say that modern builders have done any better. Still, there is finally a modern spa adjacent to the historical baths where it is now possible to enjoy all the restorative joys of natural hot springs and massage.

Artifacts of the religious practices of the day are among the most interesting here, with the beautiful face of Minerva the most impressive. We were also fascinated by little inscribed scrolls for petitions to the gods, mostly curses asking for revenge for some stolen object. Many of these have been translated and really give some insight into how precious some material possessions were to the common people.

Oh, Mr. Darcy! 

By the Regency era, the time period for Jane Austen’s novels, “taking the waters” was mostly enjoyed by visiting the Pump Room, where “taking” equals “drinking”. Today, the historic “Pump Room” is an expansive, high-end tea room, sometimes with live music playing. And yes, you can walk through, marvel at the beauty of the room, and “take the water” from a glassful drawn by staff from the pump! You can almost picture Mrs. Bennett, fluttering narcissistically and hypochondriacally nearby. Exiting the big room, we sat on a low bench in the exit hall, marveling at a huge embroidered tapestry of the English monarchy and it lines of succession.

Thus primed for some literary reminiscing, we made our way to the Jane Austen Center. The house on Gay Street turned museum is very similar to one that Jane’s family lived in giving us an intimate idea of the genteel, if not wealthy, family life Jane led. Here we learned about Jane Austen whose own love life did not parallel that of her lucky heroines. We even tried on some Regency era costumes!

Pressed for time, as our bus was set to leave around 5, we walked to Regency Circle to view the lovely, upper class enclave, enjoying the streets of Bath in both directions. We found that 5 hours in Bath was nowhere near enough.

If I had it to do over?

I really wish I had done a bit more research on the bus schedule. It is probably cheaper, but a false economy to take the National Express rather than a guided tour from Oxford to Bath. The first bus in the morning is at an ungodly hour for tourists, and it is a two hour trip. So leaving Bath at 10 got us in at noon. We could have taken a later bus to return (7pm instead of 5pm), but we had bought tickets and would have forfeited the fare for that later return. So, I think I would opt for an organized tour giving a longer day in Bath, or even arrange to stay a night there.  Day trip, or overnight, Bath is worth a visit!