Day 5 (Sept. 7th) - Today, we took the train from London to Bath in the morning and returned late at night.
I had purchased non-refundable, online tickets on
Southwest Trains a couple of months ago. They required that I possess the
Friends and Family Railcard--which I wasn't able to purchase until this morning at the station before we left.
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| Waterloo Station |
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| Running to catch the train to Bath Spa |
We had a couple of nervous moments when the departure track wasn't announced until 8 minutes before departure. The train was also going to split at some point before we reached Bath. It took Renae a while to find a conductor to confirm that we were in the right rail cars.
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| Lunch at The Open House Centre |
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| Elsie, a volunteer from the Manvers Street Baptist Church and the girls |
The train ride from London to
Bath Spa station took about 1 1/2 hrs. It was overcast and drizzly when we arrived around 11:30 a.m. As we were walking through the town towards the Roman Baths, the first place we came to that was open for lunch was "The Open House Centre" of the
Manvers Street Baptist Church. A very sweet, elderly lady named Elsie took our order and took a liking to Elizabeth. She came by and told us about the history of the church and showed the sanctuary before we left.
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| Dress from the Regency Era |
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| Photos from the movie Sense and Sensibility |
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| Entrance to the Jane Austen Centre |
Our first destination was the
Jane Austen Center. (Yes, I know all the guys reading this are jealous--Jane Austen wrote
Pride and Prejudice and
Sense and Sensibility.) The girls have all enjoyed the movies based on her books.
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| Roman Baths in Bath |
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| Rare Goddess Minerva Bust |
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| Renae and Elizabeth taking a break from the tour |
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| Sarah tasting the water from the Bath Spa |
After a lovely time at the Jane Austen Center, we toured the Roma
n Baths. Developed around 43 A.D., called this area Aquae Sulis. They found the warm waters with gas bubbling to the surface to be sacred.
In the 18th century Bath became a popular resort destination to take in the waters for its medicinal proprieties. At the end of the tour, we sampled the water. I found it tasted like warm, Phoenix tap water in the summer. Who knew that's what it took to create a historical tourist attraction?
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| Bath Abbey |
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| Stained glass windows were restored after WWII |
We had just enough time to take a quick tour of the
Bath Abbey before having dinner at
Garfunkels and taking the train back London.
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| Garfunkel's in Bath |
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| Elizabeth with a huge chip/french fry |
3 comments:
Did you all get psyched for the next P&P ball? Is the Jane Austen center the same as her birthplace? Keep the updates coming!
We like the pictures of the bath. We talked about them last year in history. Lisa N
It sounds like you are having fun! Just a question- have you tried fish, chips and vinegar yet? I keep thinking about that when I think about you guys in Europe. I remember when Sarah taught us a fish/trash/lollipop trio song at one of my birthday parties and it keeps getting stuck in my head. Hahahaha.
-Olivia B.
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