Because life is short & the world is big
We hopped on a double-decker bus for a tour of Bath, England, a World Heritage city about an hour and a half west of London with stunning golden Georgian architecture, historic Roman Baths, an incredible Abbey, the homes of iconic authors Jane Austen and Mary Shelley, and too much more to recount. Then we hopped off and strolled around the historic city centre, finishing with some excellent craft beer. Join us!
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Here are links to many places mentioned in the video:
Here’s a treat for Jane Austen fans: Come meet Mr. Knightly, Mr. Darcy, and Lydia Bennett at the Jane Austen Centre!
Bath is a great literary city, and no trip here is complete without a visit to the Jane Austen Centre. This icon of British literature lived in Bath for four or five years, writing Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. She mentioned Bath in several other works as well.
Lisa takes you on a tour of the Jane Austen Centre, which offers you a snapshot of life during Regency times and explores how living in the magnificent city of Bath affected Jane Austen and her writing. Try your hand at writing using a quill pen and ink or have your photograph taken whilst dressed in our extensive selection of Regency dresses, bonnets and shawls. You can also visit the Regency Tea Room for a few scones and a trip into the past!
You can book your tickets online for about $18 at janeausten.co.uk/.
We visited the Roman Baths while in Bath, England, for our oldest child’s graduation, and gazed upon 2,000 years of history. We also gazed upon a few naked Romans! But Bob was upset that they wouldn’t let him soak in the medicinal water. The Roman Baths are one of the finest historic sites in Northern Europe, according to the Baths’ website, romanbaths.co.uk/.
“Once the site of one of the great religious spas of the ancient world, the people of Roman Britain came to the site to worship the goddess Sulis Minerva and bathe in the waters of the natural thermal springs, which still flow with hot water today,” says the website. “Today visitors can explore the Roman Baths complex, walk on the original Roman pavements and see the ruins of the Temple of Sulis Minerva.
“The museum collection, located next to the bathing complex, includes a gilt bronze head of the Goddess Sulis Minerva, and other Roman artifacts.”
The cost per person was about $23, and you buy your tickets in advance for a timed entry.
Enjoy Bob’s irreverent take on this ancient site!
In September, we giddily embarked upon our first international trip since COVID brought us back from Mexico City, the latest destination in our traveling retirement, quite abruptly in March 2020. We took advantage of our oldest child, Aryk, restarting their education to carve out two weeks in England!
Aryk had deferred graduate school for a year due to the pandemic, but with two vaccines in their arm and a trove of masks in their suitcase, they were eager to begin pursuing their master’s degree in Creative Writing/Poetry at Bath Spa University in Bath, England.
So the three of us flew to the UK in mid-September. Lisa and Aryk headed to Bath, Lisa driving white-knuckled on the left side of the road to Aryk’s uni lodging, while Bob settled into a condo in London to explore for a few days on his own.
Bath is a stunning World Heritage City about two hours west of London. It has a lovely old center of town and a lively culture. While we were there, the city was hosting a major Children’s Literature Festival. We movedAryk into Student Castle, and did the shopping and exploring they needed, with little time left for sightseeing.
Bath is named after its Roman-built baths, and is renowned as a well-being destination. It’s located in the valley of the River Avon, a scenic, winding river with a path that I enjoyed during an early morning run.
Bath also hosts a scenic stretch of the 87-mile-long Kennet and Avon Canal, which runs from London to the Bristol Channel on the coast. I ran or walked on its dirt towpath several mornings. One day, Aryk and I happened upon it after shopping at Tesco Express just before sunset. The light on the buildings made from golden Bath stone was truly captivating.
Just as interesting to me was the narrowboats tethered along the canal, in which people lived. (Note the bikes lashed on top.)
These are working canals, albeit an incredibly slow mode of transportation, and I was fortunate to witness a narrowboat navigating an 18-foot-deep lock called the Bath Deep Lock, the second-deepest lock in the country. Watch my video on the Messy Suitcase YouTube channel! (And please subscribe while you’re there.)
I definitely plan to return to Bath for a tourism visit someday!
