Bath
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 19 June 2005 21:22:50
What a cultured weekend I've had! I've spent it with a lovely friend, L., who moved to the spa town of Bath in March this year, and whom I've missed very much (she's a friend from my former church). Amazingly, despite it being a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of southern Britain's most famous places, I'd never been there before, so it was a treat to be there on such a glorious weekend! (well, I could moan about how it was too humid and how, typical Brit, I forgot my suncream so now have bright pink shoulders and a stripe down my back AND front like a sash where the sun caught me round my handbag handle, but I won't. I am really quite pink though, and hoping that my back and front white stripe will disappear soon! I'm such a classy old bird).
We managed to pack an awful lot into the weekend. I arrived at lunchtime yesterday, and we started off by heading to the famous (apparently - I'd not heard of it before, but I am a bit of an oik sometimes) Sally Lunn shop, reputed to be Bath's oldest building (though, as is often the case with these claims, somewhere else is also claiming the same thing). We had a look round the little kitchen museum while we were there and bought some famous Sally Lunn buns (as it was important that I have the quintessential Bath experience). After that we checked out the tourist information place for some ideas, and then headed off to go round the city on a tourist bus. We discovered that, although both of us have done boat tours in various cities before, neither of us had ever been on an open-topped tourist bus before, so it was quite exciting. That gave us a good overview of Bath (which is a lovely, very pretty place), with the guide providing various local anecdotes (although to be honest my friend, who is a repository of knowledge about just about everything, seemed to know and anticipate what the guide was going to tell us, I was very impressed with her!).
Once we were back on terra firma, we walked back to her home (she's in a village on the outskirts of Bath) via such well known spots as the Royal Crescent - and here's a picture of me in front of the Royal Crescent to prove that I really was there:
Once back, we freshened up, had a quick tour of her new house (which of course I hadn't seen before) and polished off the first of the Sally Lunn buns before heading back into town as we wanted to take a look round the famous Roman Baths. Unfortunately we just missed a bus, and by the time we got into town and to the Baths we were literally 1 minute after last entry so the doors were locked. So instead we wandered down to the river and had a very pleasant hour chatting idly before returning to Bath Abbey where we'd got tickets for an organ recital. The recital was great, and I really liked that they had rigged up a screen so that we could see the organist playing (as he was high up in the organ loft we otherwise wouldn't have been able to see anything). I was just sad that the camera showed the manuals and his hands but we couldn't see his feet, as there was obviously some very manic footwork going on at several points. Still, it was entertaining watching his knees move so fast at the bottom of the screen!. A marvellous recital though, and a good contrasting programme - very impressive.
After a lovely Thai meal up in town we headed back home where we sat out in L's little back garden with a bottle of wine and put the world to rights till 1am. I really don't do that kind of thing often enough, it was wonderful. L can talk for England, and is such an interesting person - every anecdote and aside is fascinating, and often very funny, I always tell her she should be on the TV - so it was almost a shame when we decided to call it a night.
Today we got up at our leisure, and so didn't attend morning service at her parish church (which is literally opposite her front gate) which was a shame, as it turns out her vicar used to be the vicar of my current church so it would have been interesting to meet him. But we did wander into town eventually via the Botanical Gardens which were compact and bijou but nevertheless absolutely lovely. From there we carried on into town and this time did manage to get into the Roman Baths. Not the cheapest museum I've ever visited, but absolutely fascinating, loads to see, and I could have stayed a lot longer if we'd timed it better and I wasn't desperate for lunch. So we wandered up to the Pump Rooms and splashed out on a posh lunch there (reminder to self: butternut squash and stilton is a stunning combination!). Sadly (or perhaps not, as they're reported to taste foul) the spa waters went untasted today as the fountain was closed for maintenance, so that's another Bath experience I have yet to experience. Over lunch we were accompanied by a guy playing a Steinway grand piano, all very posh and refined, he was improvising and segueing one tune into another seamlessly - we were very amused by the juxtaposition of the theme tune to "The Muppets" and the opening of Grieg's Piano Concerto!
After lunch we nipped over the square and into the Abbey for Choral Evensong. Wonderful choir, though after the humungous lunch I kept nearly nodding off, so it would probably have been better for me to have gone to a service which demanded a bit more of the congregation than just to listen! And then from there, back home. I finally managed to finish "An Equal Music" on the way back (I had a week off it as the whole reading for therapy thing I blogged about earlier was getting a bit close for comfort), so now will have to find something else to read.
I'm really quite tired now, and my legs are aching so much, we did so much walking, but I'm really pleased we managed to pack so much in - we did loads and talked for hours about all sorts of stuff, so I really know I haven't wasted the weekend (which is how I sometimes feel when my weekend seems to consist of nothing but supermarket shopping, ironing and housework). I could do with another day off to recover before going to work, but then I'm off work on Friday and the whole of the next week, so I suppose 4 days isn't that long. 4 days and counting though - I so need some time off!