This past week my boyfriend and I celebrated our sixth anniversary (yes, SIXTH) with our first holiday away together (yes, first holiday, in six years; strict parents what can ya do?) to the beautiful city of Bath. We spent three days exploring everything the city has to offer, from a variety of museums to the city's main attraction, the Roman Baths. Today I'm going to give you all a day by day account of what we did, where we went and what we ate (and drank) on our expedition of this historic and simply stunning city.
DAY ONE: THE BATHS
We took the overnight ferry on the Sunday and spent most of our first day driving, eventually arriving in Bath around lunch time. Instead of sensibly taking the rest of the day easy, we went straight into exploring the city.
We stayed about a 20 minute walk outside of the city centre so had the opportunity to explore what our tour guide later called "vintage" Bath, (pic one) which is an area of the city filled with unique, local stores that sell everything from furniture and antiques, to plants and vintage clothes. Walking into town every day was one of my favourite parts of our trip.
Rather than aimlessly wander around the town and getting ourselves lost, we decided to hop on board one of those city sightseeing tourist buses. If you're thinking of going away for a couple of days, exploring some unique places, I could not recommend doing this enough because it's a great way of getting your bearings and pointing out the locations of anywhere you want to see.
There are two different types of tourist buses in Bath; the main city one which starts from beside the river that runs through Bath, (pic two) taking you to places like the Jane Austen museum, and then the skyline bus, that takes you right out of the city and around those harder to reach spaces like Sydney Gardens and the Holburne Museum. It's really beautiful sitting on the top deck and looking down at all of the beautiful locations the city has to offer. Our ticket also granted us discounts to certain attractions in the city too, including the Roman Baths at the centre of the city.
I had a little bit of knowledge about the Roman presence in Bath and the creation of the baths themselves from previous history study at school, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for how much there was to see once you actually entered the baths themselves. The exhibits are recreated beautifully and the actual baths and surrounding area has been wonderfully preserved. You can access pretty much everything except one of the pools that's been sectioned off.
Because we arrived in Bath so late, the Roman Baths were the only attraction we actually got to see, as the Abbey beside the baths had been shut for the evening for renovation. As most of the shops and museums were also starting to close we decided to try and find somewhere for dinner. A lot of restaurants and places in the city are quite expensive and as we didn't want to eat at franchises and places we could do at home, it was quite difficult to find unique and interesting places to eat. Eventually we came across The Stable.
DAY TWO: THE SPA
The main reason for our visit to Bath was to visit the Lush Spa. As I work for the company I get to experience one of the treatments, and as there's no Lush Spa in Ireland, we have to travel over to one of several locations, so I chose Bath as I knew there was a lot that interested me personally, and I thought it would be quite a nice, romantic location to spend our anniversary. I'll tell you all about our spa experience a bit later on but first here's what we did in the morning.
After seeing the Sydney Gardens and Holburne Museum on our open top bus tour, and learning that they were both free to enter, we decided to spend some time there. The gardens are beautiful, with lots of different nooks and crannies to explore, and the grounds that surround the museum are equally as stunning and enormous.
The Holburne Museum itself is filled with so many different antiques and treasures. The majority of the collection comes from the eponymous William Holburne who spent most of his life collecting and acquiring over 4,000 different pieces of art and cutlery amongst other things. The museum was set up to showcase his collection, however over time many pieces unrelated to Holburne have been displayed here. If you're a fan of art, particularly of the Restoration period, or anything unusual, you definitely have to make a stop here.
The layout of the spa is designed to be very homely; everything is dimly lit and filled with a wonderful ambience. There's a long dining table where the therapists take you through exactly what they're going to do and there's also a mini kitchen, a small lounge area, various treatment rooms and a huge bathroom with shower. After my boyfriend and I had both finished our treatments, we were each given a little special something to finish the experience, As part of my treatment I was given a "cloud cocktail" which is simply candyfloss doused in a very sweet alcohol, whereas my boyfriend was given rum, tea and biscuits.
After our first taste of something alcoholic, and the fact that we were definitely in the mood for celebrating, we went out for some dinner and mainly some drinks. We went to The Absurd Bird, a rather strange, but cosy and quiet bar / restaurant. The food wasn't the nicest, but the drinks were amazing. However, I'm quite a small person who hasn't drank a lot in quite a while so naturally they went straight to my head and inevitably we had to call it a night far too soon.
DAY ONE: THE BATHS
We took the overnight ferry on the Sunday and spent most of our first day driving, eventually arriving in Bath around lunch time. Instead of sensibly taking the rest of the day easy, we went straight into exploring the city.
We stayed about a 20 minute walk outside of the city centre so had the opportunity to explore what our tour guide later called "vintage" Bath, (pic one) which is an area of the city filled with unique, local stores that sell everything from furniture and antiques, to plants and vintage clothes. Walking into town every day was one of my favourite parts of our trip.
Rather than aimlessly wander around the town and getting ourselves lost, we decided to hop on board one of those city sightseeing tourist buses. If you're thinking of going away for a couple of days, exploring some unique places, I could not recommend doing this enough because it's a great way of getting your bearings and pointing out the locations of anywhere you want to see.
Just one of the many parks in Bath.
There are two different types of tourist buses in Bath; the main city one which starts from beside the river that runs through Bath, (pic two) taking you to places like the Jane Austen museum, and then the skyline bus, that takes you right out of the city and around those harder to reach spaces like Sydney Gardens and the Holburne Museum. It's really beautiful sitting on the top deck and looking down at all of the beautiful locations the city has to offer. Our ticket also granted us discounts to certain attractions in the city too, including the Roman Baths at the centre of the city.
I had a little bit of knowledge about the Roman presence in Bath and the creation of the baths themselves from previous history study at school, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for how much there was to see once you actually entered the baths themselves. The exhibits are recreated beautifully and the actual baths and surrounding area has been wonderfully preserved. You can access pretty much everything except one of the pools that's been sectioned off.
Because we arrived in Bath so late, the Roman Baths were the only attraction we actually got to see, as the Abbey beside the baths had been shut for the evening for renovation. As most of the shops and museums were also starting to close we decided to try and find somewhere for dinner. A lot of restaurants and places in the city are quite expensive and as we didn't want to eat at franchises and places we could do at home, it was quite difficult to find unique and interesting places to eat. Eventually we came across The Stable.
Specialising in pizza, pies and cider, The Stable has a great selection of food and drink available, including vegan options and a drinks tester offer of five ciders to taste and try. I went for a pear and peach cider, which was definitely one of the best drinks I've ever had, and one of their veggie pizzas; goats cheese, spinach, caramelised onion, field mushrooms, hazelnuts and mozzarella. The portions are so generous and although I tried my best, I was ultimately defeated by the pizza. They also had a great selections of desserts on offer however the main didn't leave much room for us to get to try one. After stuffing our faces, we made our way back to our accommodation for an early night. Travelling overnight is definitely not something I want to experience in a hurry again!
DAY TWO: THE SPA
The main reason for our visit to Bath was to visit the Lush Spa. As I work for the company I get to experience one of the treatments, and as there's no Lush Spa in Ireland, we have to travel over to one of several locations, so I chose Bath as I knew there was a lot that interested me personally, and I thought it would be quite a nice, romantic location to spend our anniversary. I'll tell you all about our spa experience a bit later on but first here's what we did in the morning.
After seeing the Sydney Gardens and Holburne Museum on our open top bus tour, and learning that they were both free to enter, we decided to spend some time there. The gardens are beautiful, with lots of different nooks and crannies to explore, and the grounds that surround the museum are equally as stunning and enormous.
The Holburne Museum itself is filled with so many different antiques and treasures. The majority of the collection comes from the eponymous William Holburne who spent most of his life collecting and acquiring over 4,000 different pieces of art and cutlery amongst other things. The museum was set up to showcase his collection, however over time many pieces unrelated to Holburne have been displayed here. If you're a fan of art, particularly of the Restoration period, or anything unusual, you definitely have to make a stop here.
As someone who had just finished studying about the Restoration period in my last semester it was definitely interesting seeing some art I recognised by some familiar names. Walking around the museum doesn't take that much time, even though there is quite a lot to see and take in, so afterwards we went into the city centre for some lunch, to explore some shops and wait for our spa appointment.
Neither of us have any previous spa experience, which doesn't really matter because the Lush Spa offers so many different unique, sensory treatments that cater to you. I chose The Comforter? which primarily focuses on making you feel relaxed, at ease and reminds you to have a bit of fun in life. You get rubbed with a melted chocolate exfoliator, gentle massaged using the rolling massage technique, and then have a rose serum gentle rubbed into your skin. You're underneath a warmed up duvet the entire time, the room is lit pink and candyfloss bubbles float around the room while revamped pop cover songs play in the background. The entire experience was nothing short of magical. My boyfriend chose The Good Hour which is a slightly more intense massage treatment that really helps get into your tense areas and massage out any knots (shoutout to our wonderful massage therapists and all of the staff that made the whole experience even better.)
The layout of the spa is designed to be very homely; everything is dimly lit and filled with a wonderful ambience. There's a long dining table where the therapists take you through exactly what they're going to do and there's also a mini kitchen, a small lounge area, various treatment rooms and a huge bathroom with shower. After my boyfriend and I had both finished our treatments, we were each given a little special something to finish the experience, As part of my treatment I was given a "cloud cocktail" which is simply candyfloss doused in a very sweet alcohol, whereas my boyfriend was given rum, tea and biscuits.
DAY THREE: LITERATURE AND FASHION
We kicked off the final day of our holiday with a boat tour up the river that runs through the centre of Bath. It was nice to get away from the bustling sounds of the city and get a bit closer to the natural beauty of the location in all of its glory. The guides and drivers didn't interrupt our journey either, only when they felt it was necessary to add in a little touch of history associated with the places we sailed past. The entire experience was utterly blissful. We did feel a little put out though - we were the youngest people on the boat!
As a literature student I can't help but automatically associated Bath with Jane Austen, and after researching things to do during our stay, I was particularly eager to visit the Jane Austen centre.
The Jane Austen Centre gives a glimpse into the author's brief time in Bath and the impact it had on her novels, most famously Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Not only that, but it also helps provide a little more insight into her life, her family and of course how they all connect into her work. Our experience began with a small talk from one of the costumed guides who was extremely well-informed about Jane Austen's life and her work, most of which I was already aware of, but it was still nice to get a little bit of extra info. After that, we were free to wander around the exhibition which included a portrait gallery, mannequins in traditional dress and lots of other Austen paraphernalia, including a genuine letter addressed to her sister. I absolutely adored my time at the Jane Austen Centre and if you're even just a casual reader of her most famous work it's well worth looking around the exhibition and finding out a little bit more about one of the Bath's most famous residents.
I was also very excited to visit the Fashion Museum nearby. The main exhibition highlights 100 key trends in fashion from the 1700s to modern days and includes designer work from the likes of Dior and Galliano, and dresses made famous my Linda Evangelista and Lea Seydoux.
What I found really interesting was truly appreciating and realising how fashion is constantly changing but always coming back around and the embroidered pieces above show this, as this has been a prominent trend in the last few months. At the time we were there, they also had an exhibit entirely dedicated to lace and its use in fashion, including pieces designed by one of the fashion graduates from Bath Spa University. There was a lot to see and appreciate and it was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.
Bath was a truly beautiful city and although it's expensive, there's a lot you can see and do for your money - we didn't even get around everything we wanted to see. It's a great place to visit if you're even a little interested in history, art, literature or anything the city has to offer really. It's full of hidden treasures like the Guildhall market and there are a whole variety of places to eat and shop. It was the best first romantic holiday I could ask for and I look forward to exploring more places in the future.
I hope you've enjoyed this mini travel diary, I hope to do some more travel posts in the future so plese let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading,
Rachel
- June 22, 2017
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