Bath England, Day 1

How Many Impossible Things Before Noon???

 Sunday we were up super early again, said goodbye to our townhouse in Knightsbridge and were off to Paddington Station for our Great Western Railway trip to Bath

  Bath~ the most gorgeous city in Somerset! Since I was teaching all week, and had a tour scheduled for my off day on Wednesday, Sunday was really the only day for me to get out and see Bath. Lynne & Michael, the perfect host&hostess, were waiting for me when our train pulled in the station. We arrived somewhere around 0900 am.

 Once settled in and briefed on what the plan of the day was, I was off to the Fashion Museum~ the only time it was open that I was not teaching! Located at the Bath Assembly Rooms, it is an absolute gem of a museum. Good things definitely come in small packages. Currently they are running a 'Lace in Fashion' exhibit I wanted to see, but I also came to see some particular 17thc embroidered pieces of clothing....that is, if a person could even get thru the door! Right at the entrance is the Spence collection of early gloves....just amazing!

  I would have liked to have seen more children's clothing in the exhibit, but this 17th c embroidered jacket made my day. This was what I had come to see here. After the Lace exhibit, I met up with a Dear friend from Germany who was taking my class. She had been to Bath before, so took me for a walk about.

 Not far from the Fashion Museum is the Circus. No...not a circus with animals~ the circus is an entire circle of homes~ the architecture is very unique, and at the time in the 18th c was new and brought in people from afar to live there....its just so huge I could not even begin to get a good picture of it all.

  About a block from the Circus was the Royal Crescent.  Oh . My. golly. it was amazing. Click on the link to learn more about it!  One just cannot appreciate the complexity from my pictures~ so I went and got an aerial  view from the interweb...

The Circus is on the right,  and the Royal Crescent on the left.

 One of the beautiful little courtyards at the Circus

  Everywhere I looked in the city was as perfect as a  picture postcard. This is a peek at the Roman Baths...they stay open late, so a visit to them after class one afternoon was planned.

Just across from the Roman Baths & Pump Room was the Bath Abbey. 

 I don't know if these spikes were meant for keeping birds, or people from sitting there....which didnt really matter as it worked well for both!

 We walked thru the Abbey Green and there was a little stall selling the most wonderful picnic hampers dressed with china and silverware~ THE most amazing little things~ the English know how to picnic!

  Its fun to imagine what all this olde tree has seen~ I wish I spoke tree...

 Bath has the most wonderful Tea Shops & Rooms. I'm serious when I say, I could certainly be right at home here for the rest of my days

  No visit to Bath is complete without a  visit to Sally Lunn's  . We didnt eat there, but we did go to the Museum within and saw how she made her famous bunns

  From Sally's, we walked out to the gardens by the Abbey Hotel, and this is looking up the River Avon to the Pulteney Street Bridge. From this view, it certainly looks like a bridge, but it is completely built over, so when you are actually on it, it looks just like any other shop lined street in Bath. Looking down it, the Holburne Museum is at it's end. The weir is seen in the foreground.

I am so blessed to have had such a wonderful friend to show me around the city~ thankyou so much H!

 It was getting on to be lunchtime, so H treated me to lunch at a little cafe overlooking the weir~ if you look in the picture of the Pulteney Bridge above, its to the right down the steps, where all those people are. As if the day want perfect already...when I pulled out my chair to sit down, there was a one pound coin! I felt like Charlie on Willy Wonka....tho I didn't go buy chocolates with it, its saved and will forever have a special place in my casket! 

Had to get back home after lunch to get things ready in my classroom at the Holburne Museum for my class at the Bath Textile Summer School. Super excited to get started!