Bath - England's City Of Gold

Yesterday, Amanda and I had our daytrip out to Bath, her university town of four years. Bath essentially has two faces - it is a goldmine for tourists who flock all year round to bask in the beauty of the city, and it is also a thriving university town for students at the UoBath, and the UoBath Spas. For the tourists, there is much to see and do. You can visit the Roman Bath Spas, the natural hot springs used by the Romans in ancient times, pop in at one of the tiny homegrown stores along the cobblestone streets, explore the many large parks, or spend 600 pounds a night at the Royal Crescent Hotel at the heart of the city. While these attractions draw millions, the main pull is the infamous Bath Stone, a type of golden tinted sandstone, of which all the buildings are made. There literally isn't one building that doesn't have a slab of Bath Stone in its structure, except for maybe the Sainsbury's grocery store which is made of glass. In fact, it is even against regulations to build a building unless it is made of this particular type of stone, and there is very little leeway in the kind of redesigning you can do. Thus, when the sun is in full force, the city at a glance looks like a shining undulation of gold. This was the first impression I had of Bath as we drove in at midday, and also the last, as we watched the sun splash the city with light upon disappearing under the horizon.

The first stop of the day was at a pub to meet a couple of Amanda's old work friends who had taken out their lunch hour to see us. Sitting outside on the back porch, the four of us were immediately scorched by the intense midday heat, but soon cooled ourselves down with a few drinks and some good conversation. Everything around us was so relaxed and peaceful. It is this kind of relaxed atmosphere that I love whenever I visit British pubs. I particularly like how pubs are separated into different areas - one for the rowdy drinkers, one for the families with kids, one for the fancy dinner parties, and one for the casual drinkers. It is as if pub owners understand that there as many different kinds of drinkers as there are drinks, so best to make a spot for each type. I always wonder why they don't seem to do that in Canada.

After parting with her friends, we had a lengthy look around the shops in the downtown area. Amid the handful of chainstores you'd expect in any area, there were a few interesting shops including a knicknacks shop with lots of plush cats, a candy store, an IT-store type shop with lots of funny cards but with British humour, and an awesome milkshake vendor where you can ask for ANY milkshake you please. And when I say anything, I mean anything - Mars Bars with Jammy Dodgers, Malteasers with Minstrils, Apple Pie with Bounty and Caramel Popcorn - the list goes on, and there are only four of these shops in the country! I went for the Malteasers with Minstrils since I didn't think I could handle anything as rich as, say, a Cherry Cheesecake mixed with a Cadbury's Fruit and Nut Bar, and even that was extremely filling.

Since all that shopping wore us out quite a bit, we took a turn in a couple of parks and walked past the Royal Crescent Hotel, which I mentioned before has an extremely hefty entrance price. Nevertheless, the building was quite stunning. If you can imagine the Coliseum, cut that in half to give you a crescent, and turn the ruin into row after row of golden hotel flats. That should give you a vague idea of what the hotel looked like. Amanda actually told me an interesting story about the hotel. Apparently, back in the Victorian times when the hotel was visited by many wealthy landowners, there were flocks of sheep kept on the grounds. Since the landowners didn't want the sheep running around their football and cricket grounds, they created a lowered plateau on the generally flat expanse of property in which to keep the sheep. It saved ruining the view with a gaudy fence, but kept the sheep in check. Even today, tourists can see the odd unevenness of the grounds, though sheep no longer roam there, of course.

Another story Amanda told me was of when she went on a Ghost Walk. During these midnight walks, a tour guide tells you of the various ghosts that reside in Bath. One ghost was said to have tormented a woman who decided to change the Burgundy colour of her wall to white. She tried numerous methods to rid her house of the spirit but nothing worked. It was only once she changed it back to Burgundy that the tormenting ceased. Another ghost that has supposedly been spotted many times was an old man dressed in black who either sits on the steps of his old apartment, or stands in the red phonebox by the steps. I'm not a believer in ghosts or spirits, but the stories are interesting either way. (And I admit, I did glance over my shoulder once after passing the haunted steps!)

The last stop of the day was Bath Spa, Amanda's old university, located smack dab in the middle of some of Prince Charles' personal farmland. (Whether he uses it or not, I have no idea.) Amanda had not been back since her graduation three years ago so she was surprised to see the many changes that have been made to the campus, such as the new building with a fountain, and the movement of the Student Council to a building that was completely run down when she was there. I was simply happy to be visiting another university. It made a nerd like me feel quite at home. Hehe. Since most of the residents have moved out save a few international students, most of the campus was closed up. However, we were able to sneak into Amanda's old residence and spend a few seconds in the kitchen before running out for fear of getting caught. Speaking of universities, I should have really like to have visited Oxford and Cambridge but time really did not allow for it. So, in that way, I guess Bath Spa was the perfect substitute.

Tomorrow is my last day at Amanda's house and I am going out with a bang. Well, not really, but a lot will be going on including a BBQ with Sheila, Kirsty, Mary and Andy, as well as a trip to the movies to see Cars. As my next and final stop of this trip (Aberdovey in Wales) probably won't have a computer readily available, this may well be my last post for the trip. However, I will continue writing and if luck is with me, I will find an internet cafe and post there. So until next time...Viva la Britannia!