Weather:
Excellent sunny weather
MP3
track of the day: Spider in the bath
Now
before I go on, I suppose I should explain what 'snap shot' means
within the title of this blog. It basically means that this blog will
be a shortened version of my usual blogs, due to a variety of
reasons. It is, in effect, a 'snap shot' of my trip.
Prologue
In
the winter of 2014, I came back to the UK for three weeks to eat
'proper' food, meet up with friends and family and to smuggle a years
worth of UK chocolate back into the 'land of the rising sun'. Though
this was a very busy time, I did manage to spend a few days
travelling around the UK trying to even the score in regards to 'home
sites I've seen Vs foreign sites I've seen'. Being a very busy
period, It is only three weeks later that I have found the time to
sit down, with a cup of tea and my last remaining 'Cadbury's Caramel'
chocolate bar (knew I should have bought more of them), and
write a proper account of my trip. One final thing to note is that,
on this trip, my mother and father accompanied me.
With the Christmas
festivities over my mother, father and I no longer felt obliged to
'chit chat' with other family members, drink muled wine or eat
another damn minced pie. Now with Christmas officially over –
however, I must add, that we were all still off work – we found
ourselves with time to spend on one of my most favourite past times;
travelling.
Before arriving in the
UK my mother asked me where I would like to go for a 'short break'? I
answered either Oxford, Cambridge or Bath because these three
magnificent cities have always been on my 'to do' list and have,
rather unfortunately, gathered dust as new foreign places had taken
their position at the front of the queue time, and time again. With
Cambridge done only two days ago, our next target was Bath; a three
hour drive south-west from our current position. The drive – as far
as I can remember – went as smooth as one would expect it to be
with one retired person driving and another navigating. A lot of 'you
need to speak clearer' and 'oh, it may had been the previous left'
occurred though, with the UK being the size of a large Walnut Whip, I
kept my head down confident that we would, sooner or later, arrive at
our destination.
That was until I heard
the phase 'Bath is a long way isn't it?' spoken from the navigators
seat (to which the driver gave an agreeing sigh). To this I
perked my head up and explained, quite politely, that a three hour
trip was just a 'trip to the shops' in Japan and that, for my last
summer holiday, I had to drive thirteen hours just to start it. What
I thought required more complaint was the level of the sun which, due
to driving west, hung at 'eye level' the entire journey.
As we had started our
trip around midday, it will come as no surprise that we eventually
arrived in Bath around 3pm. For a city which was built before today's
large quantities of traffic, it was very easy to get into the city
centre and in no time at all we had found our hotel. My mother had
chosen the hotel and, in my opinion, had done very well indeed. Not
only was it within a five minute walk of the city centre, it was also
beautiful to look at. The hotel was located in the middle of an old
row of terraced stone houses. These terraces reeked of the Regency
era due to their large bay windows, stone exterior and their many
rooms with high ceilings. It was a very narrow hotel with four
levels, including the cellar which had been turned into a dinning
room. My room was very spacious with a large bed and a bathroom
bigger than the bed room. We had decided to only spend a couple of
minutes within our rooms as we were all very hungry. After we had
freshened up, we hit the town in search of food.
As this blog will show,
we did indeed find food in the form of a lovely sandwich shop
however, before reaching said shop, we had to walk around a small
round-a-bout and down a lovely street, both of which had beautiful Regency stone buildings lining the sides of the roads. The street,
with it's small shops were pretty enough, but it was the round-a-bout
which stood out due to the terraced houses creating a circle around
said round-a-bout. As the sun was dropping, 'pretty' just didn't do
it justice.
As mentioned earlier we
found said sandwich shop and ordered a sandwich with a drink. We
decided to keep our lunch light as, with the time being 4pm, it
wouldn't be long until dinner.
With the sun setting we
decided to take a stole through the city not really caring which way
we went. We made our way along the River Avon and up towards the
abbey which, being the size that it is, was really hard to miss. Even
in the twilight the building looked extremely beautiful due to it's
Gothic architecture and it's use of 'light stone' during it's
construction. The stain glass windows were also very impressive.
Moving on we found the
entrance to the old Roman Baths (which were now closed) and,
what appeared to be, the main shopping street. My father loves
looking in shops (any shop; it really doesn't matter) whereas
I try to avoid them until there is nothing left to do. I – quite
rightly – believe that the same shop can be found pretty much
anywhere therefore, it is best to look at things which can only be
found in the place you find yourself in at that moment. Another very
annoying thing about my father is that, he'll end up dragging you
into these shops, spend ages looking, and come out with nothing
whereas I will always find something I either want, or have wanted
for a while (this happened on no less than four occasions in Bath
where I found a spare battery for my camera, a Bakewell tart, a diary
and souvenir presents for friends: father £0 spent – Matthew
£35.00 spent).
Our battle against the
dying sun was still raging as I prised my father away from another
shop window and headed to 'The Royal Crescent'. This was an area
which I desperately wanted to see however, due to a liking for
'Regency era' dramas, my mother seemed to want to visit it more
than I. To get there we had to walk away from the city centre up a
very steep slope and into another beautiful round-a-bout area with a
circle of houses. By-passing a gentleman perched against a car being
sick, we took the first exit to our left and walked for only a minute
until we were on the cobbled streets of The Royal Crescent.
Consisting of thirty terraced houses (shaped as a 'crescent'),
we stopped and marvelled at the scene in front of us. It wasn't hard
to imagine that I had fallen into a Jane Austin novel (which Bath
coincidently, is where she wrote her books). I imagined
horse-drawn carriages pulling up to said terraced houses with tall
men, in tall hats, helping ladies in beautiful dresses out of said
carriages. I love places like this where history is truly alive and,
I would have kept within my 'Jane Austin' world, if it wasn't for the
cold and the eventual fall of night. With the time being 6pm we
headed back into town to a restaurant for dinner.
As we sat in the
restaurant, awaiting our meals, it was decided – pretty quickly –
that none of us were up for 'clubbing' tonight. We therefore decided
that, once we had consumed our meal, it would be best if we headed
back to our hotel for an early night (I was already visioning a
beautiful hot bath followed by a cup of coco, in bed, and pieces of
the chocolate which I had just bought from WH Smith – note that my
father didn't buy anything from WH Smith – whilst watching TV
before falling asleep at 9:30pm. Already thinking like a 60 year old
…. proud of it!). Eventually our meals arrived; my mother had
ordered a meat pie of some sort whereas my father had gone for a
classic Christmas dinner. I, in my attempt to eat as many different
types of British food as possible before heading back to a world of
rice and noodles, opted for a meat which is very difficult to get in
Japan; lamb. When my dinner arrived the lamb was coated in a
beautiful red sauce and looked divine; there were plenty of potatoes
and vegetables however, these respectfully stood to one side of the
plate allowing the customer to see the lamb in all it's glory.
I can't begin to
describe how good this lamb tasted. Each mouthful was as though God
himself has analysed my 'top ten' tastes and put them all within this
lamb. Normally, I would offer a 'forks worth' of food to other family
members around the table – and they would do the same - so that we
could try each others meal … not this time! It was as if time had
stood still and, though no cook would recommend it, the coconut shake
I had complimented the lamb perfectly. Once consumed I sat back;
currently within my world flowers had bloomed, rabbits were jumping
about and there was a beautiful rainbow plastered across a blue sky.
That was until a great big wedge of turkey landed in front of me,
ruining what was a beautiful clean white plate. As I was skipping
around in my own world, unbeknown to me, my dad had been struggling
with his Christmas dinner. In between mouthfuls of delicious lamb I
had seen my dad's meal which, though it looked very nice, was almost
twice the size of mine and lacked gravy therefore, once I had
finished my meal, my dad asked me to help him with his (he hates
leaving food and … actually, I do too). It was with reluctance
that I ate this tough, boring cheap meat which we all know as turkey.
Erased from my mouth was that sweet succulent lamb taste, only to be
replaced by a dry, barren turkey taste. I even ordered another
coconut shake to get rid of the dryness but alas … it didn't work.
As we walked back to
our hotel I moved my tongue around my mouth trying to get rid of the
turkey taste. Once in the hotel I poured myself a bath (which
ended but being too shallow and too cold; the curse of the turkey!)
before getting into bed. I must have ate chocolate and watched TV
for only an hour before hitting the sack. As I closed my eyes I
thought about what I wanted to do tomorrow, what was critical to see
and if there was anything I wanted to buy but, above all, I pondered
how on earth I was going to get rid of this turkey taste!
Tuesday 30th
December 2014
How can turkey remain
this potent after twelve hours!
As my parents are quiet
old, it was decided that breakfast would start around 9am. This was
fine by me; Bath, though a city, is actually very compact and I
presumed that we would spend the day looking at things we had seen
last night. Also, my hotels bed was very, very comfortable and I
didn't hold a grudge against my parents for allowing me a whole ten
hours to sleep in said bed, followed by another two sitting in it
whilst watching TV. Due to having a bath last night I had a quick
shower before joining my parents within the hotels down stairs dining
area.
It would appear that
the hotel was run by either German or Austrian people as the staff,
plus some of the food, had a very Germanic feel to it. The waitresses
serving manner too felt very Germanic and, though she was polite, I
felt obliged to say 'yes' to everything in fear of retaliation. I
started with a cooked breakfast before working my way along a table
filled with cold breakfast food. Once I had reached the cake (can't
remember its name; it's shaped like a doughnut with icing sugar on
the top and dried fruit inside) I stopped for two slices as it
was so delicious. It was there and then that, as a family, we decided
that we would start looking at all the sites Bath had to offer at
around 10am. We would then have a late lunch and then leave the city
around 3pm'ish'. With that decided I pleaded with my father to make a
mental note of which shops he would like to visit and then, once all
the sites had been seen, lead us back to said shops so that we didn't
miss anything. With that all agreed we backed our bags, checked-out
of the hotel and walked into town.
Within five minutes my
father was in a shop. Loosing patients I kept walking leaving my mum
as a kind of bridge between our locations. This didn't work for long
as I soon found myself back at Bath's abbey area. Wanting to get
photos for school, I persuaded my mum to meet me outside the abbey in
twenty minutes or so. I therefore broke away from my parents and
walked around Bath's 'abbey area' taking photos of this, that and the
other.
Either I was speaking
Japanese – or my mother misheard me – but when I returned to the
abbey both my father and mother were nowhere to be seen. As I waited
I remembered why I loved travelling on my own; you never have to wait
for anyone, there are no worries and no wasted time. After what
seemed like hours – though I guess it was only fifteen minutes –
I eventually found my mother. My mother and father had been waiting
in the abbey, not outside. Slightly annoyed I went into said abbey as
my mum said it was very beautiful. She went for some fudge.
The abbey was indeed
beautiful. Only a couple of weeks before coming to the UK I had
watched a history documentary about the 100 years war (trust me;
it was very interesting) and through this war, England had moved
away from years of Normandy-French architecture - consisting of big
round pillars and cross-beams– and had discovered it's own
architecture. This architecture was very much present within this
abbey, with it's concealed pillars which fanned out when they hit the
roof. Looking past these pillars and towards the back of the abbey, a
huge stain glass window could be seen. Before, I had seen it from the
outside however, inside, I could get very close to it. I spent a few
minutes marvelling at the pictures and the attention to detail. I
tried to guess what some of the images were trying to say, without
success. Once I'd seen most of the abbey I left, conscious that I was
disturbing people during their prayers.
Once outside I met up
with my mother who had in her possession a big block of vanilla
fudge. After consuming the small piece offered to me, it wasn't long
before I asked for another bite as it was divine. My mother had been
looking at the entrance to the 'Bath House'; a museum dedicated to
the Roman baths which put this city on the map. The price to enter
was £13.50 therefore I was reluctant to have a look. It was only
after both my mother and father pushed me towards the entrance (and,
if I'm honest, them giving me the £13.50 pretty much clinched the
deal) did I go in and purchase a ticket. My mother and father had
both seen the baths in their 'yoof' (which I'm sure would have
been a much more fulfilling experience than the one I had as they
would have been able to see actual Romans bathing) therefore I
went in on my own. My mother and father headed to a coffee shop and
waited.
It didn't take me long
to realise how glad I was that my parents had persuaded me to go in.
Though the baths were small, they were packed with information,
videos and models of Roman life in, and outside, of the baths. At
first you walked onto the balcony looking down onto the baths (the
Roman's 'ground level' was much lower than ours today). A handy
talking guide allowed you to wind your way in a logical manor. The
guide would only give you a small portion of information at a time;
to get the next bit you had to walk to the next location and input
the number shown on a small 'guide sign' into a keypad. This was
great as it allowed you to proceed at your own pace (I hate those
guides which try to guess how long it will take you to get from one
location to another). Having been pummelled with information in
regards to the 'life of the Romans' since elementary school, I
skipped all information on that subject and focused solely on
information about the baths. I took a lot of photos of said baths
which, as it happened, turned out to be some of my best.
Nearing the end of my
visit, I finally entered the baths at 'Roman' ground level. Though
there wasn't much smell, they did give off quite a lot of heat, and
stream could be seen trying to constantly escape. Tourist numbers
were low and this allowed me to get a really good feel for the place.
I took one last look before leaving the baths and entering the main
shopping street. It didn't take long to find my parents and,
thankfully, they had completed quite a few shops.
Once together we
proceeded on almost the same route as we did the following night. We
went back up to the Royal Crescent to take photos and to go into a
museum my mother had read about. Once there we struggled to find said
museum, though the quality of photos were excellent due to the
beautiful blue sky which we had been given today. Finally we found
the entrance to the museum … which was closed. Though she tried to
hide it, I could tell that my mother was rather upset about this
development as she loves looking around houses from this period.
Fortunately, as we proceeded back into town, we came across Jane
Austin's house (she wasn't in) which had been turned into a
museum. My mum paid for an entrance ticket whereas I, with little
else to do, entertained my father by taking him around the shops.
Eventually after I have
spent another £10.00 (my father having spent nothing) my
mother had finished viewing all there was to see in the Jane Austin
museum. We met up and she explained that she had enjoyed the visit
(though looking at her facial expressions, I got the impression
that the phase she was itching to use was “...it was alright...”).
We continued to walk around the streets of Bath not really sure
what there was left to see. It's strange but I've had these moments
before where, though there is nothing left to do, you don't want to
leave a place early as you feel that you haven't had your monies
worth. We therefore walked around for another hour or so before it
was time for lunch. With a 'long drive ahead of us', I had quite a
substantial lunch consisting of a wrap, some chips and a dessert. My
parents followed suit and after an hour or so we were ready for the
off.
Just like when we
entered Bath, it was shocking just how easy it was to drive out of
it. We were soon on the main road high above the city of Bath heading
home. As I looked back down on the old city a small lump in my throat
appeared from nowhere. I have been to huge national parks, ancient
lost cities, up mountains, across glaciers and around temples and
yet, I would say that this beautiful, beautiful city could rival any
of the above. As Bath finally fell from view I sat back in my seat
proud to be British!
Toodle Pip!
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