Saturday | 16 June - Bath City & The Great Expenditure..

I was almost late for the bus to Bath City - I had missed the train (the first time!) and the next train would take me there JUST on time. I had some trouble finding the Victoria Coach station, but Boris and Cat were so nice in waiting for me and trying to direct me (unsuccessfully) over the phone.

Anyway we were on our way, just after 8am. Cat and I were tired, so we slept. Boris kept himself entertained with music. There was a jam on the M10 motoryway, so we took a detour and ended up arriving 30 minutes later than the expected 11.05am. It was a very long and tiring journey, at least for my bottom. It also rained along the way, and we feared it raining at Bath.

Upon arrival, it DID drizzle. So much for going to Bath, only to have a shower.

Anyway, Cat got a map and found out all the key places to visit. And we were on our way...

First stop, lunch. We had lunch at a church cafe, which was run by volunteers. The people there were generally warm and friendly, and I was quite blessed by the warmth of this old lady who helped us clear our plates. Had myself a salad, soup, and milkshake.

Then we went on our way to see the Roman baths. Quite an intersting development in time, the whole hot springs, bath and temple idea. The architecture is very clever, and well arranged. I'm somewhat disappointed though, that a commercial tourism group has overtaken the ruins of the bath, and made it into a properly arranged 'museum' of sorts. Makes it lose its 'ruined' and 'ancient' charm, although I do believe this way it allows for better maintenance and protection of historic artefacts from thieves (and idiots). I'm very very in awe of the ingenuity of the human race.


The Roman Bath in Bath, England (Source: Wikipedia)

We took our time in there - at least I did. I took lots of photos, and had a look in every nook and cranny. Bath was a spa, a place of cleansing, a place of worship, a place of healing to the Romans who occupied Britain back in 43AD.

Moving on, we went to explore the city of Bath. Not that spectacular actually. We saw the Museum of Costumes - half closed for renovations, so half price! But never went beyond the reception. I joked that we paid half price, to see the models half naked. Hurhur.

There was a wedding going on in that same vicinity. I saw the wedding photographer and his Lowepro CompuTrekker bag. I think wedding photographers are really cool. All ready for action, and with the coolest gear around. I saw him set up - as I expected, he had with him TWO Canon EOS 1D bodies, flash units (both on stands and camera mounted) and a whole array of lenses (notably the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 USM L, which is so large and distinct in white) with their rear glasses UNCAPPED. The Pros don't really care much about dust and all - just getting the job done, and making as fast lens changes as possible. And here I am in Great (dusty) Britain with so much fuss over the dust that's been landing on my glass and camera body. Long way to go to be pro! Haha.

We saw a very awesome Royal Crescent - you could probably run end to end and cover 150 metres. It was arched, and a couple of stories high. Possible housing a few families/houses. But in any case, I'm sure it was a HORROR to clean. You'd probably need a PA system or mobile phones to call your kids for dinner. In front of that house was a ginormous piece of land with a lovely lawn - what a dream home!


The Royal Crescent in Bath, Somerset, England (Source: Wikipedia)

We roamed the town, and among other things that caught our attention, we went to look at Italian Ice Cream (with 30+ flavours of milkshake), an English Fudge Shop (I bought 99p chocolate to eat), a Candy Shop (with 300+ varieties of sweets), Sally Lunn's Bakery - the oldest house in Bath, a Car model shop (where I bought my dad's Vauxhall Victor) and HMW (where I bought 3 DVDs for £20/SGD61).

All in all, I think I spent the most today:

NATIONAL EXPRESS TICKET - £16/SGD48
LUNCH - £6.50/SGD19.50
ROMAN BATH ENTRY FEE - £10/SGD30
THORNTON'S CHOCOLATE - £10/SGD30 (which includes 15 CHOCOLATE PRALINE EGGS + 6 ALMOND BARS + 3 SCOOPS ICE CREAM - a good deal)
3 DVDs - £20/SGD60 (Shrek I and II box set, Ocean's 11 and 12 box set, Silent Hill - 5 movies)
MODEL CAR - £12/SGD36

TOTAL: £75/SGD224

Got to watch the budget for the next few days!