Bath!

Remember how I love Jane Austen? No, really? Cause I'm pretty sure I told you, hmmmm, interesting. Well either way, I LOVE JANE AUSTEN! So much so, that George and I went to Bath for the Jane Austen Festival! I love Bath, it is so beautiful. I could live there and get lost in all the little streets and eat amazing chocolate (Jenn- I went back to that chocolate place and the rose and lavender candies were amazing! Again!) and go swimming in the natural hot baths. It is very quant and has a very old world feel.  

Well, the weekend started off horribly. We rented a car since Bath is a little less than 2 hours away from Poole. George was driving and seeing the country side was great, but our car was 3 HOUR LATE! So we missed a few events of the weekend we were desperate to see. Mostly we wanted to see the promenade, the parade of all the people dressed in period clothing. Then once we were on the road the GPS wouldn't work, then there were detours on the road that took us an hour out of our way! When we finally got there we were a bit cranky. We did see a few people dressed up and managed to get to the Jane Austen museum on our first day. We did some exploring around town and even found the apartment where Jane lived for a short while, which is now a dentist office. Want to see? 

 If you can imagine, it was rainy off and on all day. 

A few dressed up ladies

So after our short day in Bath we made our way to the hotel and relaxed. But then our bad luck came back Sunday morning with a lovely parking ticket. Yay for us! After that we made our way to Bath and took a walking tour with a local. It was so fun! It always amazes me when people point it out, but we were standing in a certain place in the city center and the guide started to read a portion of Northanger Abby and I realized that Jane Austen actually stood in that same spot! Not that I'm making an idol out of her, it just blows my mind about the concept of time and how different her life was from what Bath is today. I guess I don't know how to adequately explain myself, but it was really cool. The guide was also really sweet, he knew so much about Bath and Jane Austen. So anyway, after all that, here are some photos!

 Bath is set into a valley and this is a view from city center

The church in Bath, it is so intricate and beautiful

Amazing right?

The streets were bursting with visitors

 The Pump room is famous from Jane Austen's books. This is where you would go with your girl friends to have tea and to view the arrivals book, where visitors would put there name and where they were staying so you could call upon your friends. 

 Shopping district

This is the Circus, it's a circle of town houses that originally built for vacation homes. In fact, Bath was built on the premise of being vacation homes only, no one actually had a permanent residence here for some time. Every building is built with the creamy stone in front and I believe they said the last house that sold in this area was for about 3 millions pounds! 

The Circus 

See, Bath is set into a valley, if it were a better photo you could see how every building basically looks the same. They were all build with the same materials in front and made in the Georgian style of architecture. 

 The Cross Bath! This is a place where you can take in the waters that have healing powers! I tried to go into the spa, however they were all booked up for a private party. It was sad, but just means I've got to go back!

This is the Netling Pump Room where Jane's older brother often went for medical treatment, maybe a little trivial knowledge.

Basically everything is a town house in Bath

Jane and her family lived on this street when they first came to Bath after her father retired from the ministry. 

 Little details of the cute city

More little details on the beautiful architecture 

Jane's wealthy aunt and uncle lived on this street. They did not have children, so often they would take Jane traveling with them.

The Upper Assembly Room!!!! Jane writes about this in Northanger Abby as well. This is where you come to dance and take tea.

Yay!

Like I said, the houses are all built with the same materials. These poor houses are damaged from the coal used in the city, which is now banned. 

 The Roman bath house! This is a natural hot springs bath, which is how the city was named. First discovered by the Romans and then once more by the English as they were building the city up for vacationers. The baths were said to have healing powers, famous for one royal lady known not to be able to have children and after a dip in the bath she became pregnant!