The Most Beautiful City in the World

The Most Beautiful City in the World

(Tuesday, October 29th, 2013)

Any guesses which city I'm talking about? 

Without a doubt, it has to be Bath. Tuesday's adventure involved my family plus Gabel and Katherine joining forces with us and heading to Bath. It's about an hour and twenty minutes outside of Southampton and luckily the trains were all up and running again. We took the 9:10am train which was PACKED and then arrived in Bath at 10:34. Even the rail station is beautiful - the tracks run along a bridge which is modelled as a castle. In the train station we signed up for a bus tour and got a great group rate. Gabel and I were amazed since we are so used to be alone and doing things in twos and suddenly there were seven of us and we were able to save money on the group rate. We walked out of the station and hopped on the double decker bus tour. This tour took us up the hills around the outskirts of the city which gave stunning views. There were botanical gardens, the river Avon, as well as a valley with houses built in all up the side. We also saw the University of Bath and then got dropped back off in the city centre. 

The neat thing about Bath is that all the old buildings are built exclusively in Bath stone and to preserve the look of the city, all new buildings have to follow suit as well. That means that every single building in Bath is built in the special stone (which is beige in colour) and it's quite beautiful. The entire city of Bath was also granted world heritage status by UNESCO, partly because of the stones, but also due to its vast green spaces/gardens, and because of the thermal pools. 

I didn't know where to go first because it's all so beautiful and incredible looking. Each park, each street, each shop, each bridge seems unreal. The shops are amazing because they're quaint and unique with good things to buy but also because of how neat they look all done up in the Bath Stone. In the end we wandered a bit down some streets, got a snack, went to Parade Park right on the water and took a million pictures and then headed over to a famous bridge that is entirely covered and lined with shops and cafes. There's only one other bridge like it in the world and it's in Italy. 

From there we went to the Guildhall Bath Market and had fun in the shops. I discovered a great jewellery shop and then something really exciting happened: I got some stuff for my wedding! I found the most perfect earrings and they have blue on them as well which goes along with my Winter Wonderland theme and covers me for the "something blue" of my wedding. I also got a very intricate and sparkly headpiece as well. I'm so excited and happy and it's been my goal to find wedding stuff here in London so that on my special day, my travels here can be a part of it. 

After the market we went to the Bath Abbey which was just as impressive as the Salisbury Cathedral from the day before. I won't be able to describe it and do it justice but you'll have to try and imagine all the archways and stained glass and the ceiling with its stone cylinder carvings fanning out to form designs and patterns. It's so eerily beautiful. 

Right next to the Abbey is the Roman Baths. That was a once in a lifetime experience for sure. The turquoise waters are lined by stone columns and roman statues overlook it all along the balconies. Steph and I touched the water and it was quite hot. There's lots of little side pools and hot tubs and a really nice shop that has tons of spa products using the thermal waters from the pools. 

Next was lunch and we went to a fancy restaurant called Garfunkel's where we got 20% because we were part of the bus tour. Everyone's meals were superb and very reasonably priced. The bus picked us up again right outside Garfunkel's and we took it on a tour of the rest of the city and stopped at The Royal Crescent (which is a famous crescent of beautiful tall houses in the Bath stone) and then walked around some of the nearby parks. We had to leave around 5pm because it gets dark so early now in England. Bath turned out to be the highlight of everyone's trip and I might have to redo mine and Matthew's trip itinerary so that we can go there when he comes. This city is a 10 out of 10 rating! 

When we got back to Southampton, there was another shopping extravaganza back at West Quay Mall. We then tried going out to The Encore pub beside our place for dinner but they wouldn't let Adam in because he's under 18 so we relocated to Leelawadee Thai Restaurant again. I think we might be their best customers! 

Here's some pics