Jane Austen, rugby, and spas...a weekend in Bath

Last weekend we went on our much-anticipated visit to Bath!  Bath is a historic town about two hours west of London, home of the United Kingdom's only naturally-occurring hot springs.  Bath has been famous since Roman times as a spa town and was also a popular tourist town in the 18th and early 19th centuries.  By a fortuitous coincidence, we arrived in Bath on the last day of the Jane Austen festival, an annual festival celebrating Jane's life in Bath.  I've been reading Jane Austen novels since May, so I was definitely in the mood to soak up some Jane Austen history!  Bath still looks very much the way it did in Jane's time (early 1800s), with Georgian stone buildings and architecture, so it's easy to understand why the town is so proud of the fact that Jane lived there--I really felt like I was living in one of her novels the entire weekend.  Plus I guess it helps that she is their "most famous resident."

Beautiful garden near the River Avon in the heart of Bath

We got up bright and early Saturday morning (actually, that's a lie, it was still completely dark when we left the house) to catch our 6am train.  We arrived in Bath at 8am, checked into our hotel, and started to explore the town.  Bath certainly isn't an early-to-rise kind of town; literally nothing was open before 9:30, and most places weren't open until 10am.  The streets were pretty much deserted, and we got to get to know our way around a bit before all the throngs of tourists arrived.  Finally things started opening, and we went to Sally Lunn's house for some famous Bath buns.  The Sally Lunn house is the oldest house in Bath (the current building was built in 1680) and home of the Sally Lunn bun, which has become a trademark of the city.  They were quite tasty, sort of like brioche.  Josh really wants a sticker that says "I love Sally's buns"--because we did!

Sally's delicious buns...with lemon curd and chocolate butter

After our buns, Beth, Josh, and Xavier went on a general walking tour of the city while I went on a Jane Austen walking tour.  The little Jane Austen nerd in me was so delighted as we stopped around the city and our tour guide pointed out where certain scenes from the novels took place.  Plus I got to learn a lot about the history of the town too, which was very cool.  Bath has been a major British social center for hundreds of years--up until the mid-1800s, it was THE place to be.  Originally people came to bathe, but by Jane's time they just came to "take the waters" and socialize.

The famous Pump Room, where one goes to drink Bath's healing waters

After our tours we went on to the Bath vs. Sale Sharks rugby match!  I had never been to a rugby game, and I really enjoyed it.  The stadium was beautiful, with the medieval Bath Abbey in the background, and it was fun to learn a bit about the sport.  It's similar in a lot of ways to American football, but I think rugby is a lot more fun to watch.  And to top it off, Bath won!

Kicking off the game

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed.  We wandered around town, window-shopped, and I got very excited watching all the Jane Austen festival-goers dressed up in their costumes.  Although, because of all the Jane Austen and rugby fans that were in town for the weekend, we ended up having a bit of trouble finding a place for dinner that night, but we managed.

Jane Austen costumes!! aaahhhh!!!!

Sunday morning Beth and I went to the spa!!  The spa uses water from Bath's hot springs, and our 2-hour session was very luxurious.  We got there right when the spa opened, so we had the baths all to ourselves for a while (because people don't get up early in Bath).  We also went to the steam rooms and to the beautiful rooftop pool that had an incredible view of the city and the surrounding countryside.  It was a wonderful experience, and Beth and I were both very relaxed afterwards!

View from the rooftop pool

We met up with Josh and Xavier for a delicious lunch at a gastro-pub then spent the afternoon doing more wandering--Bath is really good for just poking around the beautiful gardens and streets.  We took a peak at the Roman baths, then I went to Bath Abbey for the choral evensong service, which was lovely.  We had intended to go to the Pump Room for tea in the afternoon, which I was really looking forward to.  The Pump Room is where people went to drink Bath's healing waters, and it was the social center of the town in Jane Austen times.  Well, unfortunately they had a fire alarm (no fire), so they closed early (which we thought was ridiculous) and we didn't get tea, which was very disappointing.  We did, however, get to sample some of the famous water from the hot springs--which was absolutely disgusting.  It was warm and tasted like sulfur, and I felt like I was literally drinking bath water, especially considering it came from the same source as the water that Beth and I soaked in all morning!  We replaced our afternoon tea at the Pump Room with a trip to the fudge shop, and with that we were back on our way to London.  It was an absolutely wonderful weekend in a beautiful city!

Fountain in the Pump Room that dispenses the famed Bath water

And it sure is a good thing I had something fun going on for the weekend, because it made up (almost) for the fact that I was missing Georgetown's homecoming, which I was quite sad about!

my Jane Austen boyfriend