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Blog: Bath!

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The Minerals In My Spring and I went off for a PROPER GROWN-UP Easter Away Weekend City Break this Easter, for three whole nights in BATH, and LO! It was GRATE!

The best thing of ALL was that we went to the Thermae Bath Spa - I was expecting it to be an Ancient Roman place with a big smelly BATH in the middle of it, but it was all DEAD modern, also rather SWISH. We spent FOUR HOURS wandering around in BATHROBES, dipping into a ROOFTOP POOL, a massive steam room and a whole other POOL which had JETS in it so you could get drifted around. It was UTTERLY ACE, like being in something off the TELLY. It was also packed out with Women On Hen Nights Being RELAXED (we went in the morning) and a TONNE of COUPLES also being relaxed and SMOOCHY. Having typed that it sounds less pleasant than it was, but basically it was like being in a really really nice PUB, but everybody was in their swimming costumes, also in a pool.

The other best thing was the Bizarre Bath Walk which was a 90 minute stroll around while a comedian did JOKES and MAGIC TRICKS. It was bloody GRATE - a huge MOB of us walked around and LARFED. Also rather good, if a bit different, was Bath Abbey (I do like a good cathedral, even when they don't CALL it a Cathedral) and our favourite PUB, The Crystal Palace, which we went to a LOT. Ooh, and we even went out for a POSH MEAL at a place called De Muths. It was DEAD POSH - all veggie, but not like a veggie cafe, everything was JOLLY SUBTLE and DELICATELY FLAVOURED. As The Grub On My Plate remarked, it's not the sort of place you'd want to eat all the time - you'd hanker for CHIPS after a while - but it was lovely to go to and we would do AGANE.

In fact i think it's highly likely we WILL go again, tho there's a few things I'd be unlikely to repeat. One is the City Sightseeing Tour, if only because we did BOTH of their trips, which were EXCELLENT as ever - anyone who has ever travelled ANYWHERE with me will know i am a FAN of this company. "Go on an open top bus tour within 24 hours of arriving in a city", I will tell all and sundry, "for then you will get yr bearings and also some FACTS!"

The Jane Austen Centre, however, I'd not go to because it felt like a bit of a rip off. Jane Austen lived in several houses in Bath, but this wasn't one of them, although it was QUITE NEAR somewhere she lived for a few weeks. And didn't like. They had a "museum" downstairs where, as far as I could see, the only ACTUAL item from anywhere near Jane Austen times was A PAIR OF SOCKS. We did get a ten minute talk right at the start from someone who was FUNNY and KNOWLEDGEABLE, but to be honest it did feel like we'd paid fifteen quid for entry to a cafe and Jane Austen Themed Tat Shop.

The other thing we'd probably not do was go to the same hotel. We stayed at the Abbey Hotel (Best Western), which was nice enough except a BIT expensive, and had a COACH LOAD of RUGBY FANS/STAG WEEKENDERS on our floor who sat in the hotel bar until 4am every night then spent up to an HOUR running up and down corridors, singing, shouting, knocking on doors, and generally being TWATS. You know when you get a bunch of total wankers together, like on a train or something, and there's always a little weaselly one who SHRIEK-GIGGLES at everybody else? We heard a lot from him. I did complain at reception and they apologised... but kept serving the idiots until 4am that night anyway.

On the plus side I did call them A VERY RUDE WORD as I passed them in the corridor one morning. "Did that bloke just call us [VERY RUDE WORD]s?" one of them asked, surprised. It made me feel better anyway!

Apart from those two things, however, we had a BLOODY LOVELY time in Bath. Even the fact that trains were a bit knackered and it took an hour longer than normal each way was PLEASANT - it made it worthwhile getting a Weekend First upgrade and RELAXING. Bath! It's dead good! We'll be back!

posted 2/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Of course your favourtie pub is the Crystal Palace. It wouldn't be any good if it was called The Peterborough United!
posted 2/4/2013 by Tim

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