So yesterday Olly and I visited Bath, a day trip organised by the University. We left pretty early :s and our coach managed to make it to Bath [unlike the other OU coach that took a long detour round the outskirts of Oxford looking for one of its passengers!].

We managed to pack quite a lot in one day:

• First we went to the Roman Baths/Temple complex (I have visited the Baths once as a child but can’t remember too much and it was nice to visit after studying about it during Latin GCSE) . Olly learned about Aquae Sulis and the Goddess Minerva, Roman cleanliness and bath house etiquette. We touched the water it was nice and warm, and you can still see the hot springs flowing around the complex into the great bath and other smaller baths. We have some great pictures which we will upload to the phots section. You can also clearly see the Victorian/Georgian influence on the place where they built over and above the existing Roman baths.
• After the baths we managed to find ourselves in a quaint little tea shop enjoying cream teas.
• We meandered past Bath Abbey – magnificantly ornate for a relitavely tiny building!
• We meandered past losts of shops and things and made our way to the Jane Austen Centre, a privatley run museum. We listened to a fascinating talk about Jane Austen, her family and their connections to Bath – where they lived etc. The museum itself is very tiny and focuses on 3 aspects i) where Jane and her family lived in Bath [which are still standing so you can go and see them] ii) Aspects of Bath used in her various novels: which was absolutely fascinating! and finally there were some constumes from various TV drama adaptations of the novels. The museum is small but a must-see for any dedicated reader of Austens books, as i’m not sure Olly enjoyed it as much as me!
• We then took a meander through the streets of Bath and managed to find an antique map shop – we purchased a lovely antique map of Bucks to add to our collection, and got to look at some really old maps from 1600s which were ornately decorated with crests and things….unfortunately these were thousands of pounds outside our budget!!!
• Somehow we found ourselves in yet another tea shop enjoying cream teas (i know – very naughty of us!) before getting the coach back home.

All in all i had a lovely day – unfortunately we didn’t get to make it to the Herschel museum or the glass blowing place 🙁

I also got a great birthday present and am having much fun playing on it and it has distracted me from the crapness of B&Q! Cheers everyone!