Bath

Beautiful view in Bath, England. Too bad the weather didn't want to cooperate.

While I was in Bristol a few months ago, I went to Bath. It is the site of a remaining Roman bathhouse. And after you visit the bathhouse, you can go take a bath in the disgusting mineral water (yes, I drank the gross stuff). The town itself was quite charming, but very touristy and very, very tiny.

Dirty, dirty roman bathwater!

I only spent about 6 hours in the town so I didn't get to do much, but I saw a lot. After paying an arm and a leg to visit the Roman Baths, I got to go on a FREE tour of the city. I know, you're thinking 'a free tour, it couldn't have been that good,' but it was. A little retired man took us all around the city and told us a ton about the architecture and the history of most of the major buildings.

Projections of Romans on the walls of the cool bath room. Oddly enough, all the scenes were a bit homo-erotic...I wonder why.

Maybe the most fascinating thing for me was looking at and hearing the history of Jane Austen's house. I actually learned quite a lot about her from the tour guide and it was really cool seeing where she lived, walked, etc. I also really appreciated all the Georgian houses and the columns. They're really lovely.

The most photographed view in Bath. A beautiful semi-circular set of private houses.

I'm not sure I would recommend a trip to Bath. If you are in the area, it's a great little half-day visit, but I don't think I would make a special trip just to see it. After all, you can go to Rome to see Roman baths and there are several other interesting small towns in England.