Bath

I think I managed to pick a pretty dodgy hostel for Bath. It looked nice to begin with, but as they say, appearances can be deceiving.

The bedrooms are fine, with bunk beds and wood floors, but the bathrooms aren't brilliant. They look ok until you try to use them. They've installed water-saving showers, so I assumed that the water pressure wouldn't be brilliant, but I could live with that. Turns out that isn't what they mean by water saving. The showers in the hostel have one button, and that is on. There is no way to control the temperature and there is no way to turn them off - this feature is made worse by the fact that the water only stays on for 30 secs and nearly blasts you across the shower stall in the process. Because you can't control the temperature they seem to have 2 settings - the water is either boiling hot or freezing cold. Attempting to have a shower last night was an interesting experience. I'm catching the train to Oxford tomorrow, so I think I will hold off on having another shower until then. I don't care if I stink!!

They have a common room with only one computer, but as of yet I haven't had to wait as the hostel seems to be more than half empty.

I am in a 10 bed room, but last night there were only 3 of us in there. It's actually a little depressing that there isn't anyone around, but it's only one more night and I'm enjoying seeing Bath, so I can put up with it a little longer.

First thing this morning I went to the train station and bought myself a ticket to Oxford for tomorrow morning. It was surprisingly cheap - only £13. The bus, which would have taken 4 hours longer, would have cost £35. I've booked a hostel and I think it looks a bit better than the one I'm in at the moment. It's the YHA, so it should be pretty popular. None of the hostels are in the centre of Oxford, but it's only a 5-10 min walk in which is fine.

I'm having a relatively leisurely day exploring Bath.

Bath reminds me very much of a European town. It's small, with beautiful architecture and very classy boutique shops.

After I bought my ticket to Oxford I headed to the Bath Abbey and had a quick look around. It has a magnificent Organ, but after a while, once you've seen one church you've seen them all.

Next I headed to the Baths! How could I resist! I didn't spend anywhere near as much time in the Baths as I did last time. There are a few new additions. One very interesting addition is to the audio tour. They still have the standard audio tour, but they also have Bill Bryson giving his opinion of the different parts of the Baths. I decided to just listen to what he was saying as I wandered around. I found it very interesting, as we found many of the same things fascinating. One thing in particular that he was intrigued by was the remaining section of arch that originally supported the roof, and just how massive it was and the extraordinary engineering skill it took to design and build something like that - he even compared it to viewing the skill of the Pantheon (my favourite place).

After the Baths I headed to the Jane Austen Centre. Yes, it's tacky. It doesn't have a great deal of substance and only really focuses on the time she spent in Bath, not her whole life. But at least now I can say that I have done it. I very nearly bought myself a large poster of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy! (I'm kidding, you can relax.) Apparently they sell quite a lot.

I headed up the hill and wandered around the Circus (impressive, but not as big and grand as I'd always imagined) and then walked along the length of the Royal Crescent. The view from the Crescent is rather spectacular. I had always assumed that the Crescent right in the centre of Bath, but it isn't.

Next I headed to the Assembly Rooms and the Fashion Museum. They were quite interesting. They have some amazing outfits that you can't believe have survived as long as they have.

Next I wandered back down to the river and walked across Pulteney Bridge and then walked along the river for a little while.

I'm just in an Internet cafe at the moment and I'm going to head off as soon as I finish this and attempt to see the Herschel Museum of Astronomy. They have very weird opening hours, so who knows whether or not they will be open.

I'm going to have dinner out tonight. The pub in the bottom of the hostel is either empty (as there is no one in the hostel) or full of locals cheering on their rugby teams (not particularly attractive).

My train doesn't leave until 12:30 tomorrow, so I'm going to go to the post office and send some stuff home as my bag is already too heavy and then maybe pop into No.1 The Crescent, which is a museum that has been converted back to its original Georgian splendour (and isn't open on Mondays).

It's been nice taking my time and just wandering around Bath. It's surprisingly quiet in the centre. There don't seem to be many tourists around at the moment, so it isn't taking as long as I had thought it would to see the sites. It's been a nice day so far.