England #8: The Second (and final) Bath Day in The England Chronicles - September 2024

(Thursday September 12 2024)

This was a full yet low-key day, involving minimal driving and zero getting lost, which was pretty amazing. We discovered a community center called The Hub very close to where we parked for our Airbnb that made a handy reference point for locating our crazily-hard-to-find lodging (now that our week was nearly over, of course). The  Cafe at The Hub also serves excellent breakfast and coffee so we had our morning caffeine hit before going into the city. I got a flat white along with a fried egg and toast, which I intended to be an egg sandwich but was still delicious, and also a flapjack. In the US flapjacks are pancakes but in the UK they are delicious chewy sweet oat bars. I ended up sticking mine in my pack and enjoying it later since that was a LOT of food. 

Then we were off to Bath! We used our JustPark app and got a spot that someone was renting out behind their own car in their private driveway. It was practically beside the Charlotte Street parking lot, scene of our first parking drama event. So, very convenient to the city sights and no worries about getting a fine! I’d actually booked it the previous night since we had trouble getting anything close in on Wednesday, causing us to change plans and go to Cheddar instead.

The first thing we did on Thursday was visit what I kept calling the Oddities Museum in my travel journal. I’ve just spent an insane amount of time googling this Oddities Museum to try and figure out where it was. We walked past it early on, so I knew it was close to where we parked. It was free and had a mishmash of exhibits -  Roman artifacts, fossils, old photographs of Bath, kid’s toys, stuff Victorians had brought home from their travels, and…a little bottle containing a bit of the brandy that was used to preserve Lord Nelson’s body while it was being transported back to England after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. 

EWWWWW!

Most of the exhibits weren’t nearly that creepy, though.  

And of course the photography exhibit was my favorite, although unfortunately I didn’t note the photographer’s name so have no idea now who it was. Other than a gentleman.

I could not figure out why there seems to be absolutely nothing online about this interesting and odd little museum. I couldn’t even find it on the map - I knew kind of where it was, but not exactly. I was starting to wonder if I’d imagined it, despite having photographic evidence, until I finally stumbled across the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution. THAT’S it!! And there’s nothing online about the Oddities Museum because the Oddities Museum doesn’t exist. It was an exhibit, and the exhibits change frequently. I see now that I did take a picture of their doorbell and name plate so this really should NOT have been such a mystery! 

I think it was next that we had our adventure at Colonna & Smalls, a fancy coffee shop that takes their brews very VERY VERY seriously. They take their brews so seriously that they refused to give Kim cream for hers. Because their coffee was specifically brewed to be perfect just the way it is and you shall NOT commit blasphemy by pouring cream in it!! They pretty much said that, although a little more gently.  I have since learned that this is not as bizarre as it seemed to us, in the sense that people don’t put cream in coffee in the UK. Milk maybe, but not cream. So now I understand why they were so taken aback and horrified by that request. It was probably like asking for a pot of raspberry jam to stir into her coffee. They DID offer milk, although grudgingly. Kim kept trying to talk them into cream (an indication of how desperate she was for cream in her coffee - Kim is the least insistent person on earth) and they finally said they would bring some with the coffee… but they didn’t and I don’t think they even brought milk. It really was excellent coffee, although I do drink mine black so wasn’t longing for cream. Having made a valiant attempt to get cream initially, and not being the kind of person who stomps back in and demands justice, Kim drank hers black but sadly didn’t enjoy it. 

It was served very fancilly too, and we sat in the little back garden due to it being very crowded inside with people who appreciate the proper way to serve coffee!  

After that we went to Bath Abbey, which is a beautiful Gothic cathedral built in 1499. Thanks to Henry VIII’s monastery dissolution it was closed in 1539 and in ruins by 1572, but Queen Elizabeth I allowed a national collection to restore it in 1573. That was completed in 1620. There’s a very interesting and well done display on the bottom floor outlining the history of the abbey. I’d gone inside briefly on our last visit, intending to take the tower tour but sadly the tours had ended for the day. That was right after Kim had fallen and messed up her knee, so she didn’t want to risk the many many steps (212) to the top of the tower. This time she was going to try it, but sadly again, the tours were all booked up. Next time I will know to book in advance! The views are reportedly stunning from up there and you get to see the bells and clock face up close. 

The Abbey is gorgeous inside and out. It’s a working church and there was a boys choir singing while we were there, which was really nice. They asked that you not take pictures of them, since they were kids, so I don’t have any photos of the central area but clearly have plenty of everything else. 

Up to 80% of the walls are stained glass, which makes the cathedral unusually light inside. 

I have pictures of these guys from our last trip, and they occasionally pop up on my screen saver’s revolving photos. I thought they were in Exeter Cathedral, so was astonished and pleased to run into them here! I am always amused by the exasperated little angel on the left. 

   Why yes, you ARE walking on top of graves in the Abbey!

I’m sure it’s no shocker that this will be a two-part day, since we still have quite a lot of wandering around - the Circus, the Royal Crescent, Royal Victoria Park, and a boat ride. So stay tuned!