England Day 8 - To Bath
Up bright and early to make our way over to the EasyJet counter at Edinburgh Airport. We again had a cabbie who wasn’t too keen on talking; then again, maybe it’s the early hour.
The trip to the airport was uneventful; pretty even, as we caught glimpses of the cliffs past the houses. The airport itself is a fairly tiny one, so it’s quite impossible to get yourself lost in it. We checked in and released our baggage to EasyJet (mine was just over the 20kg limit *wince*) extremely early, and then I made the most of an internet area that ended up also being near our gate. 4GBP for 40 minutes; best money I ever spent! Though it did take me a while to get a handle on the British keyboard.
Our flight was supposed to leave at 8:40. It was “delayed” by ten minutes to leave at 8:50. We had all boarded at around 9, and finally lifted off the tarmac at 9:15. I’m sure the board still said that we left at 8:50. A word of caution when using EasyJet: this seems to be their modus operandi for their flights, so build in extra time. Even if your flight leaves ‘on time’, it may still not really be (they seem to count themselves lucky if they’re boarding by the time they’re supposed to lift off). Also, there were no clear queue lines at the airport, leading to mass confusion as to where to stand. Even though we’d checked in extremely early and were in the “A” group, we still got on the plane massively late, and ended up not getting seats together.
The flight itself though was short and thankfully uneventful. I was twitchy the entire trip because I’d told AirportCarz that we’d be ready at 10:35 for our taxi to take us to Bath, and I wasn’t sure if they’d penalize us for being late. I needn’t have worried…they were having some issues with too many people for too few drivers, but were handling things admirably under the obvious strain of it all. We waited patiently about another half-hour until a driver was ready for us.
The drive from Bristol to Bath was very pretty…I was expecting highways, but we used country roads that turned and twisted, narrowed and widened all the way to Bath. Tall hedges rose up on either side of most of the roads, and I was surprised at the lack of road trash. Got a bit nervous at Bath itself because we passed through a ‘rougher’ part of town first, and I worried at the location of our hotel (the Carfax). I needn’t have worried; the Carfax is on a lovely little street literally a minute’s walk from the Abbey, the Baths, and the center of town. It’s even on the city tour bus’s bus route.
Reception was nice, the lift up to the top floor (we had a family room, rooms 49 and 50, where I believe the attic used to be) was VERY tiny (max. capacity three people, but it would be extremely claustrophobic!). Our rooms are acceptable but definitely European small, and somewhat faded in bloom. One room has two singles, the other a double (which I took). There’s one bathroom for both rooms, but a sink in the doubles room for things like brushing teeth. Mirrors abound.
Alana collapsed on the first available bed, but eventually we roused to go seek sustenance. We made a quick stop across the street to enquire on Sakura, a Japanese nobe restaurant (25GBP a person…it’s very hidden in the Windsor Hotel, which itself is rather hidden. A note: there’s a ‘box’ out front, and it’s literally just a few doors down on the opposite side of the street from the Carfax). Sakura is not open Sundays and Mondays.
We made our way into town and ate at the first spot we saw, another Garfunkel. Again we had a wonderful meal (shared two burgers between the three of us), though it was uncomfortably hot inside, and we were very overheated by the end of it. The sun was beginning to have its affect on the city.
We learned that we could pay to get onto the bus sightseeing tour only on the bus in front of the Abbey, but decided to do the Roman Baths first.
I’m sorry to say that the Baths did not impress us. For the price (9.50GBP per adult, 5.50 per child) you just really didn’t get much for your money. It was warm and it was crowded, and we dumped out into the ever-present gift shop, where I purchased a postcard to commemorate my visit.
Out of the baths we purchased some ice cream and a drink, then boarded the touring bus (a note: we had a pamphlet that was either given to us by the receptionist, or I picked up from the stand next to the desk. Regardless, inside it was a coupon for one free adult ticket with other purchase. Alana, being a child, was free. So for all three of us it was just 9GBP to tour the city!).
The bus moved much slower than the London version, stopping at all points (usually in the bright, hot sunshine, where we baked) for long periods of time. Though we had a live tourguide, we still used headsets so that we could hear him clearly. The whole process took about an hour.
We decided to double back around and hit some of the shops we’d seen from the bus, but it was getting close to 5pm by then, and true to form shopkeeps were beginning to shut down (I believe that most closed at 5:30). Very tired at this point, we walked back to the hotel and lay about in uncomfortable hotness. Though the hotel is non-smoking the area outside was not, and we were treated to a headache-inducing wave of nicotine through our windows (open to receive every last blessed breeze that could come). We made use of the laundry facility (note: it’s 3.50GBP per load, and poor mom had a fright that she’d been locked in at one point!), and then the showers. A note too about the shower: think twice on booking this room if you’re at all tall ;). With the sloping ceiling in the bathroom and the fact that all English tubs appear to be raised up, we actually managed to hit our hands against the ceiling while showering. At 5’2” it was perfect for me; any taller and you may be in trouble. At least there was excellent water pressure, though the door refused to close shut.
Finally cooled by our shower and the setting sun, we watched the hot air balloons rise over past the Abbey.