so, today i got back from Bath. it's a lovely town, mostly georgian architecture, which is nice, cause i really hate the victorian crap. it's just so industrial looking. bath is a 90 minute train ride from london, so you can see the major sites in the town in an afternoon... personally, i needed some time outside of london...
being a small town texas boy, i needed to get out into somewhere that wasnt as cramped, crowded, and noisy as london... bath answered quite nicely (apart from the hordes of italian school children). i checked into the macdonald bath spa hotel. it's in a converted/expanded house, that at times had been a school and a headquarters for the admiralty during the second world war frequented by Churchill. i.e. its another nice place, but unlike alot of other extremely nice hotels, the staff did not seem terribly stuffy, they were good natured, humourous and dutiful. i was a bit worried that i would feel out of place at a nice british hotel and thought it would be stuffy. happily, i was wrong, and i had alot of fun. spent four hours at the hotel bar, and by the end of the night the bar tender and i were experimenting with gin based cocktails, and samplin some of the scotch. he let me have a sniff of cognac that cost 140 pounds per 25ml... it was like 400 years old. we made what, i dubbed as the dirty gimlet; g
in, lime juice, and bitters.
the main sites in bath are about 10 minutes walk from each other, the royal crescent, which is how 18th century real estate developers did business. its a big crescent of townhouses for wealthy people. the other big sight, is fairly guessable, the roman bath, the towns namesake. the roman bath was excavated in the 1880s... the roman style statues and the colonnade were built then. it's cool though, and there are several other spas around town... unfortunately though, i didnt spend enough time in the city to actually go and visit one of the proper spas today. between the royal crescent and the baths the city is a treasure trove of georgian architecture and friendly
people. i was trying to walk to the royal crescent and i thought i had followed directions from the concierge at the hotel, but i had gotten a bit off direction. i took out my map, and was lookin at it tryin to find my position and a chap walkin by asked if where i was headed and i said, that i was a bit off the track and gave me directions, and away i was, back on the trail to the royal crescent... where i saw that, which was lookin at houses, and dodgin large crowds of italian school children... but i did see a sweet alfa romeo spider... then i ate at a peculiar indonesian restaurant halfway between the two. which was nice,
cause i was cold... it was chilly, but luckily had stopped raining... the place was named java restaurant, the menu was thai food, they had two pictures of the thai king and queen, and several balinese carvings... and they had their little shrine with fresh flowers, incense, and all that sort of thing... in short, bath is great, and next time youre at your local bar, have a dirty gimlet.
being a small town texas boy, i needed to get out into somewhere that wasnt as cramped, crowded, and noisy as london... bath answered quite nicely (apart from the hordes of italian school children). i checked into the macdonald bath spa hotel. it's in a converted/expanded house, that at times had been a school and a headquarters for the admiralty during the second world war frequented by Churchill. i.e. its another nice place, but unlike alot of other extremely nice hotels, the staff did not seem terribly stuffy, they were good natured, humourous and dutiful. i was a bit worried that i would feel out of place at a nice british hotel and thought it would be stuffy. happily, i was wrong, and i had alot of fun. spent four hours at the hotel bar, and by the end of the night the bar tender and i were experimenting with gin based cocktails, and samplin some of the scotch. he let me have a sniff of cognac that cost 140 pounds per 25ml... it was like 400 years old. we made what, i dubbed as the dirty gimlet; g
in, lime juice, and bitters.
the main sites in bath are about 10 minutes walk from each other, the royal crescent, which is how 18th century real estate developers did business. its a big crescent of townhouses for wealthy people. the other big sight, is fairly guessable, the roman bath, the towns namesake. the roman bath was excavated in the 1880s... the roman style statues and the colonnade were built then. it's cool though, and there are several other spas around town... unfortunately though, i didnt spend enough time in the city to actually go and visit one of the proper spas today. between the royal crescent and the baths the city is a treasure trove of georgian architecture and friendly 
people. i was trying to walk to the royal crescent and i thought i had followed directions from the concierge at the hotel, but i had gotten a bit off direction. i took out my map, and was lookin at it tryin to find my position and a chap walkin by asked if where i was headed and i said, that i was a bit off the track and gave me directions, and away i was, back on the trail to the royal crescent... where i saw that, which was lookin at houses, and dodgin large crowds of italian school children... but i did see a sweet alfa romeo spider... then i ate at a peculiar indonesian restaurant halfway between the two. which was nice,
cause i was cold... it was chilly, but luckily had stopped raining... the place was named java restaurant, the menu was thai food, they had two pictures of the thai king and queen, and several balinese carvings... and they had their little shrine with fresh flowers, incense, and all that sort of thing... in short, bath is great, and next time youre at your local bar, have a dirty gimlet. 
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