Weekend Road trip to Bath- 8th & 9th April 06

Here it is! Just a few hours before school reopens for the final term, I’m starting on my Bath trip blog. The last few weeks have been crazy. So much traveling that’s been done, so many other events that have took place as well.

Anyway, the bunch of us from LCCF decided to go for a trip to Bath 3 weeks ago. It was a very last minute thing. We just wanted to do something away from our tiny little Lougborough hole for a change.

It seemed that not many were keen on undertaking the task of organizing the trip. So Auds, Vic & I took things into our hands. Planning for the trip was such a headache! Here is the list of problems that came up.
1) No hotels in Bath, nearest hotel in Bristol which is 30mins drive away => need to rent cars
2) Too many people going, not enough drivers
3) When the car problem was sorted out, some people dropped out => not enough drivers, still need to drive to Bristol to spend the night.
4) Found a hotel in Bath, meaning we could take the train. But train tickets sold out!

It was at this point when the 3 of us were tearing our hairs out. The idea of renting MPVs came across our minds once again but there was a problem of drivers. Oh, we had more than enough people who could drive alright, but they were either prohibited from driving in the UK by their parents or we didn’t dare allow them to drive (new license holders, don’t dare take the risk). I fell into the 1st category; my parents had confiscated my license the day I passed my test. How sad is that? :(

At the last minute, we found 4 train tickets online. In the end, it was arranged that the whole group would be split into 2 parts. Aaron was to drive group 1 with his car up to Bath. Group 2 was to take the train. We would swop travel arrangements on the return journey.

8th April morning- Patrick, Victor, Auds and I met at the Food Box bus stop and made our way to the train station. It was a 3.5hr ride with 2 changes in between. Each of us had prepared a variety of snacks for our picnic on the train. Traveling alone is dreading. The 4 of us, we didn’t even realize that time had gone by so quickly with all our wacky games, snacking and crazy photograph taking during train changes. Soon, we met up with the other team in front of Roman Baths.

Pat & Vic looking a little dazed during the early morning train ride

The whole gang paid 8.50quid to enter the Roman Baths, the place where Romans used to wash themselves 2000 yrs ago. The warm 46oC waters came from a hot spring. Even before the compound was built, the Celts used it during pre-historic times. A temple dedicated to the Roman Goddess Sulis Menera was constructed within as well. Besides cleansing themselves, the Romans threw in offerings of coins, jewelary and perfumes into the pool. They also threw in curses inscribed on metal plates. Hmm, washing yourself inside must have been pretty difficult with that much junk inside.

Reunited in Bath!

The girls next to the pool

Me standing on current ground level- 2000 yrs ago, the ground was 6m lower

The spring water claims to be able to heal anyone with any sort of ailment for example, sores, rashes, headaches. We were joking around, daring each other to drink from the pool. Later, I found out from the audio guide that the pool was lined with lead. Sulpuric water with lead, not a very good combination. Bought a bottle of this water back for keepsake, to which Derek and YiYi said that I should have just scooped some outta the pool using a mineral bottle, but I liked the packaging.

' Wonderful & most excellent for all defacts of the body, proceeding of a moist cause as Rhumes, Agues, Lethargies, Apoplexies, The Scratch, Inflammation of the fits, hectic flues, Pockes, deafness, forgetfulness, shakings & weakness of any member. It cleances the body from all blothces, scurvicial itchings and breakouts whatsoever.'

After touring the Roman Baths museum, the group split up. Some people wanted to do a little window shopping while others wanted to go to the glass blowing theater to watch craftsmen make the famous and costly Bristol Blue glass. Rushed to the other side of the city but we arrived too late. Admission closed when the showcase started. We managed to take a peak through the doors tho.

The gang met up once again to visit the Bath Abby. (It’s an old church) After which, we went to the Sally Lunn house to have dinner. Sally Lunn started a bakery in the 1600s. The building where we dinned in was the place where she baked her buns and it was built in the 1400s. Apparently, her pastries were extensively well known and everyone would flock down to Bath to taste the buns. Even Charles Dickens was a patron of hers.

Potrait of Charles Dickens in Sally Lunn's place

We had dinner there and I got to taste the famous buns, which I personally felt was nothing special. Even Roti Boy could have easily beat Sally Lunn I think.

Huge! But I prefer Roti Boy...

Through the window, Vic's behind the cam

Dinner was followed by supper in a pub opposite our hotel. We stayed in Travel Lodge. Went over to the boys’ room to watch ‘Just married’. Then the girls watched another movie, ‘Scary movie 2’ before falling asleep.

Lounging in the Guy's room.

Pat is cut out off the cam, I'm behind it.

The next day, after checking out of the hotel, we proceeded to the Royal Crescent. This was a row of houses which were commonly featured in Jane Austen’s novels. By the way, Jane Austen was from Bath.

Outside the Jane Austen center with YiYi

There’s this picture of us jumping mid air in front of Royal Crescent in the previous blog entry. That took us around 10mins and 20 tries to capture. By the time we succeeded, there was a group of locals gathered at a distance and observing us as if we were aliens! =) Ooh, here are some of the friends which I made on the field in front of the houses.

The group going 'aww' over a little puppy

Audrey & I with a 'Hush Puppy'!

Managed to squeeze in a quick stop to Putney bridge where we got to take in the beautiful landscape of Bath. The city is beautiful. Undulating hills and old stone buildings. Its generally a posh city to live in, but wow! Its definitely a pretty place to stay.



I managed to get the group to go back to the Cadbury café which some of us had visited the day before. There, I bought my 2nd cone of deliciously wonderful Cadbury ice-cream. The first day, I only had a single scoop of Fruit & Nut. This time, I had double scoops. I was the only one who bought a double scoop. No surprise to everyone when I could not finish it up. Audrey simply scolded me. But never mind, I ate my fill of heavenly chocolate ice cream and Pat was there to help me!

After ice-creams, the gang had to split up again to go back to Lboro. I was to take Aaron’s car with Auds, Pat and Vic. We decided to take the longer, scenic route back and managed to stop over at Stratford upon Avon- The place where Shakespeare’s wife- Anne Hathaway, grew up. It was a long ride alright, the guys were tuning into 2 live football matches on the radio during the journey.

Pat, Auds, me, Aaron & Vic (behind the cam) b4 the drive home

Auds, me & Vic squished at the back

The trip was wrapped up with the gang re-uniting again in the newly opened Indo-Malaysian restaurant back in Lboro. I was pretty exited with the menu and did most of the ordering. Authentic food from home, who wouldn’t be? Ordered the dinner in malay! =)

Dinner back in Lboro- the end of a great weekend

Yep, that was basically it. Our last minute out of town outing. It was clear that everyone enjoyed themselves a lot. We are even considering doing a trip to Luxemburg or France to do skiing next! Thanks guys for that awesome weekend!