making up syllables: named, literally, for its baths

a ten minute train ride from bristol will land you in the small town of bath, so called, one would assume, for its historic roman spa. bath is the kind of town that is full of stately, important looking buildings and lush verdant parks no matter which direction you're facing, a kind of overwhelming surge of beauty and significance such that it's almost exhausting. still, a wonderful day trip should you ever get the chance.

the roman baths are right in the heart of the city, not 5 minutes from the bus station. the grounds are incredibly well preserved for something that dates back to 865 BC. isn't that insane? structures still standing that are close to 3,000 years old? of course most of the top level structure isn't that old, added sometime in the 19th century. still, impressive. and while you can't take a dip in the roman baths there is a modern spa just down the road that uses the very same hot springs. maybe in another 3,000 years people will be marveling at it?

towering over the baths is the bath abbey, an impressively large gothic church. actually i'm kind of at a loss for things to say. if you look through the photos you'll notice that everything has that same impressive limestone look. this particular type of stone is actually known as bath stone because its so typical of the city and i think this gives everything the same kind of stately significance that i was mentioning before. but it also kind of makes everything look the same, in this same stately significance. like, if you eat black raspberry chip from graeter's once every month its going to be great, but if you eat it every day its going to be kind of boring. even if you had a different flavor of graeters every day you might eventually think, "man, no denying ice cream is great but i think i could just go for a vanilla wafer today." that's almost my impression of bath. not exactly a criticism, but hopefully explains my lack of gushing review.

so yea, i was in bath for the better part of the day then returned to bristol to have dinner with susan and steven. the next day i mostly took it easy, probably typed up one of those london posts, did some wash, etc. that evening the brookers, alan and maggie, along with their son, mark, his wife anna, and their two boys stopped by for some drinks. afterward we went out for italian and met alan and maggie's other son, chris, and his wife kate. they also have a daughter, victoria, but she is, somewhat coincidentally, in australia currently. anyways, we had a very nice evening and it was nice to catch up with more of jill's family.

and that was my last night in bristol. the next morning susan and steven were kind enough to drive me to the train station and send me on my way. a four hour trip by train and i would be in york.