Break in Bath

We are just back from a mini break in Bath.  It is only an hour and a half on the train so an easy place to visit and oh so pretty.  Our hotel was 5 mins walk from the beautiful Royal Crescent which really is breathtaking to see.

Most of the buildings are apartments now, plus a very plush hotel.  The photo below shows  Damian and Lula walking around the Crescent.

Almost all of Bath is stunningly beautiful, the most mundane of shops are housed in beautiful Bath stone.  By the river is a great place to sit and stare.

The Roman baths were a great visit, it does get busy but there is plenty to see and just the spa water with the steam rising on the surface is enough to fascinate me.

The Roman baths are slap bang next to Bath Abbey.  There is an open square where musicians and street performers play.  I was very lucky, a talented male violinist was playing as we ate our lunch on Tuesday, I was just thinking I wish he would play my favourite Bach piece and my thoughts must have travelled because he did!  I placed a few pounds into his case in gratitude.

The Fashion Museum was another great attraction.  They had a costumes from the movies exhibition and I was most excited by this outfit...

Worn by the delectable Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Lucy Honey Church in A Room with a View, one of my favourite films.  The Fashion museum is well worth a visit and I will be back in the future.  Unusually, you are allowed to take photographs and there are lots of things for children to do- I saw a lot of mothers and daughters and lovely moments of interaction over the exhibits, trying on corsets and crinolines and designing outfits.

We planned most of the acitivites before we arrived in Bath incluing a booking at Demuths vegetarian restaurant.   They have a creative and exciting menu- not easy with vegetarian food, plus great simple options for children, so Damian and I indulged and and Lula was on safer territory.  I did get some strange looks from the table next to me as I took photos but it was such a memorable meal and I don't have that experience often in restaurants.  I didn't photograph my starter but it was amazing- a tomato salad sounds dull but each piece of tomato was a different variety and they were all gently warmed.  Alongside it was a granita of horseradish so each mouthful was warm-cold-sweet-savoury- hot all at the same time!  The long plate below was Damian's main, Miso roast aubergine with sesame rice fritter, tofu, carrot and star anise puree, tamari mushrooms spring onion oil and pickled radish

It was a journey of different flavours.  The stack below was mine...Urid lentil wadis- the little dumplings on top, in a dahl style sauce with veggies and coriander rice.  I didn't want it to end.

We were lucky to be staying near Victoria Park with its 57 acres of parkland including a mega play area with activities for all from tinies to teens.  Great for easy evening time.  Lula is having a private moment in a climbing area with a bar of chocolate.

Rather randomly, there happened to be three hot air balloons taking off on Tuesday evening, such a beautiful thing to watch as they lift off and float away.

Bath is very focused on the lady shopper with lots of independent and boutique style gift shops that I tried not to get sucked into.  I visitied The Makery.  They don't have a huge selection but what they do have is high end- Kokka, Echino etc.  Unfortunately their policy is to sell by the half metre so I only bought the Kei dots and a scrap of the Kokka teapots fabric.  If they had sold by FQ I would have bought a lot more.  The washi tape is from Bloomsbury store, they had great stationery.  And the chicken wire fabric is from a fantastic quilting shop that  I only found 30 mins before catching the train home so I really did not spend sufficient time as there was an amazing selection, the online store is being developed and will be online soon, Country Threads, I will be watching that space very keenly and I may try and get to one of their courses, they look like extraordinarily good value for money.

A great little holiday.  I thoroughly recommend Bath, everything is within walking distance and it is the prettiest urban place in the UK that I have visited.