Wales: Day 12 & 13 Getting Wet in Bath

After our adventures in London, we arrived home in Cardiff around 8:15 am. Tom had cancelled the days events and left us only a movie to watch as the requirement for the day. I came in, brushed my teeth, washed my face and absolutely crashed. CRASHED. I was in bed by 8:30 am and slept until almost 6 pm. That was probably a mistake, because then I couldn't sleep until almost 2 am.

Friday we were back on schedule and ready to see more stuff. We began the day at Bradford-upon-Avon. This pretty little town features a Norman bridge and a Saxon church. They also boasted of the "Best Loo of the Year," which is quite a feat.

Next, we traveled to a little town owned entirely by the National Trust - Lacock. This town is very popular for Jane Austen and various Bronte films, as well as Harry Potter! It was very cute and quaint.





The best part of Lacock? Lacock Abbey. This building was converted to a house and added upon by the owners in the post-Cromwell era, but still retains many recognizable features of an Abbey. It's very pretty and well-kept.

The courtyard and a couple classrooms may be of some interest to some of you...

What's up, another Quidditch-conversation-scene courtyard? Oh and hello various Hogwarts classrooms. One of my friends thinks this was used as McGonagall's Transfiguration class, 1st year, but I can neither confirm nor deny that without checking for myself, which I plan to do when I get home.

I told my friends that I was going to start telling people that I was on a Harry Potter study abroad. We decided that we'd like nothing better than to get approval from the Kennedy Center to research the Harry Potter books and movies, and then plan a study abroad around those sites. As we walked out, there was a big charter van like ours that said something like "Film Tours" and Harry Potter was listed on the side. We laughed till it hurt. It was fantastic.

The main city of the day was Bath. Bath was pretty incredible. Unfortunately, it rained for most of our time there. We still enjoyed it. It's a beautiful town, and like Lacock, it's been widely used for cinema settings.

We had a lovely city walk, seeing the Royal Crescent (which apparently has some Masonic symbolism and myth. Dan Brown, you got anything yet?), several monuments and parks dedicated to or by Queen Victoria (one of my favorites) and walked through the catacombs under the cathedral! Very cool.

All over the city they have these lions that are decorated all crazy. Some are painted, some are covered in tesserae in a mosaic, this one was on top of a chocolate shop and I loved it. Made me think of my Grandma Vi! :)

Following our cohort city walk and free time (shopping....I know. I should have gone to one of the cool museums, like the Fashion Museum. My bad), we reunited with the group and took a tour through the Roman Bath. Funnily enough, the town was named after a Roman....bath. The ruins were covered and preserved remarkably well, so now there is a killer museum with tons of great displays. It was probably my favorite museum next to the British Museum, which just can't be topped.

I mean, that's an actual Roman Bath remain! How incredible is that? That's like a couple hundred years after Christ. It's amazing. Plus the museum had little 1992 cell phone-looking things that corresponded with sign numbers. You'd punch in the number, hold it to your ear and then hear a little blurb about the statue or items in the case or whatever. It was great.

Bath is a really awesome city. I enjoyed it. Even though it was raining we had a good day. And I finally got some fish and chips! Hallelujah!