I was lucky enough to be able to fill last year with a number of different visits to some cool destinations – Barcelona, Amsterdam, Stockholm and closer to home, Lincolnshire and Shropshire. This year? Aside from a trip to London to visit friends a couple of months ago, I feel like we have barely left the house, never mind go anywhere that involved passports.

You may recall from my post about my new coffee table back in January that we’d originally planned on going to the gorgeous historic city of Bath for my birthday but apocalyptic forecasts of rain, hail, storm clouds and 50mph winds meant we had to cancel. We bought a coffee table instead so it wasn’t all bad but I still really wanted to go.
Well, last week, we finally made the journey and the weather was just perfect for Autumn! Hurrah! A balmy 17-19 degrees C, sunny and lovely. The perfect season to see this absolutely stunning city.

I’ll apologise now for the many many photos that lay ahead but it’s just so damn picturesque a city, it was difficult to keep our phones in our pockets (and yes all photos are from my phone so apologies if the quality could be better.)

If you haven’t been to Bath before or you are visiting England for the first time, then do make sure it’s on your list of cities to see. Yes, I know that everyone has to go to London but it is well worth it to see some of the most gorgeous Georgian architecture you have ever seen.

We stayed at Villa Magdala, a 5* Luxury B&B in the heart of the city. Yes, that’s my little yellow Mini you see below marked out front! It’s a rather beautiful building with Victorian architecture and as you can see they had a car park which in this city is a rarity! This meant, we could park up on Sunday evening upon our arrival and not have to worry about the car again for the duration of the stay.  
The rooms, while small, are nicely decorated and spotlessly clean. To be totally honest, I was expecting a little more in terms of room quality for the price (bigger? more luxurious?) but then, Bath is not an inexpensive city so it’s probably relative. The staff were wonderfully attentive, however, really friendly and helpful and the common areas were beautiful. The bathroom had Missoni soaps which was a nice touch. (Pic below was of our room but from their website).
On Sunday evening, we had dinner and drinks at a nearby restaurant/bar called The Boater. We ended up back at the Boater every night of our stay because it was on the way back from town to the B&B and I liked the industrial look of the place. They also had a rather gorgeous Chenin Blanc from New Zealand that I loved and quite a few independent beers on tap for Wayne. I’d recommend it for quiet after dinner drinks.
On Monday, we decided it would be the day to explore the city by foot. 

We walked everywhere around the city itself and ventured as far as the beautiful Victoria Park which was just stunning. The sun was shining and we took lots of pictures!

On Monday night, we had dinner at Cafe du Globe, a Moroccan restaurant in town. We both had different dishes served in a tagine and both were absolutely phenomenal. Highly recommended if you like your food with lots of flavour.
On Tuesday, it was our ‘Tourist Day’ so we decided to hit the Roman Baths first, then the Abbey, then the Victoria Art Museum and finally we took a boat trip down the River Avon.
As the biggest tourist attraction in Bath, I have to admit the Roman Baths are a must-see and there’s an audio tour to follow for all the historic background. It’s amazing what is underground and it appears to just go on and on with various rooms to explore.
If you missed it on Instagram, this is us doing our ‘Gangsta’ pose at the Roman Baths. Yes, posing inappropriately at history landmarks is funny to us. Also we are as far from ‘gangsta’ as you can possibly get. Which we find even funnier.
The Abbey is an amazing building. I mean, just look at it! I will shut up and just let the pictures do the talking.
We stopped for a quick drink at The Pig and Fiddle but despite friendly bar staff, it was pretty much a dive in comparison to the stunning surroundings. If you head to Bath, this is not on my recommended list of establishments to visit ;)

The Victoria Art Gallery Museum was also a little disappointing. It wasn’t bad and it was nice way to kill an hour (it’s rather small) but if you are only visiting Bath for a very short time, then you won’t really lose anything skipping this one out. I’ve been to much better in other cities. There are actually a whole host of museums in Bath and I kind of wish we had time to explore a couple of others.

The little boat tour, however was a lovely jaunt. An hour heading down the Avon was just a lovely way to relax and enjoy the scenery float by.
After our leisurely float, we stopped off for cocktails after a recommendation from the hotel staff to The Porter, a stunning little bar on the 2nd floor gazing on to the streets below. The interior is quite pretty and the drinks were lovely. (Image directly below is courtesy of The Porter’s website.)
On Tuesday night, we had dinner at Turtle Bay, which we later realised was a chain restaurant that serves Caribbean food (and there’s actually one in Manchester – whoops). To be honest, the food was great and the Island Ice Teas went down rather nicely (this may have played a part in why we loved the food so much so take that on board).

And then of course, we finished our night at our ‘local’ – The Boater.

Charming, isn’t he?
In the morning, we made our way back home! It was a really lovely couple of days in a beautiful historic city.

Have you been to Bath? Is it in your list of places to visit?

Don’t miss a thing!


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