Bath, this time with pictures -- Saturday 21 January

Due to the stress of the laptop theft, I was really grateful to be getting out of London. Unfortunately, I'm no good at timetables and ended up on the train an hour later than I'd scheduled. 

So, no walking tour. 

Still, there were things I needed to do. My cheap brick phone's battery had died in the hostel, so I had attempted to switch SIM cards in my flip phone from the states. Unfortunately, it refused to accept the card, so I decided to seek out one of the slightly sketchy "phone repair and unlocking" stores that seem to be everywhere. Luckily, I happened across one in Bath while searching for the Jane Austen Centre. I got my phone unlocked for just £10 and found a 4GB SD chip for a whopping £8, which was ridiculously exciting. My 1 GB chip holds exactly 40 pictures, and I had used them up. And Bath was beautiful and very deserving of photography.

An abbey tower of some sort.

They followed London in the old-stuff trend. Roman stuff was everywhere in the city centre.

Also in the "Let's call in the oldest" thing; this house was on the site of some stuff, I guess.

I never tried the Sally Lunn Bun, but I've heard they're delicious.

I just took this picture because I love the way the tree is framed by the buildings.

That's the oldest house in Bath, sort of . I guess there was a roman thing there and then a house and no one really knows which one is the very oldest, but this one's close enough. I like how different the levels are between the two houses.

I'm always impressed by how spiky old churches are.

I think that was the bath. There's a bunch of roman statues, anyway.

Hey! A thing was here in 1091! But now it's gone.

The view was gorgeous. 

That's right, the british don't need no stinkin' crosswalks.

I don't know how old the buildings are, but they look pretty.

I really liked this church tower. I was also impressed by how all the historic sites are right in the middle of everything, but I hear that the east coast of the US is like that. Over here, historic-y stuff kind of gets cordoned off.

It's just so tall and spiky!

There was a museum there, I believe. It was closed.

I'm curious about how old that lettering is. The chapel is 11 years older than the US as a sovereign nation, but I seriously doubt that the concrete is that old. Darn.

Museum! Just a little ways away from that was a sign that said that it was closed until, like, march. Rude.

I think fly tipping actually means littering, but I prefer to think of it as sneaking up on sleeping insects and knocking them over. 

Found it! Yeah, all the other pictures were discovered on the hunt for this. None of them are actually on a direct route.

So! The Jane Austen Centre. I was enormously pleased by it. I got into it for less than the Sherlock Holmes thing, the merchandise was reasonably priced and actually relevant to the venue, and the whole thing was very informative. There was a presentation of Jane Austen's life, regarding family, siblings, family situation, and life-and-times stuff. Then we were set loose in the exhibit, which was very nicely done with items that were authentic, thoughtfully-reproduced, or actual Austen family possessions. After this, I decided that the Sherlock Holmes museum would have been better as an Arthur Conan Doyle museum with an understandable focus on Sherlock Holmes, or at least a Sherlock Holmes museum with more informative staff and exhibits. You kind of had to figure things out for yourself, and, honestly, how many visitors have read all the short stories and novels?

I miss having this sort of view. Eastern Washington houses are so spread out and have no chimney pipes.

I love those chimney pipes.

So, this is one of the places where Jane Austen actually lived, just up the street from the Jane Austen Centre. This is a dentist's office now, and I suspect that the centre doesn't have the funding to buy them out.

This is the fancy-schmancy part of Bath, where the fancy-schmancy rich people lived. I don't know who lives here now, but this is the Circus (like picadilly and oxford, it's just latin for circle, not signifying big round tents with elephants). 

This is a crazy old-looking thing that didn't explain itself. I think there were signs for a salon of some sort, though.

Chimney pipes! I want them. They became the new wall.

Until I found this wall, which had weird little doors all over the place.

I believe this was outside a club or theatre, but I'm not really sure.

Al Falafel? I like to eat falafel, but I doubt this place sold them.

I have no idea what that says, I just like the idea of greek letters on a roman building.

Roman thing. Middle of shopping district. Okay, then.

Yay statues! I don't think the fountain was running, but it was winter. 

Why?

It's even more confusing in its locational context.

I wanted to take pictures of all the things inside, but I felt weird enough just taking the teapot picture (below).

I ordered a cup of tea. I got two cups of tea out of this. HUGE cups, like at least 1.5 normal tea cups.

Another spiky church.

The river was pretty.

I really like this view, because you get the pretty river, a pretty bridge, that cool rounded building, and a pretty cityscape in the background.

I think that was either a saxophone shop or a construction contractor. There were two, and I can't read the writing on the doors. 

I mostly crossed the river because I had an hour to kill after the centre and I saw that tower and had to find it.

I think this is where people with money live, because those yards are huge even for the tri cities.

And the cool old buildings that people live in. 

There keep being these massive garden plots that can't belong to just one person, but they never have signs or markers or anything.

Also, I like the trees on top of that hill at the back.

I never figured out how to get into this park, but it abuts that pink house from earlier.

This was outside a perfectly normal-looking house. I don't know why.

MOAR SPIKY CHURCHES

And a baptist church? Lookin' fancy.

This is a bookbinder/seller's shop. Luckily it was closed.

My fingers were itching for more books.

Such a cool set-up! Gah!

This is the railway station.

Looks a lot like the pacific northwest, except for the station and also that small tower in the background...

So, Bath. It was nice, and it was really great to be out of London and also get my phone unlocked. This is the kind of sightseeing I like, just me and my camera and some tea shops along the way.