From Snowdonia we traveled down across Wales to Bath – another pit stop on our journey to Cornwall. I had visited Bath once before due to work so had a rough idea of the city, but it was Richie’s first time. We arrived quite early in the day with the aim of maximising our time there, and luckily our hotel was very kind in letting us check-in early at 1pm.

We stayed at The Bird (a clever play on words there!) which is a small-medium sized boutique hotel situated just south east of the city centre. We had a lovely room on the first floor, with the biggest bed – dreamy!

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We set out to explore for the afternoon and because it was a lovely day we were recommended by the lovely receptionist to try the “Walk to the View” walking trail which takes in a few of the local sights and also a great view of the skyline. The walk is around 3 miles so easy to fit into 1-2 hours (depending on stops for photo’s/refreshments!), and it is all clearly signposted but the route is also on National Trust website. We set off and quickly reached Great Pulteney Street which is an impressively wide Georgian Street, and then onto the Holborne Museum (which looked lovely). We cut through Sydney Gardens and arrived at the Kennet and Avon Canal. Walking along the towpath gives great views into the gardens which back onto the canal, and sometimes into the large houses of the Syndey Buildings. The walk then continues up the hill through the Bathwick Fields to a view point at the top, where you get a fantastic view across Bath.

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The walk leads you back down the hill and all the way along the North Parade back into the heart of Bath, where we enjoyed a much needed refreshment in one of the many pubs. That night we enjoyed a delicious meal at our hotel in their restaurant Plate. All of the food was great – would definitely recommend eating there if you are staying.

Knowing that we only had one full day in Bath we decided to try and fit in as much as we could, and so the night before booked tickets for some of the main sights (due to covid restrictions all of the main attractions required you to book in advance). We started with the Roman Baths. The website recommends allowing 1.5 – 2 hours for a visit so we thought it would take up a chunk of the morning, but we found that we only spent around 1 hour inside for £21 each (which is quite steep). We wonder if due to the restrictions if some elements were closed off so it meant our route through was shorter, but we did enjoy the audio guides and the building itself was beautiful. There is a small part of it which is exposed outside so prepare to be out in the elements. I had to fight the urge to test how warm the water is, it definitely looked inviting even if a little murkey.

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With our trip round the baths taking a lot less time than we originally thought we had some time to spare. Just next to the Roman Baths is Bath Abbey which is a beautiful building. We aren’t religious but as an architect I do enjoy visiting buildings and so we popped in – it was free entry but we did have to fill in the track and trace for covid restrictions. When we visited part of the abbey floor was being restored so we weren’t able to access the central space but we did get up to the nave to admire the extensive stained glass. It was such a peaceful and calming place that I would recommend a visit no matter your religious background.

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We walked up around Bath which is a beautiful city, it is hard not to admire all of the beautiful sandstone. It felt to us that in places Bath is a miniature Edinburgh – we are perhaps spoiled from living and working in Edinburgh for so long that we are used to impressive circus and crescents, but I am happy to admit the warmth of the stone in Bath makes up for the smaller proportions. The Circus and Royal Crescent are both beautiful and the setting of the large green is worth the walk up the hill. Another attraction we had booked was No. 1 Royal Crescent which is a Georgian house museum. Although it was enjoyable this was probably one of the more disappointing parts of our trip to Bath. The museum is quite small, with access to around only two rooms per floor, so 8 rooms or so in total. The rooms are set out as they would have been in Georgian times, but there was only one information board in each room with very limited information, so it sadly didn’t take us long at all to go around it all and so we felt a little cheated at £10 a ticket each.

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We had some excellet stops for food and drinks during the day, some personal highlights were the hot chocolate at Mrs Potts Chocolate House (amazing!) which is across the square behind the Roman Baths and Abbey, Green Bird Cafe where we had a delicious lunch, Colonna and Smalls which is probably a must for any coffee fan, and The Beckford Bottle Shop where we had a gorgeous glass of rose outside in the sunshine. On our second night we dined at Raphael which is a French Restaurant in the heart of Bath, where we had another delicious meal.

Overall we enjoyed our trip to Bath and would happily go back. It is a great small sized city which is easily walk-able and surrounded by lovely landscape which would be great to explore more. I would definitely recommend it for a short city break.