A hot bath would’ve definitely been more welcome :P.
Time/Location: August 25, 2014 – Bath, England (Day 2)
Agenda:
- Breakfast @ Wild Cafe
- Morning Sweets – Charlotte Brunswick and the Bath Bun
- Stonehenge
- Lacock Village
- Dinner @ Yak Yeti Yak
- Bristol Airport to Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Breakfast @ Wild Cafe
This is a cute little cafe, right across from the The Raven, that has a good assortment of breakfast/brunch/lunch foods. The kicker on Yelp was the rabbit (I think), but we were there too early for lunch. Their breakfast foods (pancakes, eggs benedicts, etc) looked very solid, but we wanted to try something new.
- Kedgeree – smoked haddock poached in milk with lemon, rice, peas, and parsley
- Kippers w/ poached egg, lemon, and butter sauce
I will say, not the best tasting thing I’ve ever had, but it was interesting enough. The food was very mild and left me wanting for something a little more hearty.
Morning Sweets
It’s never too early for pastries or desserts :).
Charlotte Brunswick
- Cute little specialty chocolates store, interesting flavors but not extremely fancy
- Picked up the bath bun, ginger, cracked pepper, and walnut chocolates
The Bath Bun
There’s a story around how this bun came to be, and it’s really quite a simple dessert meant to be doable for anyone with everyday home ingredients. We went to this cafe that still reproduced the bath bun recipe as it was meant to be made, and tried out the bath bun (of course) as well as their house tea. We were confused by the lump of sugar inside, which was of course, intentional and meant to be a nice surprise when you get to the center of the bun :P.
Stonehenge
It was windy, rainy, dark, gloomy, and totally worth coming to, though my body was not too happy with me afterwards.
- Pro Tip – Free before or after public hours if you ask for it (probably need special excuse though) and at the summer solstice
- If it’s raining, wear things that will be ok in the rain (jacket, boots, water wicking pants). You will be miserable otherwise!!
- If it’s not raining, there are actually different trails/paths you can take outside of Stonehenge itself. The fields/outskirts looked really lovely, but we decided not to be wetter than we already had to be.
- Audio guide is included
Lacock Village
The village known for Harry Potter, Pride & Prejudice, and a bunch of other movies I have never heard of…It’s very cute, but don’t expect too much out of it except a few minutes of fangirling :P.
- Lacock Abbey – The abbey hoisters are where many of the Hogwart’s classroom scenes were filmed, as well as Snape’s potion room.
- Godric’s Hollow – Harry’s house is right a bit off to the side, right next to a B&B that we visited
- Tea w/ Winston Churchill’s grandson – Meet Dave, who runs the B&B next to Harry’s house, and also does a lot of clay painting and collects pottery! He invited us over for tea after having a conversation w/ our tour guide, and told us random stories and trivia, as well as teaching one of the foreigners in our group the many meanings of “score”
- This is the only village that is rented to residents by the National Trust
Dinner @ Yak Yeti Yak
There is a particular road in Bath leading from the train station to the city center that had a lot of asian restaurants. We decided to get something quick and easy and different from all the British food we had been eating previously.
- Pork and vegetable momas (like xiao long bao, but w/o the soup)
- Chicken noodle soup (but not American style)
Bristol Airport to Newcastle-upon-Tyne
PRO TIP: DO NOT TAKE THE 1:40 AM BUS (or a 6 AM flight for that matter) unless you have a place to stay until then. You do not get the benefit of staying inside the warm/covered bus station, you will meet sketchy people occasionally outside, and it was pouring the entire time we tried waiting there starting at 10 PM. Just go to the airport earlier, and sleep on the second floor where the restaurants are (not the first floor, not enough seats there)
Yes, we were tired and cold. We did get a lovely breakfast at the airport though when we finally made it there
Conclusion: Overall, Bath was an ok place to stay. We didn’t visit any of the ‘attractions’ that cost way too much money, the seagulls were vicious and loud, but it was a good pit stop for our day tours and it had some decent food. And the bath bun of course :).