Hannah: London Day 3 - August 11, 2015 - Bath, England

Today, we went on an adventure. A very fun adventure that led us to Paddington Station. We woke up at 5:30 am to get on the tube. We got a little turned around trying to get there, but with the help of a bus driver, we finally made it. We rode on the tube for about 20 minutes before getting off at Paddington train station. Now, I just recently watched the movie, and I was so cool being in that train station. (Sure...there was tons of construction and the place didn't look anything like the movie...figures, but it was fun being in it.) we got there really early (cuz we woke up at 5:30) so we grabbed some breakfast. I'm in love with croissants and tea...so guess what I got? *chuckle* we found our train platform and boarded the train. We got first class...special us(!)...so we got to travel in comfort for our 2 hour train ride to Bath. (It sounds so much better with the British say Bath....it's more like B-ahth) the ride was long, but I got another cup of tea and wonderful views of the English subarbs, countryside, horses, and cows. When we arrived at Bath, there really wasn't anyone there...well, some of the early bird tourists like us...but other than that, not many people. That's the whole reason why we woke up so early so that we would skip the long tourist lines. Now Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage Sight. Bath and Venice are some of the only places where the entire city is a world heritage sight. Cool huh? Well, the reason we came to Bath is that Bath has one of the best preserved Roman baths of all time. Even better than Italy itself! The place was incredible! It's so amaxing that such ingenuity was used way back when! I read in books all the time about the ancient Roman baths...like in fiction books where the characters either go or talk about the magistrates and officials going to the baths. Some of the baths are still in working order! We saw things like the huge natural spring bath, the calderium, a plunge pool, a room that is much like a present day sauna, and so much more. It took us a total of 2 1/2 hours to get through the baths. Although everything isn't still standing, there were pictures of what the baths would have looked like. It was massive! After the Roman Baths, we walked around Bath looking for something for lunch. Luckily we got there early this morning because there were lines outside the Roman Baths that extended for almost 2 blocks! We found some lunch, and walked around. We also went into the church at Bath. Although the decorations aren't the most elaborate, it is still a stunningly beautiful church. It was nice just walking around the church, gazing up at the ceiling, stained glass windows, and paintings of Christ. After the church we walked around some more. We were trying to find this tea place, but the boys (meaning my father and sumner) got us on a "slight detour to take pictures." Also known as lost. Finally mom and I found the tea place. We got to have a proper English afternoon tea with...well tea, scones, clotted cream (it's cream....but the texture is somewhere between whipped cream and butter) and strawberry jam. It was absolutely delightful. After tea, we rushed back to catch the 2:15 train back to Paddington Station. Unfortunately we were too late, so we caught a free walking tour for about half an hour. Then we ditched the tour and went back to the train station at around 3:50. The ride to Paddington Station was rather uneventful. We got a wee bit turned round when we tried to find our tube, but eventually we got there. We rode the very crowded tube back to our town. On the way back to our apartment we stopped at a place and got some dinner. My brother has a pedometer on his phone and he said we walked about 7 1/2 miles today. We're quite exhausted, but we've got to keep going because we still have over a week here in England! 

Well......

Cheerio!

~Hannah~