In the Footsteps of Jane Austen

This last summer I read the book, "A Walk with Jane Austen" by Lori Smith (which I totally recommend). The book is about the author going to England for a year to go visit all places having anything to do with Jane Austen. Point of me bringing this up, I felt like I was walking with Jane Austen when I went to Bath for a day at the beginning of March. I realize I am quite behind on my blogging, but give me a break, I'm in Europe! Back to Bath - one Saturday, Ashley, Holly and I took a little day trip to Bath. Upon our arrival to Bath we headed towards the Bath Abbey and went inside. Like all churches in England, it was breathtaking. Tall towering ceilings with beautiful stained glass and even the classy touch of an American flag hanging off one of the pillars. After touring the abbey we went to the Roman Baths, one of the coolest things I have seen in England. In on of my favorite movies, The Duchess, with Keira Knightley, they go to "Baaawwtthh" to catch up on the social scene and to be refreshed by the baths. Both Jane Austen's Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were based in Bath as well.

Learning about the Roman Baths was incredible. Those romans were some smart people. I wish I could go more into the logistics and history of the baths, but unfortunately my memory is awful when it comes to things like that - but trust me, it's cool. So yeah - if you want some dates and history, google it.  Moving on - next Holly, Ash, and I went to the Jane Austen Center, a little museum all about Jane's life. The museum itself was a little cheesy (hence the guy dressed up in the picture), but it was still cool to get to see some time period things like dresses, gloves, Jane's writing desk, and other such things. Also, after our tour we went and had a proper afternoon tea in the Jane Austen tea room. We had tea (earl grey for me) and scones, yum. There is something about having tea with your friends that brings out the inner girl in you who loved having tea parties. It was quite lovely!

After our spot of tea, we made our way to the Circus. The Circus is an example of Bath's striking Georgian architecture with fine detailed Bath stone carvings built in the eighteenth century and designed by John Wood the elder. Yes, I did just copy and paste that from a website. After seeing the circus we went to the Royal Crescent, where part of The Duchess was filmed. It's a huge long building in the shape of a semi circle with a large grassy area in the front of it which Ashley, Holly, and I frolicked and skipped on.

Our last sight of the day was the Pulteney Bridge, it is one of the most beautiful and romantic bridges in the world and is one of the only a handful of historic bridges which has shops built into it. (Again - from a website). We got to see the bridge at night and it was absolutely gorgeous, especially with the way it reflected in the water.

All in all, our day of following the footsteps of Jane Austen in Bath was quite lovely and quite English. I am extremely behind in my blog posts, here's what you should look forward to: Italy, Greece, Switzerland, and Ireland. Cheers!