oh, who could ever tire of bath?

For my last exploring trip out of Scotland I went to Cardiff, Bath, the Cotswolds and London. It was amazing!

Canal in Bath

After having a great time in Cardiff I trained to Bath on the Friday to meet my cousin Brianna for our weekend touring. While I waited for her to arrive I explored Bath a bit and went to the Jane Austen Centre, in one of the houses she spent time in. I was so excited about Bath because I am a little obsessed with Jane Austen, and my favourite book, Persuasion, was set partially there. It was surreal walking the same streets I have read about so much! 

One of the entrances to the Pump Rooms

Walking around the Bath Streets

My excitement at being in Bath

Royal crescent

Panoramic!

Outside the Assembly Rooms, read about it in so many books!

Opulence inside the Assembly Rooms

Sally Lunns! I grew up on Sally Lunn buns.

Another amazing street n Bath

One of the houses Jane  lived in

Brianna arrived and we found an awesome tapas and cocktails deal for our first night before heading back to the Bath YHA.

View from our hostel room

Bath Abbey at night

Tapas and 4 cocktails for 20 pounds!

We started off the next day with brunch in the Pump Room, accompanied by live music, which was an awesome way to start the day. The Pump Room features in many regency novels as a place to go and be seen and to drink the waters. We even tasted famous water. I can't say it's my favourite...

Proper coffee while waiting for the Pump Room to open

The warm waters you can bath in..hence the name Bath!

Fountain in the pump room you can drink the waters from

Yummy breakfast

Live musicians while we ate breakfast

Brianna trying the water..blergh

Post breakfast Sally Lunn buns!

Brianna outside the original shop

After that we started our road trip through the Cotswold villages on our way to Chipping Campden for the night. Purely chosen because The Volunteer Inn was the cheapest B&B I could find in the whole area! It turned out to be newly renovated, clean and just what we needed. We had the best pie ever in a pub down the road in front of an open fire. They actually brought the pie out hot in the dish and served it out onto a plate. So delicious!!

The beginning of the Cotswolds trip!

Another of the places we really liked

A cute town with a river running through

Me in Bourton on the water

Brianna and I!

Also stopped for a cake sampler...

Wonky and cute buildings and houses

Amazing, amazing dinner. Made better being next to the fire!

 Sunday saw us making a big drive back down through down other villages, Lower Slaughter being our favourite of the whole Cotswolds.

Typical road we were driving down

Beautiful countryside

Lower slaughter

Imagine living here!

Me in Lower Slaughter

Brianna in Lower Slaughter

We went a roundabout way back to London and visited Stonehenge, an epic tourist trap if I ever saw one (the cost of which I have moaned about to several people), but I went through with visiting it anyway and despite being nearly blown away I couldn't help but be impressed standing next to such an old monument. Part of the fascination is not knowing how or why it even came to be there, with some of the stones coming from hundreds of miles away. 

Teeny bit windy

It's a bit hard to imagine how it would have been when it was whole, but it's still impressive like this!

The taller stones were in the middle of the circle

The stones on the right at the front were part of the outer circle

A view which shows a bit more

I had just one night in London and went into the Kiwi haven of Shepherds Bush to visit a couple of friends which was really great! 

There are so many great places to see in the UK and I feel like I've just skimmed the surface in the time that I've been here. Especially since I spent a lot of time travelling to Europe. The good thing is that a lot of it is close by so if you have the time you can skip easily from one place to another and it is great driving or training around from place to place. I was able to go to Cardiff, Bath, the Cotswolds, Stonehenge in 5 days! And a made a trip to Brighton before heading back to Edinburgh on the 6th day. So anything is possible!

So much more to see still though...until next time! 

x