Last Day in Bath
Jun. 28th, 2007 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readingredheadToday was our third day in Bath, and we didn’t really do too much. The day started off with us waking up late, so that we had to run to make it to breakfast on time. After we ate, we went straight to the Jane Austen Center (which is here because Jane lived in Bath and set two or so books here). Mom and Corinne took the tour, while Dad and I went exploring elsewhere. (I would have taken the tour, but it was £7.50 per person and I didn’t want to pay $15 to walk through a bunch of Jane Austen/Regency memorabilia.)
It turned out to be all right that I didn’t go to the Jane Austen tour; Dad and I found something much more amusing instead. Down a little back alley, right by the hotel we’re staying at, is a little bookstore called “Mr. B’s emporium of reading delights.” It is relatively small, but absolutely adorable. The store is owned and operated by “Mr. B,” a middle-aged blonde Brit with great taste in literature. The place may be small but it is crammed full of bookshelves, and on every shelf there are notations below books that Mr. B particularly likes and recommends. Dad and I talked to him for a while, and he seems like a really genial guy. The store stocks mostly paperbacks at reasonable prices—a must for any book lover. I certainly would spend hours and hours in that bookstore if I lived here. As it is, I got some good video footage of the inside of the store and its proprietor, and bought a novelette by Charlotte Bronte that promises to make for some good reading.
After seeing the Jane Austen Museum, we went back to Pulteney Street Bridge (the one I forgot the name of the other day). I ended up buying Rick a map of Ireland—the political one was pretty expensive, but I found a really nice one that, while it did not show political party affiliation, was a third of the price. After that, we took a rather roundabout way back to our hotel. We didn’t do too much in the afternoon, just walked around a lot. We ended up going to dinner at a little place right by the hotel. I’m sitting back in the hotel now, watching the X-Files on TV (I was very excited to find it; I’ve been almost regretting not bringing my set of DVDs).
(This is a complete aside, unrelated to the above, but Great Britain appears to be so much more green than back home. Green meaning eco-friendly, although it's certainly green in terms of the amount of vegetation, too. I think it has to do with the amount of precipitation. But back to the green -- it's really everywhere. On waste bags, in shop windows, on buses, even in the hotel bathroom! I love it. It's something I'd like to bring back to the States. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more evidence of this.)
Tomorrow we drive out to Stratford-upon-Avon after breakfast. We’re seeing Macbeth there tomorrow night, so I won’t be updating then. That’s the only night we’re staying in Stratford; the day after tomorrow, we’ll be driving to a small town on the Irish Sea called Conwy, where we’ll stay for two days. I’m having a really good time; maybe sometime in Conwy I’ll have the time to upload pictures!
It turned out to be all right that I didn’t go to the Jane Austen tour; Dad and I found something much more amusing instead. Down a little back alley, right by the hotel we’re staying at, is a little bookstore called “Mr. B’s emporium of reading delights.” It is relatively small, but absolutely adorable. The store is owned and operated by “Mr. B,” a middle-aged blonde Brit with great taste in literature. The place may be small but it is crammed full of bookshelves, and on every shelf there are notations below books that Mr. B particularly likes and recommends. Dad and I talked to him for a while, and he seems like a really genial guy. The store stocks mostly paperbacks at reasonable prices—a must for any book lover. I certainly would spend hours and hours in that bookstore if I lived here. As it is, I got some good video footage of the inside of the store and its proprietor, and bought a novelette by Charlotte Bronte that promises to make for some good reading.
After seeing the Jane Austen Museum, we went back to Pulteney Street Bridge (the one I forgot the name of the other day). I ended up buying Rick a map of Ireland—the political one was pretty expensive, but I found a really nice one that, while it did not show political party affiliation, was a third of the price. After that, we took a rather roundabout way back to our hotel. We didn’t do too much in the afternoon, just walked around a lot. We ended up going to dinner at a little place right by the hotel. I’m sitting back in the hotel now, watching the X-Files on TV (I was very excited to find it; I’ve been almost regretting not bringing my set of DVDs).
(This is a complete aside, unrelated to the above, but Great Britain appears to be so much more green than back home. Green meaning eco-friendly, although it's certainly green in terms of the amount of vegetation, too. I think it has to do with the amount of precipitation. But back to the green -- it's really everywhere. On waste bags, in shop windows, on buses, even in the hotel bathroom! I love it. It's something I'd like to bring back to the States. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more evidence of this.)
Tomorrow we drive out to Stratford-upon-Avon after breakfast. We’re seeing Macbeth there tomorrow night, so I won’t be updating then. That’s the only night we’re staying in Stratford; the day after tomorrow, we’ll be driving to a small town on the Irish Sea called Conwy, where we’ll stay for two days. I’m having a really good time; maybe sometime in Conwy I’ll have the time to upload pictures!
