Back from Bath and squeaky clean

We got home last night after a relaxing 2-day break in Bath. It's one of those places where a short jaunt is the perfect amount of time; the historic core of the city is very compact so it's easy to get around on foot and two days affords a leisurely look at the main historic sites and gave us a feel of the city. Our hotel was in a perfect spot, easy walking distance from the train station and a block away from the famous Roman Baths, the Pump Room and Bath Abbey. Our first morning had us walking up the 212 steps to the top of Bath Abbey. Since we were the only two people on the tour (the first of the day - it pays to be an early riser on holiday) we got the chance to ring the Abbey bells and also got to clamber into the underside of the church roof. We then went to the beautiful Assembly Rooms where big parties were held in the 18th and early 19th centuries. We then walked up to the famous "Circus" (a circular street of Georgian houses) and the beautiful Royal Crescent pictured here. We wandered through Victoria Park, enjoying the first sun we had seen in more than a week. Afterwards we went to the Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street, one of the streets she lived on. The museum presents the Bath of Jane Austen's day, both what she enjoyed and did not enjoy about living in the city. Since it's such a small place it was amazing to recognise the areas on the map where she lived during her years in Bath. That evening we enjoyed a lovely dinner at a restaurant set in the old Green Park train station, where a jazz trio performed featuring a great young female singer.

On Friday we spent several hours making our way through the fantastic and recently refurbished Roman Baths museum. This was a huge Roman bath and temple complex in the years 40 to about 400 AD, dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva (Sulis being the goddess worshipped by the local Celts and Minerva one of the Roman goddesses). The natural hot springs in Bath had always been a place of worship for people before they figured out a more mundane explanation for where all that warm bubbly water was coming from. The museum presents artifacts found in and around the hot spring and temple - one of the most fascinating of which I think are the "curses", little messages written to Sulis Minerva complaining mainly about petty annoyances (like the theft of clothing at the baths!) and wishing death, blindness and all other manner of horrible things on the culprits. I think these little scraps of metal on which people poured out their anger really bring you close to the people who lived there millennia ago. After seeing the ancient Roman baths you can go to the Georgian Pump Rooms above and sample the famous Bath waters. Although I am glad we did this, I am also really glad that I have never been prescribed a gallon of this water a day like some people were back when they went to Bath for healing. It is a bit like drinking liquid metal!

We really enjoyed our time in Bath and found the smaller crowds and nearly non-existent traffic noise a great break from London!

Handel's house

Another Saturday has come and gone. Since we've been to most of the major museums in London we have moved on to the slightly smaller and more obscure sights, discovering some interesting gems. Today we went to a fairly new museum (opened in 2001) that is set in the bachelor pad that George Frideric Handel lived in for the last 35 years of his life. It's a Georgian townhouse at 25 Brook Street in the Bond/Oxford area and it's a great little museum staffed by friendly volunteers. Handel lived in the house from 1723 til his death in 1759. It's an amazing place to visit as Handel composed most of his work after 1723 in the house itself (in the tiny composition room) and rehearsed with many of the top singers and performers in Europe in the rehearsal room. It's a modest space but you can imagine a workaholic bachelor living there, and the history of the place makes it well worth a visit, particularly if you are a fan of Handel's music. (An interesting aside is that in the 60's Jimi Hendrix lived in the flat next door!) The museum reminded me a lot of the Mozart house museum that I went to in Vienna this past summer (although Mozart certainly didn't live at that address nearly as long as Handel lived in this house in London). It really brings the composers alive to imagine them living and working within these spaces.

To continue on with our music-themed afternoon we went to Denmark Street in Soho, once considered the "tin pan alley of London". We had a nice time looking at all the specialist guitar shops (including the "Bass Cellar" and a store specializing in vintage guitars). So as not to walk away totally empty-handed, Keith bought some new guitar picks.

The Wallace Collection

Keith and I took our respective mothers' advice and went to the Wallace Collection today. The Wallace Collection is in the Baker Street area and is the personal art collection of the 4th Marquess of Hertford and his son Sir Richard Wallace put together mainly in the 19th century. The collection is still contained in the family's large London town home (Hertford House) which was bequeathed to the nation at the end of the 19th century and turned into a public museum. There were a few paintings that I recognized in the collection: The Swing, featuring a lovely lady in a pink frothy gown having a romantic idyll with her two male admirers (one of whom was originally supposed to be a Bishop, naughtily), The Laughing Cavalier (who is arguably neither) and a beautiful portrait of Madame de Pompadour. There are other paintings by Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Canaletto (Venetian scenes), Jan Steen - the list goes on and on. There is also a lot of French furniture, including more of Marie-Antoinette's stuff than what is now at Versailles. Other French pieces abound, including a lot of paintings and busts of Louis XIV through XVI. There are also a lot of paintings which feature dogs - always a hit with us. We liked the so much we picked up a calendar featuring the Dogs of the Wallace Collection. there is also a remarkably huge collection of early guns, cannons and armour. The museum was a great place to spend the afternoon because while there is a lot to see, it's not so big that the visit is stressful or exhausting. Very much recommended to anyone visiting London!