August 6 Monday

We enjoyed Renata-from-Prague. She had the warmest smile you can imagine, and she smiled a lot. We chatted with her a bit every breakfast, and sometimes we met her in the front hall and talked. She was tickled that we were planning to do the things she had suggested for enjoying Bath. She had been in England for four months, which would be over Wednesday. Her boyfriend was here with her for three months, but she had been alone for the last month. She worked various jobs, her last one being to manage Ashley House while the owners were on holiday.

After breakfast Bob and I walked North Parade Street again into the town center. Our first move was to get a town tour on a big red step-on bus. We wanted to do that before the tourist crowds finished their breakfasts. Either these local tour buses are franchised, or one company has a monopoly, because all over Britain, they look the same. They are double-decker buses painted an eye-popping red and covered with come-ons and ads. When you buy a ticket, it is good for a period of time, two days here in Bath, of hopping on and off the bus to visit the sights. They're perfect for getting to know what's in town and how to get around.

I wanted to see the Jane Austen Center, but when the bus got there a mob of kids with backpacks was gathered around the door listening to a speaker on the steps. We decided to come back later, and stayed on the bus. We passed through the Circus and got a short look at The Crescent. When we got to the Abbey Square, we popped off to use the restrooms at the Roman Baths. Then we jumped on the next bus for Pulteney Street, Sydney Park, and other points of interest in Bath. We had a live guide on most of the buses, and one told us about a walk that goes out of Sydney Park and along the canal. I stored this in my mind for future reference.

We got off that bus at the end of the tour and caught another bus back to the Jane Austen Center. The Center is in a house just a few doors from where Jane lived in Bath, and is an almost identical house. On the little stoop steps of the center someone, sometimes a man and sometimes a woman, stands in eighteenth century costume to chat with passers-by and to welcome you to the Center. I'm a big Jane Austen fan, as are my daughters and a couple of my friends. I have all of her novels and movies made from them. When Bob and I were in England in '03, we toured Derbyshire and visited the homes of her life and the manors used as sets for the BBC Pride and Prejudice.

At the Center, we were first sent to a parlor, where we enjoyed small talk with others who were waiting. After about fifteen minutes we were ushered into a room full of chairs. A speaker gave us details of Jane Austen, her work, her life in Bath, and the exhibit. The speaker was good, and got the audience hyped to go on. The exhibit, while not real big, was very well done and captured my interest. It deals principally with her life in Bath and the books she wrote using Bath as a setting. I was disappointed, though, that the gift shop did not have Lady Susan. This is a novelette by Jane Austen that is very hard to find, but I thought surely the Jane Austen Center would have it.

From the Jane Austen Center we walked back to the Sally Lunn's for lunch. We were getting pretty good at finding places in the town now. We found the picturesque tall narrow house while wandering the town on Sunday evening. I had read about Sally Lunn in various novels, but didn't know what it was. Some type of bakery item most often eaten for teas was what I got from context. I was real surprised to find it was bread. A Sally Lunn is a big version of what the British call a “tea cake,” which is a round bun that's split and toasted, served with butter and jam. A Sally Lunn is about the size of four hamburg buns and looks like a small round loaf of bread.

Sally Lunn came to England from France about 300 years ago to work in a bakery. She brought with her a way of making buns that produced a light, airy, cake-like bread. Therein lay her claim to fame that persists to this day. It's the quality of the bun. I had my usual cream and jam with mine for lunch. I only ordered half a bun. Bob had a half a bun made into a ham sandwich. I recognized the bread as soon as I bit into it.

The last time I had that light bread was in the 70s in Quebec. We were traveling around in a camper in eastern Québec outback, and in particular the Gaspésie Peninsula. In those days women were still baking bread in beehive ovens in front of their houses. They made, and sold out of their kitchens, incredibly huge loaves of light bread with a texture of angelfood cake. They were French. Sally Lunn was French. Aha! Now all I need is a recipe, but the “original” recipe at Sally Lunn's is jealously guarded. They give out a recipe that is “similar,” but not the real stuff. These light breads are called “brioche” in French. I'm willing to bet, though, that not one modern French or English baker can equal that bread baked in the beehive ovens in Quebec.

The Sally Lunn was a treat, along with my memories; and if I'd had room, I'd had the other half a bun. Enjoying my Sally Lunn in the original bakery building was frosting on the cake. The house itself dates back to the 1400s, and there has been a building that sold food on the site as far back as Roman times. There's a little museum in the basement that shows evidence of the earlier buildings and sells buns, cream, and watercolors of the present Sally Lunn House. I bought a watercolor for my souvenir.

There are two big red tourist bus tours in Bath. The one we took in the morning was a tour of the town of Bath. A second one toured the area around Bath, especially the high rise to the west from which you can see the town below. We took the area bus ride after lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day and the views were terrific.

When we got off that bus, we walked to the Abbey. Bath Abbey is a huge beautiful Gothic church with flying buttresses, pointed stone arches, and room to seat 1200 worshippers. The Abbey sits in the center of a paving-stone island. To the front is a large paved square. The Roman Baths and the famous Pump Room restaurant line one side of the square. One the other side are small shops and restaurants. All the restaurants have tables outside in the square where transient acrobats and musicians entertain the crowds. This is called the Church Yard. To one side of the Abbey is another larger square that has no name that I can discover. There are benches all around the side of this square, of which we made a lot of use. Musicians entertain all day there, too. The Abbey wall covers one side of the square, the TIC forms the other, and the Roman Baths side walls the third. The last side of the square is open to the street.

We ambled to the side square, where Bob commandeered a bench. I walked the several blocks to the Post Office and bought stamps. When I came back, we headed home to Ashley House. We had picked out a little wine shop on our way into town in the morning and thought we'd treat ourselves to some good wine. Inside, though, the shop was really hot, much warmer than it was outdoors. We couldn't believe they'd do that to wine. So we didn't buy any, and continued on our way home.

When we got back, Bob packed up the computer and walked over to The Royal Oak. I went off to our favorite newsagents and got two more bottles of Rivercrest Ruby Cabernet. I took the wine back to the room and then went over to the Royal Oak myself. Bob was done, so I ordered a pint of Guinness and took my turn at email. Then I looked up information on Hastings, Dover, Canterbury, and Oxford while Bob took notes.

By the time we were done with that, it was seven o'clock. We went back to the room and put together a supper of tea, cheese, peanuts, and shortbread. After our week in Bath, there was a week left of free time before our trip to France. It would be best to go somewhere between Bath and Bury St. Edmunds. The big debate was which of the above four towns did we want visit for that week. We debated it over our tea, came to no conclusion, and gave it up for the night.