We left June 14th mid-afternoon Chicago to Heathrow and landed early at around 5:30 am on the 15th. Took the Rail-Air link bus to Reading (which gave me motion sickness even with meds) and hopped on the train to Bath. Upon arrival we found our B&B The Henry. Very nice room and bathroom with wonderful breakfast. We dropped off our bags as it was only about 10:00 am and headed to the town center where we purchased tickets at the TI for the Roman Baths the following day so we didn't wait in line at all. Then we headed into Bath Abbey to walk around to keep ourselves awake and to cool down as it was quite hot out. This ended up being the perfect plan as the Abbey was quite interesting with lots to look at. The red iron chandeliers are unique. We then headed to Sally Lund's for lunch. Food was good but not great. Of course it could have also been the fact that we had been awake for 30 some hours by that time and just wanted a shower and small nap.
We then headed back to our B&B to do just that. After being refreshed we headed out for some dinner at the Crystal Palace Pub, which was very good. It had great ambiance and our fish and chips and leek pie were delicious! Then we did the free town walk to help ourselves stay awake and acclimate to the new time zone. Our guide was witty and shared a lot of valuable information about Bath. I think we both fell asleep in seconds that evening.
Day 2 - Did the Roman Baths first thing. They were even more well done than I remember from about 18 years ago. We spent about 4 hours viewing everything using the audioguide and signs. One of our favorites of the trip and I've been twice before! We then had lunch in the Pump Room. I had a ham hock tureen which was delicious and chips. There was a piano player playing and with the elegant setting it was very relaxing. We then got a cab out to the Europcar location to pick up our rental car for use over the next week. It actually went very smoothly and with using my google maps app we were able to easily navigate our way to a pay parking lot a half block from our B&B's door which was still at the edge of town. Note about the pay parking lots, most now take credit cards but not all. And some of the more out of the way one's want the old pound coins instead of the new ones. We then used the combo ticket we got with the Baths to view the Fashion Museum. It was quite interesting and I would recommend it if you have time. After stopping at a Boots to get sunscreen and other travel essentials as well as a grocery for some travel snacks we went to the Scallop Shell for dinner. It was fantastic! Scallops as a starter and fish for the main. Delicious!! It is popular so reservations on a Friday and Saturday are smart if you aren't early by their standards.
Day 3 - using our rental car we headed out early to Glastonbury (managed to hit it before the music festival a couple of days later) which I had not been to before and always wanted to see. This was the worst day of driving only because it was very small roads and so slightly more nerve wracking. Looking back it really was just fine. I actually got used to the left hand side thing quite quickly and as we had an automatic shifting wasn't an issue. We parked in the pay lot right next to the Abbey and enjoyed the museum until the first guided tour of the day. Our guide was a priest and very funny. As it is ruined it was nice to have the tour. In the abbots kitchen we sang happy birthday to my sister and one other with awesome acoustics going on. We then finished up on our own and sat in their outdoor cafe area to enjoy some snacks and sketch in our journals the ruins of the Abbey. Note about dogs - Glastonbury and many other places we went allow dogs in because their large open green spaces are used as parks by the inhabitants of the towns the sites are in. I thought this was a wonderful idea and was able to meet many a pooch and their owners this way. They were ALL well behaved.
continued.....