Though we've both been to Bath several times (many times in my case!) and know the city's famous sights well, we wanted this trip to be a more relaxing one, where we could really enjoy the experience of being in this beautiful city without a particular schedule.
I have a sort of bucket list involving types of hotels I want to stay in; one of those was a classic British seafront hotel, which we "ticked off" in Dover in June. Still on the list are classic townhouse hotels in both London and Cheltenham, and a country cottage in the Cotswolds. And I also really want to stay in a castle at some point in my life!
Naturally, a classic Bath townhouse hotel was also an item on my list - and one that we ticked off over our anniversary weekend!
We stayed at the Kennard, a hotel in a peaceful street on the edge of the city centre, located in a terrace of very classic Georgian houses - exactly what we were looking for!
We went inside to drop off our luggage and had a little look around the hotel, which is beautifully decorated and even has a little secret garden out the back!
Our first bit of exploring of the day took us to the nearby Henrietta Park, a pretty, tranquil space we hadn't visited before.
We then stopped for brunch at the Provenist, a café that feels quite off the beaten track, well away from Bath's Christmas crowds. The coffee and avocado on toast was delicious and the place was decorated beautifully. To make things even better, a gorgeous sausage dog at the next table kept coming up to us, wanting cuddles!
The café is actually joined directly to Neptune furniture store, so we had a great time afterwards looking at all the arrangements of furniture and décor, and picking out what we liked for our dream future home!
We then passed through the centre of Bath, where we visited a new attraction for us: the Parade Gardens. Interestingly, you used to have to pay to visit this park, but this year, it became free again (probably because no one wanted to pay), which is why we finally went! It's a nice little park, with great views of Pulteney Bridge.
As we had a whole afternoon ahead of us, we decided to do the walk to Bath Skyline. This was a mostly uphill route that gave us a bit of a workout, taking us up past the picturesque Bath Locks and then up onto a (rather muddy!) hill overlooking the city.
We then went back to the hotel to have a rest and some snacks! This was when we got to check into our room, and we really loved it! It was right up in the roof (la chambre de bonne!) and was decorated in a very vintage style. Being there made us feel like we had stepped into the past (but in a good way)!
Later on, we had a Christmassy walk through the city on our way to Côte, one of our favourite restaurant chains. We had a very tasty meal there, and I tried orange wine for the first time (would highly recommend)!
The next morning, we had something planned to make the weekend extra special - a trip to Thermae Bath Spa! I'd been before but many years ago, and it was Claudio's first time going, so we were very excited!
We booked to go at 9:00 for our two-hour slot, and I'm glad we did, because it did start to fill up towards the end of those two hours, even though it was a Monday.
When we arrived, we were given cases to put our phones in that could only be opened with a special machine. This meant that we couldn't use them for the full two hours, which was actually quite nice!
The spa has three areas that we could use with our tickets: the rooftop pool, an indoor pool called the Minerva Bath, and an area with various steam rooms, a sauna and an ice room. The rooftop pool was lovely and warm and had great views, but getting out into the cold December weather was a struggle! We spent the most time in the Minerva Bath, which was very big and had a jacuzzi and a lazy river. Overall, it was a really special anniversary experience, and a great callback to the Roman history of Bath as a spa town.
Obviously I couldn't take any photos inside, but took one outside to remember our morning there. Unfortunately, the building was not in its most photogenic state!
Afterwards, we were very hungry, so headed over to the Pulteney Kitchen (located actually on the bridge itself) for an English breakfast. Great food and great views!
We the visited two churches: Bath Abbey and St John The Evangelist. Neither of us had entered Bath Abbey before, so this was another new Bath experience for us. Both churches are very beautiful, and it was nice to look around them and have some moments of prayer and reflection.
After that, we did some more walking around the city, visiting the market in the old Green Park station...
...and a nearby Winter Wonderland type of event. On our way there, we passed Bath Elim Church, a building that reminded me a lot of churches in Italy.
As it was a weekend, we also took the opportunity to visit Sally Lunn's Historic Eating House without having to queue! Naturally, we had Bath buns with cream and jam and pots of tea, which was absolutely delicious. Plus, it was cool to spend time inside what is said to be the oldest house in the entire city!
Our train home was after the rush hour, and there came a point in the day where we became quite tired and cold. So we decided to walk back to the hotel to chill out for a while. Walking past Pulteney Bridge after dark felt very atmospheric.
I also just had to take a photo of this old-fashioned chemist near the hotel, as I loved the big bottles!
Even though we'd already checked out of our hotel room, we had a code to come back in to pick up our luggage. The hotel has two landings, one of which has a little bar and the other one of which has a small lounge area, which was a nice comfy place to rest our feet before making our way to the train station.
To sum up, our anniversary weekend in Bath was a very special trip. Even though I grew up near Bath and have been countless times, it was my first time ever spending the night in the city and it was a super memorable experience to stay in a beautifully decorated hotel in a classic old building. Our time at the spa was fantastic, and we really enjoyed exploring the city on foot and seeing some hidden gems. Bath is absolutely one of our favourite cities in the UK - it has an elegance that reminds me of Paris and a connection to history that reminds me of Rome. I'm sure it won't be long before we'll be back again!
