Bath has always been a place I’ve wanted to visit and with friends of our planning to move to Bath it seemed like a perfect opportunity to do so. At the same time I saw on lastminute.com that we could book a bobsleigh experience. Bobsleigh in England? Definitely something I wanted to try out.

Though our friends’ plans to move to Bath eventually didn’t crystalise my bro and I decided to keep our bookings and so on the last bank holiday for the year before Christmas off we went. I was praying for decent weather as traditionally I think August bank holiday weekend is rubbish and thankfully it was picture perfect.

Photos here.

Our weekend in Bath was sort of split into three sections:

– Stonehenge, Avebury Stones, Lacock and Castle Combe Day Tour
– Bath itself
– Our Bobsleigh experience

Stonehenge, Avebury Stones, Lacock and Castle Combe Day Tour

One of the reasons I’ve always wanted to visit Bath was the easier access Stonehenge. I know that you can do day trips from London to get to both Stonehenge and Bath but it seemed that we would be stuck in less traffic coming from Bath and at the same time we could spend more time visiting the surrounds. I found a tour operator called Mad Max Tours who market their tours as being smaller and more personal. And it definitely was. Our tour bus had about 15 people which was a pretty good number for keeping the tour more intimate and manageable. Here are the places we visited and my thoughts.

	Stonehenge	Recently Stonehenge was voted the worst tourist site by the Brits (in a survey of 1,200 – big numbers I know!) There seems a slight justification in this rating as after all it is just a pile of rocks sitting in a field near the motorway and where you have to pay a rather extortionate price to get inside. However, I thought it was totally worth getting up close to it – overrated or not! There was just some sort of magic to the stones. With your entrance fee you also get a free audio guide that explains a bit about what the stones are about. Be warned it definitely waffles on a bit. The audio tour takes you anti-clockwise around the stones but my brother and I were amused by a random dude who was walking around clockwise telling everyone they were going around the wrong way! Very amusing.
	Avebury Stone Circles	Though a little lesser known than Stonehenge the mystery around these stones are equal to Stonehenge. The Stones cover an area 16 times larger and nearly a millenia older. Here you can touch the stones and get amongst them to feel the energy. Just watch out for the sheep do-do all over the place.
	Lacock National Trust Village	This was a quaint little village where there has been no major construction for the last 200 years. This was the lunch stop for the day where we tucked into some yummy English food at the George Inn and enjoyed the sun. This little village has also been used for filming for the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice and the Abbey apparently for the first two Harry Potter movies.
	Castle Combe Village	Castle Combe in the south of The Cotswolds is apparently the prettiest village in England. With only 350 people living in the village it is known for its, well, prettiness and tranquility. It was indeed tranquil but not much to entertain. Good for a break on a long drive or maybe good for indulging in a peaceful afternoon tea.

We also had some photo stops along the way to check out Silbury Hill, a random man made structure (apparently the largest in Europe) built 4,800 years ago for no apparent purpose, the Cherhill White Horses, amazing horses carved out in the chalk slopes and Waggon and Horses, an inn that apparently was frequented by Charles Dickens. What made these thatched horses stand out was the unique markings left behind by the thatchers.

Bath

The best way to get oriented in Bath is to take one of the free walking tours that are offerred by the Mayor’s office. They are offerred (free) every day and includes an informed talk on most of the main points of interest including the Abbey, the Roman Baths and the Pump Room, and taking in the architectural highlights of the North and South Parade, The Circus and the Royal Crescent. Its probably all we needed to know about Bath.

The highlight of our tour was seeing Nicholas Cage coming out of his newly purchased home I think it was at the Circus. One moment our tour guide was pointing out his house and the next moment he was walking out! What a surprise! I think we were all so surprise and disbelieving that it was him that I was the only one who managed to get off a snap.

Where you may want to spend some extra time is going into the Roman Baths. This is, after all, what Bath is known for. Although not now a working spa, a tour (via the once again very waffly audio tour) will give you an idea of what it was like all those years ago. Be prepared to spend some time in here if you want to hear everything about the place. Best time to visit seems to be at dusk when the night fall gives a bit of magic to your pictures and gives a bit of atmosphere to the place. Also this seemed to be when there were less tourists romping about the place.

In Bath, my bro and I also found time to sample the strange giant Sally Lunn buns when we had afternoon tea in her house. I’m still not understanding what the fuss is about. All I could figure was that they were giant and fluffily light and probably made from a recipe as old as time. The tourist trap suckered us in as we bought some to take away as gifts for people back in London. I’m sure they were appreciated. 🙂

Bobsleighing

I never realised it but you could do a Cool Runnings scene of your own in Bath. Located at the University of Bath there is a partial replica of the bobsleigh track at Salt Lake City. To my surprise all sorts of people turned up for the event – from the young to the old, from the slight of size to the big and brawny. We thought we’d be the only ones going for it but in the end I think there about 20 of us.

There are two things that you need to know before you even consider going to the track – 1. You will get very hot because you will do a lot of sprinting (you’ll do about eight runs) and 2. You will get very cosy with your fellow team members so either go as a group of four or be prepared to get up close and personal to a few strangers! My bro and I were very lucky to be grouped with a couple from Essex, Sandra and Aaron. They were really lovely and friendly and it was clear from the outset that we all worked very well as a team and the other teams actually had us pegged as the ones to beat!

As it is only a partial replica of the Salt Lake City track you don’t actually do a full proper bobsleigh run with the activity mainly based around the push start. To be honest once you’re in the sled you don’t even realise where you are on the track – all the hard work is in the start. Surprisingly it is a lot easier to get into the sled than you would think though some of the other teams, in particular where the team was all big burly guys, had a bit of a struggle to get in. I think our combination worked quite well – so well that we won the time trials! and we were the only ones to break the 9 second barrier (twice) so I was pretty happy. Here’s a bit of video:

This was, for me, the best part of our trip to Bath.