A trip to beautiful Bath

I couldn’t get a HelpX to fit around the dates when I would be in the Bath area so I decided to just book a hostel and stay there for two nights to check it out (2nd - 3rd May) since I was on the way up the country. I’m so glad I stopped there; it is a stunningly beautiful place. I arrived late afternoon and found that my hostel, Bath Backpackers, was a two minute walk away from the centre which was fantastic. I spent a couple of hours just walking around and soaking it all in – This is a must do in Bath! The architecture is simply amazing, and seeing the pale yellow Bath stone lit up in the afternoon light is fantastic. I especially loved Bath Abbey - it’s one of those sights that stop you in your tracks.

The Pump Room at the end of the Roman Baths, complete with a busker playing the tin whistle. His dog was wearing a plastic Roman gladiator hat as if he didn't even notice it...

The river Avon

I found that there are free two hour long guided walking tours and was very lucky to see that one was leaving at 7pm, the first evening one of the season. It was a great tour – the guide was super knowledgeable and even went over time a bit as he had so much to tell us about. I saw a lot of the sights that I had already walked around but I didn’t mind as it was so much more interesting to hear about the history or stories or gossip (e.g. which famous people are currently living in the Royal Crescent etc – (John Cleese is one)). 

The next day I spent the whole morning looking through the Roman Baths. This is a massive place, and really beautiful. You used to be able to swim in these baths but at some point someone had to catch something and die, just to ruin it for everyone else…There is now a super modern complex for the public, even more pretentious and overpriced than Hanmer Springs (£28 for two hours!!!) – I was going to stump up and pay but ran out of time in the time. Oh well, my wallet thanked me haha.

Anyway, the Roman Baths were really interesting. Part of it was walking through a museum and part was walking on top of and through an archaeological site, as well getting right up close to the actual baths themselves. A lot of it is underground as the Bath street levels gradually rose a few metres over the years; so you are actually walking around under the streets of Bath as you look at all the artefacts they’ve found. I was especially surprised by being able to walk, on a path, right through where they’ve uncovered the large Roman temple area that was part of the complex. You could actually tell that you were standing in the entrance way or on steps leading to the main building. It was quite a bizarre feeling to be walking through this rather than just looking at a recreation in a museum or something. It was also quite surprisingly calm and serene standing out on the balcony looking down at the main bath, or on the actual Roman footpath around it at water level; despite all the other tourists there it never seemed to feel really busy. It was as if the rock sort of absorbed any excess sound and it just made it fell really nice and peaceful.

Ducks thoroughly enjoying the warmth

That afternoon I went on a half day tour out to Stonehenge (next post) and after that I had a nice meal out and chilled out with a magazine, which was great to just have some time to not do anything. After Bath I caught the train to Oxford to catch up with my very good friends Louis and Claire for the night; then the bus on to Cambridge for one night to catch up with my friend Tom. On the way to Cambridge the bus passed through a town called Milton Keynes, which was interesting because it instantly gave off the impression of being a horrible, square box place. I found out later that everyone thinks the same – it is a new, purpose built town with a huge shopping mall and a huge business park, but it is just a big concrete nothingness with no character.

Cambridge was pretty, but I felt the same as with Oxford – I couldn’t live in either place. They are the two big prestigious university towns, and there is just an air of stuffyness and high class and a gated community feel.

King's College, Cambridge

King's College, Cambridge

Punting, famous in Cambridge

Lucky numbers three and four - Norwich and Newark

My third and fourth helpxs were each only a week long, which ended up being a bit short as they were cool people, but I had been trying to see as much of the country as I could in a short time. I had fun at both anyway so it was still good. The third was near to the city of Norwich on the East side of England, not far from a town called Diss. I was staying with Gabbi, Martin and their two daughters; as well as three other very cool people doing help exchanges – a Spanish guy and two sisters from Western Australia. Gabbi had recently started up a cut flower and salad vegetable business on a plot of council-owned land next door to them, and had organised the team of helpxers to come and attack the weeds on the next bare plot to be worked. It was great fun working with the others, it was a big job but it made it a lot easier to be doing it with them. There were always some interesting conversations going on, plenty of great food (Gabbi was an incredible cook) and heaps and heaps of laughs. On a couple of nights we even watched some Alfred Hitchcock classics together which was great.

On the Saturday everyone except Gabbi and Martin bussed into Norwich and had a good look around. There was some sort of festival on so we saw a free street show which was awesome; a 1920s themed story performed by a group of guys, using mime, dance and fire-dancing. We also had a good look through the Norwich Cathedral – an amazing building! Norwich is quite a small city but it’s pretty cool, heaps of cute little boutique shops and lanes, and there seemed to be a lot going on.

One of the Aussie helpers, Deb, had a birthday while we were all there and Gabbi organised to have a party with a bunch of family friends coming around. It was a fun night with lots of food – I made chocolate dipped strawberries and chocolate lamingtons which went down very well – games and good chats around the table. There was just a really good, comfortable and fun atmosphere in general here.

My fourth exchange was near a place called Newark-on-Trent, with Dave, Jane and their 18 year old daughter Shona. I was one of their first helpers, after a Taiwanese couple whose stay overlapped mine and who were lovely. Dave and Jane had travelled around the world with their family a few years ago and had tried wwoofing at various places, so we always ended up talking for hours around the dinner table – they were great story tellers! They had a large section with lots of garden/self sustainable projects on it, like a huge potato patch, a couple of pigs, two chicken coops, beehives and several garden plots. I was mainly helping to clear out a few of these plots that hadn't been used for a couple of seasons and were a bit overgrown. There were also seedlings to plant and tree trimmings and so on to clear. There was a disused airstrip nearby which made a great place to walk around in the evening – especially with all the bright yellow rape seed oil flowers out (these crops were out everywhere across the middle of England at this time of year). I also got a fantastic run down on the history of Newark-on-Trent when Dave first picked me up - he loved playing tour guide and was incredibly knowledgeable.

Newark Castle

Dave was an an amazing cook and everything was fully home made and delicious. There was fresh bread every other day – which I had thought were store bought originally, they were that good – and lots of international dishes like a Morroccan tagine. We even had a dish made with nettles! There was a large nettle patch and before they seeded and got cut down we made the most of it by collecting bagfuls (with rubber gloves on). It was rinsed then boiled - where the sting disappeared – then baked the oven with a thick cheese sauce and boiled eggs. It was really tasty! A bit like silverbeet or spinach but weaker in taste – and you needed heaps to make a decent meal.

One day I got a lift with Jane to the train station to head to the nearby city of Lincoln for the day. There was another massive, very impressive cathedral here as well as a castle, both up a steep cobblestoned hill. It was a really nice city to have a wander around, especially as there was a market on so had to have some yummy baked goods!

Dave also took myself and the Taiwanese couple out one night to a pub that he'd heard a folk night was on. It wasn't really my thing (I felt like a tourist ogling these slightly odd people who would take it in turns to sing a song or play some music , unaccompanied) but it interesting to experience a traditional folk music evening and I can see why there is a huge following for it – it would be easy to bring a family along to a festival and have a sing along by a fire.