Europe Adventure: Day Three- Bath, England part one- Bath Abbey

After tripping over my luggage, we made it on to the train to Bath. 

 The seats were similar to an airplane but a little more comfortable. 

We sat toward the back of the train so we were close to our luggage. 

I realized on this trip I must be a pretty paranoid/ non trusting person. I hated having my luggage out of my sight on trains. 

We took a picture as we got going through the countryside.

It was so beautiful along the way and we were so excited to be seeing the English countryside for the first time!

A chalk horse!

We were a bit late getting into Bath as our train had to stop for a while because there had been a fatality somewhere along the route with another train. We never knew all of the details of that. Finally they re-routed us and took us into Bath a different way. 

When we got into the station we went around back to wait for Enterprise to pick us up. 

They were waiting for us when we were supposed to get there and so they had already left. 

It took about a half an hour to come get us this time since they were doing other things at this point. 

We went with Enterprise this entire trip because my brother in law works for them and we were able to use his discount. I would highly recommend them even without the discount because we always had nice cars and good service. It wasn't always easy to drop the cars off (as you will see later) but overall we had a really good experience with them. 

Here is my mom waiting for them to pick us up. That's the back of the train station in the background. 

The river was right by us and there were pretty paths all along next to it. So pretty!

The guy got there to pick us up and was driving the car that would soon be mine!

He was really friendly and fun to chat with. 

The entire crew at the Enterprise was helpful and nice and soon we were on our way in our car. 

We were given a Toyota Auris hybrid. Pictures to come later. 

As I began to drive it I wasn't as freaked out about being on the "wrong" side as I was by how sensitive the brakes were. Every time I would touch the brakes the car would lurch to a stop so fast we would about die. 

When I came to a light and this happened, the car behind us almost hit us and I received a well deserved beep from behind. 

This would later become one of the funniest and most embarrassing stories of the trip. 

More on that in a later post.

We drove to a nearby Park and Ride car park. 

I am so glad we did this so I didn't have to worry about parking in the middle of Bath. 

But, I wish we had paid more attention to where it dropped us off. 

Tip: When you ride the park and ride, make sure you ask the driver where to catch the bus going back!

We used a map that I had printed out and brought along with us to find the Bath Abbey. 

We were getting into Bath a little later in the afternoon than originally planned so we knew we wouldn't be able to see everything on our list and needed to prioritize. 

Our first priority was Bath Abbey.

As we walked up to the Abbey we were amazed at how much bigger it looked in person. 

This was our first European cathedral experience and it was mind blowing. 

Everything is so big. 

Then we walked in and were overwhelmed. 

We sat down on a pew and just stared around us for a few minutes. 

There was a dad with his child that sat down next to me while I was sitting there and I couldn't help eavesdropping as he said to his son, "The first thing you want to do when you come into a cathedral is sit down here and then..." he took hold of both sides of his head and moved it so he was looking up, "look up!"

He was so right. 

Looking up was breathtaking. 

I tried to take a little video inside because pictures just don't do it justice at all. 

However, the video doesn't really do it justice either. 

It was so beautiful in there. 

I had to get a picture of all of the markers on the floor as well. 

We walked around looking at everything, trying to take it all in. 

I thought the man below in black was the Reverend so I looked up their clergy on their website to remember his name. But I couldn't find him anywhere. So I am not quite sure what his role is there. 

But while we were there he was walking around and talking to everyone that was visiting. 

He was very funny and friendly. 

The details in the cathedrals are awesome. I loved looking at all of the carvings. 

It was so beautiful.
When we came out of the abbey we got a few more pictures of the outside.

To see my post on Scones and Crackers that details some of the history of the Abbey go here.

Next up: The Roman Baths