What are your goals when travelling? Usually mine include immersing myself in the food, culture, history, and general ambience of a place. But the goal of my recent visit to Bath was just to catch up with a friend from university days; it must have been 16 years since we last got together in person rather than on-line, and all we wanted to do was natter. She travelled from Torquay and I from Paddington station, a really easy day trip from London.
Our first pit stop was for lunch and a glass of wine; suitably refreshed we went for a wander. It was still late November, but the Christmas market selling some very up-market merchandise was already in full-swing, and the place was very busy. We did look at the inside of the stunning abbey, but eschewed the Roman baths and pump rooms as too busy. I think that if I wanted to see these, I'd plan to arrive earlier and do these at the beginning of the day to avoid the queues.
As we walked through the beautiful Georgian streets we spotted the rather older Sally Lunn's, a house which is supposed to date from 1482 and claims to be the oldest in Bath. The story goes that in 1680 the Huguenot Solange Luyon came to Bath and brought her festival bread making skills with her. Her name was Anglicised to Sally Lunn, and what she baked was the original Bath Bunn. The secret recipe is passed to the owners of the bakery when the lease is sold. Obviously, we had to buy some!
The Bunn should be lightly toasted and served hot with plenty of butter and either a sweet or savoury topping, and eaten with a knife and fork. It's recommended that the bottom is used for savoury and the top for sweet.
The Bunn itself is a bit like a mix of brioche and normal bread dough, so it's light but slightly sweet. The perfect souvenir from a perfect day out catching up and reminiscing.
There is a lot more to Bath that's worth exploring. You can imagine yourself as the star of a Jane Austen novel, or think what it'd be like to be a wealthy Roman, or delve into history of the Abbey, and admire the Georgian architecture. Or like us, you can just wander and explore whatever takes your fancy, there's certainly plenty to see.
