Day two in Bath we take a nice 5K run along the river Avon and the Kennet & Avon canal which is an extensively locked 87 mile canal system linking London with the Bristol Channel.
Our Airbnb host in Gloucester had highly recommended a visit to Sally Lunn’s Historic Eating House in Bath so we stopped by at the end of our run and decided to give it a try despite a 30 minute queue. It is located in one of the oldest houses in Bath, built in 1482. It is famous for the Sally Lunn Bun which is a cross between a cake and a brioche from a secret recipe of Sally Lunn who was a Huguenot baker. After waiting 30 minutes we were finally seated but it took another 15 minutes for our order to be taken. Sandy kept it simple and ordered the soup of the day which was vegetable. Jim ordered the full English breakfast. After an hour of waiting and multiple excuses by the wait staff we still had no food, just cups of coffee. We sat and watched people come and go. The waiter came by several times and told us it would only be two more minutes. Finally Sandy’s soup arrived which was luke warm and pureed like baby food. Her half Sally Lunn Bun should have stayed in the Middle Ages. It was exactly what one would expect from a Huguenot baker, boring and bland. After receiving a completely comped check we finally just got up and walked out as Jim’s breakfast never did appear. One of our worst restaurant experiences ever.
We then decided to just skip breakfast and headed to the Bath Abbey to climb the tower and work off our frustrations. The Abbey was quite disappointing as it was undergoing renovations with so many plywood walls up that a lot of the small building was not even visible.
The tower tour was also a disappointment as it was rather puny with only 200 steps to reach the roof and the young tour guide had a somewhat flat affect with a thick accent and rapid fire speech making her difficult to understand.
We finally had a so so midday meal at a Turkish restaurant and returned to our Gate Keepers lodgings. All in all we have to say that Bath was a wash. First evening and morning run were great but the rest of the experience we could have done without.
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