...And we finally went to Bath! We took the train from Wales to Bath on Tuesday, and although - of course - we didn't have nearly enough time to spend there, it was a great day out. We planned to go to two different museums, the Roman Baths/Pump Room and No. 1 Royal Crescent (another Georgian townhouse), but the Baths & Pump Room ended up taking almost 3 hours, which didn't leave us time for any more than a very late lunch before we got back on the train to Wales. Most frustratingly, the layout of the Baths is COMPLETELY different now than it was in the Regency era, so I won't be able to rely at all on how they're arranged now. Sigh. But! We hunted out every scrap of info we could find about the Regency-era layout, I have a good idea of where to find more information (thank you Ysabeau!), and Patrick has managed to sketch an incredibly useful map for me of approximately how they must have been laid out during Kat's visit...which is going to be a priceless resource as I go through all those scenes set in the Baths and work on re-choreographing all of them!

And most of all, it was just fantastic to walk through the museum, past all those eerie, green, steam-covered baths and Roman statues, and then to walk through the (relatively unchanged) Pump Room afterwards, knowing that Jane Austen had been there before us. I even braved the truly disgusting Bath water - photographic evidence to follow, once we get back to Leeds! :) And I felt very, very grateful not to have come to Bath for my health in Regency times - not only would I have had to drink gallons of the water (I only managed to take 3 small sips on Tuesday), but, if I followed the treatment regimen Jane Austen's brother Edward was prescribed, I would have been subjected to freezing-cold plunge baths AND a Regency version of electro-shock therapy! (Amazingly enough, these procedures did NOT end up making his gout better. What a surprise!)

Apart from our trip out to Bath, we've been mostly writing (especially in our favorite local coffee shop - ohhh, I will have to cut down on those brownies SOON! - no, really...), shopping in the wonderful charity shops (yay for cheap used books AND baby clothes!), and hanging out in the back yard with Maya in good weather. Today, it's astonishingly sunny and beautiful - so I think I'd better take advantage of the unusual sunshine by going back outside.

Hope everyone's week is going well!