Musings of a Middle-Aged Mom: Bristol and Bath

Thursday, November 12, 2026

Bristol and Bath

On Monday, October 19, we headed to Bristol to visit The New Room.

The New Room in Bristol is the oldest Methodist Chapel in the world (originally built in 1739 and extended in 1748) and the cradle of the early Methodist movement. It was built and used by John and Charles Wesley and the early Methodists as a meeting and preaching place and the center for helping and educating the needy members of the community.

We sang a hymn and celebrated Holy Communion together.

Our Senior Pastor, Brian, is below. As a UMC pastor, I would think it would feel very special to serve communion in a place where John and Charles Wesley once stood.

We wandered the museum. Some of our folks walked to see Charles Wesley's house. We were told there were a lot of steep, skinny steps, so we chose to stay back due to Mark's knee. What is really bizarre is that while we were sitting in the cafe (behind the glass doors below), Mark stood up and somehow wrenched his knee and was in pretty horrific pain. We had some doctors with us, and they got him some meds, but he was limited in a few ways. I just think it is so weird that we didn't go see the house because we didn't want to hurt his knee further . . and then he literally stood up and bam!

He hobbled slowly to the bus.

We then drove to Bath, which was only about 15 miles away.

Below is Bath Abbey, or the Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It is a parish church of the Church of England and a former Benedictine monastery. It was founded in the 7th century - so old!! It is one of the most significant examples of perpendicular Gothic architecture in the West Country. As with most churches and cathedrals around the world, it has been damaged and rebuilt/restored over the years. One of the most interesting architectural details (to me) is the ladders -- see them on either side of the door? There are angels climbing them and are commonly called Jacob's Ladder.

We then entered the Roman baths. This is a world-famous, very well-preserved historic site. It is built around Britain's only natural hot spring.

This was founded around 60-70 AD during the Roman occupation of Britain and dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva.

There was a courtyard nearby with live musicians, and people were sitting all around the courtyard eating their snacks and listening to music.

Can you imagine taking a bath together with a whole lot of people?

As you wound your way down to the actual pool level, there were all sorts of artifacts. No one can enter the water due to pathogens. There was a "station" where you could taste the water. No, I did not. No thank you.

We finally made it to the pool level.

Lu and Dave are nuts haha!

I love this shot (below).

We headed back out into the streets.

We wandered around.

We stopped to rest on a bench outside of Bath Bagel and purchased a PB&J bagel. It was very good. It was freshly pressed peanut butter and it was very tasty. I borrowed this photo from the internet and our little bench is not there and it wasn't this crowded. It was late afternoon and people were moving on to the Pubs!

While sitting on the bench, the view below was across from us. The leaves were beautiful!

This was a view back towards the town of Bath.

We boarded our coach and headed to London. I loved seeing the turbines all over.

We arrived at our London hotel -- Hilton London Kensington. Our hotels rooms were very small. Mark actually said something like, "We can be in the bed or our suitcases can be on the bed." That was pretty much the choice haha! It was a lovely hotel . . .just small rooms.

After we checked in, we walked a few blocks to a cool Pub. I stole this picture from the internet because it was dark when we arrived . . . and maybe raining??

There were 8 of us who had walked from the hotel and when we entered, there were 4 or 5 more from our group who had walked to the same pub. The bar was so cool.