Look how lovely!

I've been out of town again this week -- and this time I mean really out of town. My husband and I have traveled to England, to celebrate our twentieth anniversary. We left home on Monday, and after arriving in London early Tuesday morning, we headed straight for the most beautiful little city in the United Kingdom -- Bath Spa.

I love, love, love Bath. Just look how beautiful!

The Roman baths just slay me. This beautiful and ancient space (originally dedicated to the Celtic goddess Sulis) was enthusiastically usurped by the Romans, who called their spa and holy place "Aquae Sulis:" they also usurped the goddess, and they didn't even change her name!

Later the Saxons built an abbey on the site -- by then the Roman baths were buried under hundreds of years of rubble, but the Saxon king Bladud watched his pigs and knew that the hot spring clearly still served a healing purpose.

Today you can look up from the excavated Roman baths and see the beautiful abbey tower. How lucky are we that we got to see this?!

Of course there are those who will say, "yeah, yeah, but Bath is really all about Jane Austen." Well, of course! My favorite Austen novel, Persuasion, is set in Bath and the movie was filmed here, against the backdrop of stunning Georgian architecture in the classic Palladian style. Again -- look how lovely!

And oooh! Amanda Root and Cieran Hinds as Anne Elliott and the yummy dashing Captain Wentworth -- I repeat: look how lovely!

Today Bath is quite the happening place -- with fancy upscale shopping, fun eateries and bistros, and a busker performing on every street corner. Here my husband (not a smiler, let us note) shows a giddy lack of restraint as he enjoys a clever street magician (with -- why? -- a deck of cards in her mouth).

We were so lucky to be here during an international guitar festival. This young man looks twelve, but is probably all of eighteen. His beautiful classical guitar performance -- in the middle of the abbey courtyard -- brought tears to my eyes.

This is the traditional take-and-eat delicacy of the region -- the Cornish pasty (rhymes with "nasty," but it sure isn't!). Have you tasted one of these?! I mean -- mercy!

I have visited Bath before, with my sister and with dear friends. Now, I'm so glad my husband and I got to come here together -- and that he loved it as much as I do. Now we head to Salisbury, to see Stonehenge and the stunning cathedral.

But before I leave Bath -- look! How lovely!