A Magical Market | Bath
I ventured out to Bath despite train strikes to see how the historic city of Bath was transformed for Christmas. I was not disappointed.
Date: 09 Dec 2023
Location: Bath Spa
12:00 Should I go to Bath?
I was contemplating whether or not to go to Bath for the Christmas market. A quick google revealed that the market was due to finish the following day. And so I decided to head there.
14:30 Yay! Industrial action!
Left the house and checked whether my train to Bath was cancelled. Fortunately, the train to Bath was not cancelled. Although the train I had booked to get back home was.
The train pulled into Bath station to a hoard of people. I walked out of the station and saw a really nice sign that said ‘Merry Christmas from SouthGate’.
You could see that the festivities had transformed Bath, in a good way. There was a sign made of fairy lights wishing merry Christmas. There were also various popup displays with a Christmas theme.
15:30 But first, coffee
I was feeling a bit tired on the train, so I decided to get a cup of decaf coffee. I stumbled across a kiosk serving specialty coffee. I lined up to get myself some coffee.
The coffee was really well-balanced, and the milk was perfectly formed. I drank my coffee as I walked towards the market.
The market was quite spread out across the city centre. There were three main types of attractions: (1) Huts selling trinkets (2) Food kiosks and (3) Live entertainment.
The more you explored, the more unique shops you came across. There was a shop selling chocolate that had been refined without using milk or sugar. There was also a local animal shelter that boasted their ‘no euthanasia’ policy for unwanted pets. And I can’t forget the shop selling black cheese.
The more obscure the alleyway, the more fabulous the decor. It felt like no matter which way you turned you stumbled across a few Christmas market shops. A beautiful tree was lit up with multicoloured lights and surrounded by shops.
The star attraction was the Bath cathedral. Fully lit up in multicoloured lights and surrounded on all sides by various shops. And right in front stood a two-storey tall Christmas tree with beautiful decorations. A live music band were also playing music and a small crowd formed at the front and started dancing.
18:30 Foraging for food
After wandering around for a while, I felt quite hungry. So I ventured in search of some nice food. I saw some shops selling bangers. There was a shop that sold fresh samosas. And finally, a shop that sold pasta cooked inside a cheese wheel. The last option was very tempting to me, so I went with that.
But unfortunately, it wasn’t to my liking the pasta had cooled down a bit too much, which caused the cheese to solidify rather than being molten.
In the end, I had some bangers in a bun instead. It was a nice snack size, and only cost a very small amount (£3) by today’s standards.
19:00 The long journey back
The train I had booked to go back had been cancelled. All direct trains back were also cancelled. This meant I had to take three trains instead of one.
‘The next train is not in service’ said an announcement on the intercom—but strangely—the train stopped, the doors opened, and everybody started boarding, including me.
The mystery train took 10 minutes to reach Bristol Temple Meads. The next train was scheduled to depart from platform seven to Bristol Parkway. I had to then take another train from Parkway to go to Newport.
Nearly four minutes before the plant train was scheduled to depart, the platform was changed to nine. Everyone rushed to the next platform and boarded the train.
After reaching Bristol Parkway, a train to Newport was scheduled to depart in two minutes from Parkway. A bunch of us all ran towards the train. Luckily we made it.
What should’ve taken me one hour took two and a half instead.
Despite the unnecessarily long travel back in the end, I really enjoyed the day. The density of things to do coupled with the historic streets of Bath made it the best Christmas market I’ve ever been to!
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