We went for a day trip to Bath on the weekend, home of Jane
Austen and…. Roman Baths! It took about 2 hours on a bus to get there (once the
bus actually turned up!). It was beautiful and scenic, through farmland
divided by low walls hundreds of years old, or brush fences breaking up the
land.
I didn’t look twice at what I though was a fairly sparse population of
sheep (obviously coming from an Australian background) but was very amused by
the reaction of our American friends on the bus, who had never seen so many
sheep put together in their entire lives, let alone all in one place!
After finally arriving in Bath at about 11am, a few of us
decided that the absolute first priority was food. So we set out to find the
most interesting, English pub in the whole of Bath. After about 15 minutes of
walking we settled on the Beau Nash Pub, which had quite a lot of character. We
were particularly excited by the elevated booth seating, which was somewhat of
a novelty. We ate a great lunch of Fish and Chips (easily 30cm long piece of
Haddock) wedges with bacon and mozerella, and ridiculously big chicken burgers.
Even though we were full, Liz and I could not say no to 2-for-1 dessert. Only £4.90
(about $8) for two serves of apple pie? We would be silly to say no! Until the Apple
Crumble was served, and it turned out to be two whole Apple Crumbles!! About 15cm
wide, each. Needless to say we didn’t walk, but rather rolled out the door and
on to our next destination!
Touring the Roman Baths was a great experience. Most of the
site has been excavated, with the original hot spring still spewing forth hot
water and steam, which still flows through ancient Roman pipes and waterways
through to the main bath and the rest of the extensive complex. Dedicated to
the goddess of wisdom, Minerva, The baths were decorated with carvings of her
face, and Owls, her patron animal.
As well as the main bathing pool and side pools, change rooms, walkways even a sauna room have all been excavated. The sauna room was made up of a wooden floor supported by many stacks of tile, about 30cm apart. Fires would be lit in the adjoining room and hot air would flow between the tiles and heat the floor above it. It would have been a lovely experience for the paying elite who could relax above the floor, but not so much so for the slaves who had to crawl through the tiny spaces between the tile stacks to clean out all the soot and sludge that built up.
The Romans really were incredible. The overflow drain from
the spring is still completely intact, which was created to divert excess water
through channels out to the river. These channels still exist and the water
still flows at quite a reasonable pace from the spring, through the baths or
the overflow drain, out the channels and through to the river.
There are signs everywhere saying do not touch the water as it has not been treated and there is great potential to get sick, however at the end of the experience, just before the gift shop, there is a steady stream of filtered water pouring out a tap, of water straight from the spring. Still really quite warm, it tastes like, a cup of water that has had the contents of a coin purse emptied in it and boiled for a few days, despite the fact that it had been filtered. Mmm yum….
We only had a bit of time left after touring the Baths, so we spent it getting a cup of tea and hot chocolate in a nice little shop, where we were treated to a bit of history by a passing tour guide. She had heard our unmistakable Aussie accents and asked if we wanted a bit of free history. Of course we said yes, and she proceeded to tell us about the Governor Arthur Phillip, who retired in Bath. This man met his demise through ‘falling’ out of a high window onto the street. With suicide being a sin in those days, the authorities deemed his death ‘undecided’ and having been given the benefit of the doubt, was buried in the cathedral, instead of in the cemetery with the commoners.
Hope you are all variously enjoying your uni holidays, or
lack of holidays at work! I spent today writing 2500 words of an essay!
Gemma xx
Posts
