The Roman Baths

Today we went to a place called Sally Lunn's Bunns. It is famous for the Bath bun.

The restaurant was in a house dating back to 1482. Legend has it that Sally Lunn came to England and started making the buns around 1680.
I had one with cinnamon and butter. Mama and Papa shared a strawberry jam and cream one and a lemon curd one. Mine was so good I had a second.

The house that Sally Lunn lived in is the oldest house in Bath. In the cellar there was a little museum and gift shop. After reading some of the information we bought a bun to go, and a magnet.

We then explored Bath a little bit before we went to the famous Roman Baths that give Bath its name. The baths were built around 70AD, possibly initiated by emperor Claudius' rule.

We got an audio tour and went into the baths. It is the only one with water still in it. The water was very warm and green.

In the Roman times they were called Aquae Sulis. They were built on a hot spring hence the warm water. The Romans thought that the hot water was supernatural and built temples to Sulis Minerva there. Sulis Minerva was worshipped for her healing powers, her role as guardian, protector against disease and misfortune.
In the Roman times people would write curses on a piece of lead and throw it into the water believing that Sulis Minerva would answer the call and curse the person who the writer wanted cursed. She is not the same person as Minerva, the Roman counterpart of Athena.

In one room it was really cold. In the other it was very warm. One was called the Caldarium. The other was called the Frigidarium. Can you guess which name is for which room?

The warm room was called the Caldarium and had heated floors which made the room nice and warm.

The cold room was called the Frigidarium and had a cold water pool. It was like taking an ice bath.

Bathers would go from one to the other so the rooms were next to each other.

We handed in the audio tour and went to taste the bath water from the tap before it went into the baths. It was very warm and sulfury.

At the gift shop Mama and Papa bought me a Horrible Histories book about Romans.

We then went home and went to sleep.Read more