Bath and North East Somerset

Arriving in Bath yesterday gave us a bit of a cultural shock having been in the woods and the smaller communities for the past two weeks. We were better this morning. Nothing like a solid breakfast to chipper the spirits.

After breakfast, we decided to do laundry in the PM, to take advantage of the early morning schedules and visit the places we wanted to see as the weatherman was calling for rain tomorrow morning.

Bath was known as Aquae Sulis to the Romans, meaning Waters of the Sun. The Baths consist of four main features...the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temples, the Roman Bathhouse, and the Thermal Spring. Our tour included each one. The audio guide steered us through an amazing maze of twists and turns providing the history of the Baths. We walked just above the ruins on a metal walkway and parallel to where the ancient Romans must have walked 2000 plus years ago.

The Roman engineering was a marvel as they could drain the baths, clean them, and refill via a series of gates. The dirty water was "flushed" into the Avon River (environmental engineering was not one of their things). The water must have a fair amount of iron in it as the drain that we could see was very rust colored. Believe it or not, the drains are still working as designed and built centuries ago.

During the archeological work, thousands of coins were found and are now displayed. Their coin manufacturing was darn good given the evident detail of the coins.

We spent three hours roaming around the Baths and then grabbed a bite at an outside cafe (coffee, pain au chocolate, and pain au raisin. This is Arlene's spelling as I would use the Spanish word for bread which is pan). Good to sit and enjoy the sights of tourists walking around looking very lost and confused, but we knew exactly where we were and where we were going :).

Next stop was the Pulteney Bridge. One could walk over the bridge and never know that it was a bridge, but seen from the side, it became evident. Tour boats were moving lost tourists up and down the river.

The Bath Abbey was a work of art. The stain glass and the ceiling were quite exquisite. The Abbey was founded as a convent in 676 AD, then in 1090, the Norman Cathedral was built, and in 1499 the current Abbey was built replacing the ruins of the Norman Cathedral.

Last, but not least, is the Royal Crescent built to house royalty (perhaps we should go there and introduce ourselves). It is a huge building built in the 18th century and reminds me of the I G Farben building in Frankfurt, Germany that I recall measuring for painting when I was stationed there in 1969.

Queen Victoria's monument was also on the list of things to see and we saw that too.

After laundry, Arlene treated me to a half pint and she enjoyed a wine. Hit the spot!

Dinner was at another Italian restaurant just a short walk away (I am so looking forward to driving again). Martini's was excellent and we will have another dinner with them tomorrow...our last night in Bath, as well as Great Britain.Read more