Bath

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Today we drove over to Bath to see the Roman baths. We had found the Park’n’Ride station and when we got there, Em was excited to see the ride to town would be on a double decker bus!

Bath is only a small town and the main atractions are all within easy walking distance. First we went to the Roman baths which are housed in a museum building showing all the excavations, some of which are still ongoing. The water steams in the cool air as it bubbles up. Apparently it gets up to about 95 degrees Celsius deep down in the earth before cooling as it rises. The ruins are all housed inside the museum and show the extent of the baths, dressing rooms and hot, warm and cold rooms just like in other roman ruins such as Pompeii or Ephesus. Unlike those whole cities, this was really just like a modern spa town with a Temple area surrounding the baths and a very small village nearby. Archaeologists have unearthed more than 20 thousand coins from the site, ranging from as far afield as Syria on the opposite side of the Roman Empire. Emporer Hadrian even travelled there himself to bathe in the warm springwater. At the end of the museum you can taste the water – awful!!

Directly beside the baths is the Bath Abbey, a massive gothic structure with very intricate architecture. Outside, the flying buttresses are the main feature while inside the vaulting is very different to any of the other churches we have seen. The vaults are formed by huge fan shaped details radiating from the top of each massive pillar.

We wandered over to the river and crossed the bridge to find a small park with a paved maze. Em was intrigued by the maze and ran around it trying to solve the pattern… only a little bit of cheating got her to the middle! She then promptly fell asleep so we walked up through the town to the royal crescent and the circus. These are both large circular sections of row houses and are quite a sight. Wandering back to the bus we stopped for a Cornish pastie which was not all it’s made out to be before heading home.

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