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Published: November 9th 2010
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Max: Moving out of Hog Cottage is an experience I hope not to repeat in the near future. I believe I told you that we had no parking space by our cottage and that it is a steep switch-backed path up from the street where we take our lives in our hands parking as close to the stone wall as possible. There is also no place to safely turn around, we have already put a scrape in the side of the car trying that maneuver, so all of the luggage and bags go down the hill while we strain to keep control of them, and then we trudge back up for another turn. Well, actually, Caitlin does most of the trudging and most of the work. She is such a trooper! Then, one last look around and we are on the road to Bath.
Bath, as the name implies, is a spa town from the years of the Roman occupation of the Isle, however, the hot springs have been used for bathing, the restoration of health, and devotion since even earlier times. The first shrine at the hot springs was dedicated to the goddess Sulis: the Romans dedicated the springs to
A Last Look Around
as we leave Hog Cottage their equivalent goddess, Minerva, but kept the name Aquae Sulis. The original structure surrounding, and eventually covering, the baths was made of wood and stone and lined with lead. When the Romans left Britain in the A.D. 500’s, the structure eroded and was lost. The structure that one sees today is in the Neo-Classical style of the Victorian era. What I expected to see was something somewhat mystical and profound--you know, walking in the steps of the Romans and ancient Britons. Mostly what I saw was tourists. It was almost impossible to see anything in the museum: people stood in front of the glass enclosed exhibits and stared while their audio tours droned on and on: really it is quite a bad audio tour. But then there were moments when we could find a quiet corner and somehow feel what it might have been like to walk these worn stone steps and sink into the warm waters. In reality, I should really get over it; it was probably just as busy and noisy in Roman times as it was today. I can’t imagine a bunch of Roman Legionnaires along with the many people of different cultures that they imported from
their conquests being so quiet at the Baths, either.
We had hoped to have High Tea at The Pump Room adjacent to the baths: the website said that one could not make reservations for tea Monday-Friday and one was to queue up. They lied. People were coming in right and left with reservations. So, frustrated, we left. It was here, however, that we discovered that Caitlin has AMAZING POWERS: she has bat sonar! We had been lost coming into Bath and trying to find the Roman Baths, and expected to be lost again, but no! Caitlin got us across town, to the parking lot, and out of Bath in minutes! Along the way, we had our own High Tea driving in the car: cold bacon and toast from breakfast with apples from the Chatsworth Farm Shop. Who needs that lying Pump Room anyway?
We make it into Salisbury precisely at 5 PM, our anticipated arrival at Webster’s Bed and Breakfast. Our gracious host, John, helps Caitlin park the car in yet another sliver of a parking spot, and gets us settled in and set with dinner reservations. We walk across town in the rain, another of our “zesty walks” (in
case you hadn't noticed, that means slightly lost) and have dinner in a lovely conservatory. We do, though, manage to make the server angry. Really, if you are going to deliver dinner and then not show up again for 30 minutes, people could potentially die from lack of wine. After Caitlin goes to hunt him down, he is more grudgingly attentive. I even allow him to talk me into ordering Piddle River Ale sorbet for dessert and it is really good and, thank goodness, not yellow. A long dinner, several glasses of grudgingly brought ,wine, another zesty walk in the rain, and we are back snug in our clean room with very comfy, clean-sheeted, and not smelling of dogs beds. Lovely!
We have to be up early tomorrow so we don’t miss English Breakfast and then, Stonehenge!
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