Bath and Environs

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Departed Windsor on schedule in the am with stops in Winchester to view the cathedral (I'm sure everyone recalls the snappy tune Winchester Cathedral where the singer complains of the Cathedral letting him down). A right amazing place is the Cathedral. Ditto the one in Salisbury, which is a full twenty-five miles away. Two massive and beautiful medieval cathedrals this close. Amazing! However, some airhead deleted the outside picture of Winchester. Sorry bout that. By the way William began Winchester in 1079 with completion occurring fourteen years later, I think. At any rate we arrived in Bath about 4pm on 4 June after circling around the area several times where our apartment is located. Followed a similar lost tourist procedure in procuring a few articles from the grocery store as we remain here a week. Finally settled in at 18:30 (6:30pm for you North Americans).

Next day visited only the Royal Crescent and Circus. Both are the original townhomes, but multi-floor, for very, very wealthy English folks living during the 18th century. Bath was a vacation area then as now, but a few years back with a decided bent towards folks visiting carrying along a considerable number of disposable pounds. We will describe the history a bit with accompanying photos.

Not surprisingly 6 June dawned with drizzle, rain and cool weather. We have had our share and yours of this type of weather, but of course, this is England. Eventually we wandered over to the Roman Baths (the name of the city does not derive from these Baths, it long preceded this time. Celts living here in 750 BC assigned to the area the name Sulis who was a water deity, there were and are hot springs about, and the name Bath evolved from this). Also ambled over to the Bath Abbey. We were here in 2015 and recall being quite taken by the Baths, not so much this time. We did not venture into the Abbey earlier, but rectified that error today. The Abbey is impressive both inside and out-we'll show you. Religious buildings in Europe from the Middle Ages and Renaissance can be amazing. Not many built in modern times as Europeans tend not to be religious.

A side tidbit, after exiting the baths, we sheltered under some long narrow structure to avoid guess what? Correct, the rain. Anyway Bird and I were chatting when a lady similarly sheltering inquired if we we were Americans. Yep, but don't hold it against us. Being from Chicago she didn't. She's been here five years working as an urban designer. Wonderful fun chatting with folks here. Gosh, do I love Europe, but Bird just will not relocate.

Okay, back to the reason for the blog and my rambling account. The baths were constructed about twenty years after Claudius invaded England in 43 AD. There was repair work and expansion over the years before Rome abandoned the island to the its fate at the hands of the Saxons in the early fifth century.

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Photos

Nave of Winchester
This is the longest section. There are either two or three more shorter sections behind. Will show a picture of one. By the way Winchester was the capitol of medieval England.

Winchester Cathedral
An area further to the front.

Salisbury Cathedral
Front door of the Cathedral. The towns of Winchester and Salisbury have well preserved medieval cores. Quite cute. (No pictures-complain to Bird).

Medieval Clock at Salisbury
The oldest clock in the world and it works! Also present in this Cathedral is one of four existent copies of the Magna Carta. There were about Forty made and distributed throughout England when the Barons cornered King John in 1215 at Runnymede.

Royal Crescent
Here are thirty "townhomes" of which we spoke previously. We toured one. Each "vacation cottage" comprised five floors with the top being servants quarters , while the bottom contained the kitchen and other areas involved in managing the home. Construction began after the Seven Years War (French and Indian for you colonists) with completion just before the American Revolution began.

Royal Crescent
Aerial view of the Crescent. Bird agreed to ascend aloft with the camera and she returned with this.

The Circus
So named as it is a ring. This predates the Crescent a bit with construction occurring during the Seven Years War. No good vantage point for a picture on land so again ascends Bird skyward, and she returned with even more impressive results. Way to go Bird!

Bath Abbey (One of the Courtyards)
Bird and I arrived at the Abbey and seeing a few peeks of blue decided to sit awhile before entering. The gentleman to Bird's right struck up a conversation imparting information about Bath. Yep, Europeans are wonderful.

Abbey Front
What else to say?

Abbey Nave
Bird not so impressed, yet I liked it, particularly the stained glass windows all about, each one conveying Biblical or English history..

King Edgar's Coronation Window
Edgar was the first King of a united England in the mid 10th century. Many years after assuming the throne he was coronated in 973 at Bath Abbey.

Roman Bath-Large Bath
There were a number of baths here, both hot, cold and this large pool. Romans loved to wash.

Sulis Minerva
Sculpture discovered at the baths. This was the god as above and the origin of the city's name. Yet this was the Roman version. Romans routinely incorporated local gods into their pantheon. Romans certainly were great sculptors and architects.

Comments

[Michelle Gisondi]

Loving this blog! So happy for you both.

[Handsome Pop]

Beech Weather
Thanks Michelle, weather here is like Beech, cool and windy. Hope every thing is well with you five.