Sightseeing in Bath

Friday June 25, 2010

The next day I got up early and went for a walk to get my bearings.  I bought a coke at a shop to get some coins.  The night before I kept seeing these maps of Bath available for 1 pound coins only.  By the way, the British coins consist of 1 pence copper, tupence large copper, 5p small silver, 10p large silver, 20p medium silver 50p even larger than 10p, 1 pound gold (brass?) and thick also called a quid, 2 pounds, larger version of the pound, paper: 5, 10 & 20 L each a bit larger rather than all bills the same size (which must help blind people I suppose).  I also discovered on my walk that we were close to the Roman Baths and the Abbey and many other of the sights of Bath.

This is the map I got showing the parking area, the YMCA and the Roman Baths

The YMCA included breakfast which I usually had as muselix, coffee and juice.

The Roman Baths are located in the town square.  Adults cost L11.50 and children were L7.50.  Usually there were a few street musicians performing in the square.  We got the audio tours at the Baths and we really liked them.  Some of the other audio tours we got on our trip were not as well done but we liked those at the Baths.  You walk around and punch in the number to hear about the exhibit.

Matt really loved learning about this ancient site.  It is the only hot springs in England.  It was a sacred site before the Romans arrived.

 The Romans enhanced the site considerably, building large steam rooms, saunas and a large pool that is still water tight today after thousands of years.

A model of the Roman Baths

A map of the baths during Roman times

This relief predated the Romans.  The Romans modified it to resemble Neptune.

Some artwork, I think Roman.  There was a pool like a wishing well where people would write curses on pieces of metal and through them in the pool.  One read something like, "may whoever stole my robes be cursed with a violent death" etc.

Some of the Roman foundation

Some of the steps had deep grooves worn in them from the many visitors to the baths.  Impressive since visitors were usually barefoot or wore sandals.

A roman aquaduct

Local actors pose as Romans for photo ops.

 Bubbles come up from the spring making it appear as if the water is boiling.

You can see the effervescent bubbles coming up from the springs.

This was part of a raised floor in a hot room in the baths, like a steam room or a sauna.  They had many different rooms some for heating up and other for cooling down.

After the bath site we walked around to a small mall and got some pastries at a deli.  I wanted to get a picnic lunch to sit outside and listen to the street musicians.  We got: 1 sausage roll, 1 onion pastry, 1 scotch egg, 1 pork pie.  This is more food than three people can eat.  We also got some juice and went and sat in the square and listened to the musicians, while the pigeons ate our crumbs.

These were some nice gardens but it cost something to go in and we didn't go in.

We next toured the Abbey which had immense ceilings, large stained glass windows and a large organ.  It was built around 1200 AD although it was on the site of a Roman temple and before the Romans it had been a holy site.

Matt in front of Bath Abbey

Cool ceilings!

These stained glass window earned the Bath Cathedral the nickname Lantern of the West.

This is a model of the cathedral.  These pictures are from the basement.

A tomb

This was a weather vane.

This was used to trigger the carillon bells in the cathedral like a giant music box.

This is the organ in the Cathedral

Next we went back to the Hotel and took a nap.  We had planned to take it easy the first few days to get used to the jet lag.  After walking around a bit more we went to an Indian restaurant recommended by Rick Steves for supper, Rajpoot Tandoori at 4 Argyle Street. http://www.rajpoot.com/ It was expensive and the wait staff tended to be a bit pushy but the food was very good.  It was served in heated trays on the table and we were all able to share each other's entrees.  This was one of our first experiences with Indian cuisine and it has since become a favorite at our house.

This is the famous Pulteney Bridge.  We had to go across this to get to the Indian Restaurant.

After dinner we took Matt back to the hotel and Laurie and I walked up the street to a bar where they were supposed to have live jazz nightly according to the Rick Steves book but there was no music this night so we didn't stay and went back to the Y and went to bed.