SURPRISE!! It’s me, Robert. I am actually writing this post. Don’t believe me? You think this is Lyana writing in disguise? Well, let me prove it. You see this first picture? Lyana thinks I just took it because it’s of some old dead Roman guy in Bath. Actually, I took it so I could zoom in on the guy’s teeth to analyze ancient dental work. See that space just in front of the last tooth in his mouth on the top? Yeah, he’s missing tooth #3. And if if you look closely, his teeth are extremely worn down, which is likely because whatever he ate was quite abrasive. And don’t get me started on his periodontitis. He’s got a pretty advanced case of bone loss – particularly evident around the molars as the furcations are completely exposed, and not just because his gums are missing. Now are you convinced it’s me writing this? Good. Now on with the post.
We spent an entire day in Bath, one of the most famous cities in England, and we barely even scratched the surface of what this wonderful place has to offer. Bath is most famous for, yup you guessed it, it’s baths. There are still several fancy hot baths/spas in the city in use today, but the most well-known one is the enormous Roman Bath house in the middle of the town. It was originally built by the Romans around 40 A.D., then developed and used extensively until the Romans left England in the fourth century. Forgotten, it fell into ruin until the Normans arrived in 1066 A.D. and basically rebuilt over the top of it. That lasted for a while until they too left it to crumble (forgot the year – check Widipedia), and eventually it was rediscovered in the 19th century when some guys were digging in the area and came upon it. For the record, the tour-guide presented it with much for detail, so you’ll just have to go to get the full idea.
Now the place is a museum full of all sorts of relics and things from the Roman times. Like this coffin that Mark is sitting over. He’s listening to the audio tour in his right ear.
This statue is of the “goddess with crazy hair” that the baths were dedicated to. She’s depicted all over the place.
Outside is the main pool where the actual bathing occurred. Not your typical bath (or onsen for that matter).
Surprisingly, the kids found the place interesting from the very beginning. Although there were times when we shouted things like, “don’t jump over the water!” and “use the footbridge” all went' well without incident.
That is until this picture. No, we didn’t fall into the bath immediately after. Actually, I placed our backpacks and some jackets against the wall, right in front of us across the path, and while were posing one of the workers came and told us that we couldn’t leave our stuff unattended for security reasons. Lyana was nice enough to take her jacket and place it next to her (see in the photo), but then she asked me if the rest of stuff belonged to us. I just wanted to get the picture over with, so I ignored her inquiries, smiled at the camera (a stranger was taking the photo) and through my teeth I said loudly, “hurry up and take the picture”. Then I jumped up and gathered out things before she called for backup.
We decided the Romans loved bathing. In fact, they felt so strongly about the beneficial health properties of the natural hot springs that made the bath, they eventually figured that if it’s good for the outside of the body, surely it must be good for the inside too. Yup, they drank their bath water . . . after bathing. And that is what you can do at the end of the tour, if you’re brave enough. There’s cups just for that purpose. Mind you, this water hasn’t been bathed in; in fact, it’s filtered and comes from much higher up the line than the bath itself. That doesn’t mean it tastes good. In fact it’s the worse hot spring water I’ve ever tasted. It’s so full of iron that it actually tastes like blood (iron is what makes your blood taste the way it does, by the way). Some of you diehard blog readers (all one of you) probably remember that we’ve tasted hot spring water before, in Budapest. That one tasted like rotton eggs, because of the high sulfur content. That was nasty too, but not this nasty.
After just over an hour of engaging Roman education, we left the bathhouse for bigger and brighter things. Yes, the weather was absolutely spectacular during that weekend. Sunny skies and warm sunniness.
We walked around a bit, trying to find a few of the other most notable sights in Bath. We found the Jane Austen center . . . but didn’t go inside but it was expensive and unlikely that our three kids would stand for it (they're not Charlotte Bronte fans yet). So we found another place. Lyana can edit this post later because, true to form, I forgot the name of the building (further proof that it is me writing this post), but it should be said that many famous movies, like Pride and Prejudice, were filmed in it’s ballrooms. You might remember those chandeliers from one of the scenes. I don’t remember, but maybe you will. What I remember is that the lady said they were insured for 1.5 million british pounds EACH. That’s a lot of dough – over 2 million dollars!!
Bath is very famous for it’s looooooong row houses., like this one. I didn’t think it had the same historic grandeur with all the Peugots and Smart Cars in front of it. But still neat to see. (Lyana just stepped in to tell me the names of a few places. This one is called “The Circus”, not because of the clowns everywhere, though there was a guy in kilt just standing in the center, but because there are two semicircle shaped row houses with a round lawn in the middle).
We were exhausted (mostly me … see, taking a nap next to Mark) so we found this enormous garden for relaxing and picnicking. This place was called the ‘Crescent’ because there was just one very very long U-shaped row house next to the lawn, so it looked like a . . . yup, a crescent shape.
We’d just bought a few books from the bookstore, and of course the kids couldn’t wait to break into them.
Mark even got some exercise running back and forth to the tree . . to the tree.
Alex reading his book.
We just had to see the Pultney bridge, with it’s shops and storefronts crammed on top of it. Here’s a view of the uglier side.
And if a bridge could have a front side, I assume this would be it because it looks better. We stopped by the grocery store up the road for ice cream. Tell me we’re not the only ones that do this: we wanted to buy ice cream for the kids, but didn’t want to spend 2 british pounds ($3) or more for EACH treat at the local store. So we just walked into the supermarket next door, and right there in the freezer case there was a sale “two boxes for 3 pounds” (that’s $5 dollars folks), and there were four treats in each box!! That’s a bargain if I ever saw one. So that’s 1 for Lyana, 1 for Katya, 1 for Alex, 1 for Mark, 2 for me and a 2 extra to hand out to kids on the street before they melt. Best ice cream ever (and not just because they were Cadbury Caramel, and Oreo).
Oh look, another view of the same bridge from below. Even cooler now that we can say we walked across it (Ooooooo).
More proof of this perfect English day.
Mark + hill =
More beauty all around. And then there’s Alex who is looking around.
No, this is not Bath anymore. And yes, you’re right, I did not properly transition the post from Bath to this hay bale maze. The last place in Bath that we visited was of course a glass-blowing shop. We didn’t get to see any glass-blowing in action (that’ll have to be next time) but we did get a glass something-or-rather. It was a squished bottle that I can use as a serving dish, and before you judge me, I liked it, and when it comes to art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Case closed.
So the hay bales. We went to a “deer farm” so we could check out the deer. It was 200 acres of rolling green hills, and we walked for quite a while. First we went to the “kids area” so they could use up some of their energy.
On hay bales.
On tractors.
And on logs.
But we didn’t see any deer. Only cows and their pies . . . lots of pies. So after a lot of cow potty jokes, we eventually made it back to our car and headed back toward our “hotel”. We tried to find a place to eat on the way, but everything was closed. So we eventually went back to the same restaurant from the night before (because it was just that good). Lyana ordered the same thing (Mushroom Burger – that’s where the mushroom IS the burger; a giant portobello mushroom that is) and I was just about to get the bacon burger (a real burger with bacon on it that I had the night before and it was fantastic) but then I heard the special which was beef roast on a bun. Where’s the beef from? Lyana asked. Gesturing over her shoulder with her head, the hostess said, “just across the street.” SOLD. It was yummy too.
Rob
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