Bath

Hi all!

Today I got the 7.40am train to Victoria station and then walked to the coach station. From here I caught a three hour bus to Bath to visit my roommate from the first five weeks of my South American tour - Rachel! It's funny how things go full circle. I remember when I had just arrived in Lima in Peru way back at the start of January and I asked who my roommate was, the reception said your roommate's name is Rachel and she's English. I remember wondering if we would become close and if I would go and stay with her....and here we are!!

The bus ride went pretty smoothly. I arrived at Bath coach station at about noon and Rachel's Mum, Vicki, picked me up. Rachel had to work. Her mum is just as lovely as she is!! I had literally just met her and she spent an hour or so showing me around the town of Bath and taking me out for lunch. Our first stop was Sally Lunn's bun shop. It's one of the oldest houses in Bath and is famous due to Sally Lunn making a French brioche style bun and them being delicious! Vicki kindly treated me to one with chocolate butter on it and it was DELISH! So yummy. We also checked out the small museum in the basement detailing the history of the bun. 

Vicki then took me on a walking tour of Bath. We saw the entrance to the Roman baths, the Bath Abbey and crossed over the Pulteney Bridge, a bridge very similar to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence in that it has shops on it and a road! Down this street we saw the Holburne Museum and the rugby pitch. We walked around some shopping streets and markets and ended up in the office that Vicki and her partner have just started their new business in!

I then set off by myself and headed to Bath's famous Roman baths. Everyone I told that I was going to Bath all said how much they loved it and that I must go to the Roman baths. I can now see why! It's such an incredibly lovely town. I really love it here :)

Before I went into the baths I stopped and bought some cake. I'll be surprised if I fit on the plane home from England at this rate!! All the cakes, teas etc are so scrumptious that I just can't resist. I had one cookies and cream slice and one chocolate slice of cake. Both were honestly two of the best pieces of cake I've had in my life, no exaggeration. Mum - you would've laughed because I had another person come up to me and want to chat. Mum always jokes on holiday that I've a sign on my forehead saying "come and talk to me". A man came up and talked to me about my cake, and no joke I couldn't get rid of him for twenty minutes! He was on for a huuuuuge chat! I eventually excused myself and headed into the baths. 

The water in the Roman baths here in Bath is 10,000 years old. It was trapped way underground and eventually the heat of the Earth's core caused it to rise, trying to find a route to escape. Eventually it used a fault line here in Bath and sprung up out of the Earth's surface. The Romans inhabited this area due to the hot springs. To them, hot springs were the work of gods and goddesses, so for this reason they worshipped the goddess of the Bath thermal springs, called called Sulis Minerva. These are the only thermal springs in the whole of the UK!

The self guided tour of the Roman baths was quite good. You got an audio guide and went around choosing which parts to listen to and which parts to read. The tour started up on the terrace, which was built in 1897. It's 4m above the level of the baths the Romans had. The statues on the terrace surrounding the bath all represent roman emperors with connections to Britain. 

Based on historical research it is estimated that the baths were here by AD 75. During the 4th century they were at their greatest extent. The town the Romans created here was called Aquae Calidae meaning 'hot water'. 

Throughout the tour I saw the great bath, the east and west baths as well as many rooms involved in the roman bathing process. In ancient times the bathing process went as follows:

1) Undress, leave belongings with a slave

2) Go to the Tepidarium (warm room) to acclimatise to the temperature

3) Go to the hottest room the Caldarium

4) Go to the intense dry room, the Laconicum

5) Receive an oil massage etc

6) Return back through all the rooms and then plunge into cold water

I saw all of these rooms as well as various finds from the times of the Romans including a 17,577 coin hoard, sacrifices thrown into the springs for the goddess (such as 'curses' of messages written on lead and pewter) and fragments from the temple of Sulis Minerva itself. It was cool because a tv screen showed you what the town and baths would've looked like at the time, whilst you walked through the roman ruins. It helped you to visualise what you were actually walking through much more easily. 

One of the final parts was the Great Bath, the famous one you see in all the pictures and on postcards. Due to the hot water springs spurting water out of the fault lines, 1,170,000 litres of water runs through here each day at 46 degrees celcius. The bath itself is 1.5m deep and until the 1970s tourists could swim in here, but not anymore. The bottom is lined with lead sheets keeping it watertight, and apparently in roman times it was covered with a huge roof. 

I ended my tour by trying some of the spa water pumped from the ground. It reminded me of the water from Drysdale at home! I then walked through 'The Pump Room' restaurant which was beautiful decorated. Ended my day as a tourist by visiting the Bath Abbey. The outside was really cool, especially the sculptures of angels climbing a ladder on the outside. The inside was really beautiful too. 

Then I walked back to Vicki's office and Rachel met me there after work! So fantastic to see her! We had a huge chat and then headed back to their flat. They've well and truly spoiled me. I get a sofa bed in the lounge to myself and I'm being treated to a lie in tomorrow. I'm wrecked! The heating on the bus made me feel like a zombie. 

Rachel took me out to dinner to a place called 'The Stable'. I had a steak and blue cheese pie and we each had a cider tasting plate where we had five ciders ranging from dry to sweet. We watched an episode of 'Revenge' together and now I'm off to bed! Absolutely loving Bath, it's just as beautiful as everyone said. 

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox