Bath, United Kingdom

It was another warm night with a few coughing fits and a bed thats a little too small, but the new day brings with it opportunity to experience and discover more. Breakfast today was eggs benedict for Vernon and I had scrambled egg with Scottish Salmon and I think there were 4 eggs in the scramble as I really could not eat the mountain of egg – it would have fed two people comfortably. More cups of nice coffee and antihistamine and we set off to beat the heat and the crowds at the ‘Roman Baths’.

We were very lucky when we got there as we went straight in with no queue whatsoever, which was a different scene even 15 minutes later. Next surprise was that we didn’t expect the visit to take too long – perhaps 40 minutes as we thought it was a few show rooms and then the bath/pool outside. We were wrong, they have excavated a lot underneath – in fact they are still excavating and you get an audio guide free with your entry fee which talks you around the site and artefacts. We spent an easy three hours there finding it fascinating and interesting.

A brief overview is that the hot water spring was first noted by the Celts who worshipped Sulis. In 836 BC a King built the first ‘bath’ there. The ancient Romans in about 60-70 AD began their building for their high society to enjoy the sacred mineral springs. They built a huge therapeutic spa including hot mineral pools, sauna and massage, temples and services – shops, houses etc. Skilled tradesmen were brought from near and far from many countries in Europe to make the complex drains, bricks, temples, and more. They worshipped the goddess ‘Sulis Minerva’ who was similar to Athena – giver of life, and believed it had healing powers.

Interesting that later on in 1687, Queen Mary who was fighting infertility bathed here and within 10 months she gave birth to a son, renewing the belief in healing powers of the water and consolidating its reputation as a spa town. The spring is geothermal and emits 240,000 gallons of 115 degree fahrenheit mineral water per day. The water we see today, fell to earth 10,000 years ago before going down in the earth a mile to be heated before rising in this spring.

On view as you take the self guided tour below ground through the excavated levels you see skeletons of workers and their inscribed tomb stones which tell where they came from and what they did, model of what it looked like, old Roman streets, the spring mouth, original piping feeding the pool, series of different pools (only one above ground), sauna rooms and their heating system, plunge pools, massage rooms and tables, out flow channels, a bronze head of the goddess (very sacred to them and only priests would have viewed it in the temple), a fantastic huge temple pediment (triangle decorative part at the top which they illuminate with coloured film overlay to fill in the missing parts and add the colour it would have been), Roman and pre-Roman coins, pottery, curses (what you used to get inscribed and throw into the water for the Gods to dish out punishment e.g. if someone stole your slave, your coat etc. you wished them warts or worse!) and a whole lot more.

You can taste the renowned awful tasting warm water – cooled down a bit – for free and whilst I was a bit snuffly and could not taste it too well – I felt sure it was a bit yuk as I had an involuntary mini retch after drinking a little cup (50ml), however not long after my snuffles cleared so I went back and got a bit more in my drink bottle thinking it may just possibly be magical after all. Another 50ml, and I couldn’t bring myself to drink any more – but I do believe there is something special for those who Sulis grants ……

I have loaded a few photos to tell the story and would say it was a highlight for us and very well set out and presented. I also discovered my eyes are the same colour as the special mineral water LOL. This is a good example of seeing some superb Roman history outside of Greece, totally worth seeing and giving some time to. It never ceases to amaze me the technology and skill that was in practice over 2,000 years ago.

After our time there we grabbed a pastie on the run (bacon, leek and cheese) to share and a nice cold frappachino and made our way up the hill in the 30 degree heat to the ‘Fashion Museum’. Your tickets to the Roman Baths give you a reduced entry to this museum which had some wonderful clothes dating back to early 1800’s to recent times. At one section you can dress up in some Victorian clothes and Vernon found it highly amusing to be standing in a dressing room of excited (mainly) women almost fighting over the chance to dress up and take photos of each other. The room was part of the hallway and the clothes were open at the back so you just put them over your clothes. Thought I better add that in case you thought he was a pervert LOL. It was like sale day changing rooms! There were some beautiful clothes there and I marvelled at the hand work that was involved in the detail. Some of the dresses took months to make – one example quoted 9 mths for a special to order gown. They used to make some little models about 3/4 of a metre tall as a sample before starting to make the big one to be sure the ‘lady’ was happy with every thing. They also had mens clothing which was equally detailed. I also loved the colours of the fabrics, the combinations, styling – well everything really. They were real works of art.

The building that the Fashion museum is in is also of historical significance being once the ‘Assembly Rooms” which was an 18th century function rooms/complex for the wealthy to meet, play cards, have tea, and dance and ‘come out’ in. Coming out in those days was when women were presented to society as ready for courting etc. They were bombed in the war and have since been restored but they hid the lovely chandeliers before the bombs hit, and they are original.

Our final experience for the day was a river cruise 30 minutes up the river and back to a town called Bathhampton where we were meant to see wildlife and lovely scenery for our £8 each. Well, it was nice to be off our feet and eat some crisps we got at the supermarket but the scenery was very plain, ducks and swans are pretty common and a quick turnaround at Bathhampton which has a little weir didn’t seem like good value to us. If you come to Bath, I would save the money on that one.

We had time for a little feet up before our delicious dinner at ‘The Acorn’. It was pretty expensive at £24 for a 2 course menu but it was very delicious with a lot of care and technical work. We got free sourdough bread, olive oil and dukkah, plus a little puree and salad taster whilst we were waiting. I had ‘Wye valley asparagus with local ewes ricotta gnudi, herb emulsion, old demdike (washed curd ewes cheese) and pine nut velute and Vern had Cauliflower fritter with garlic dhal, crispy kale, cumin cauliflower and a tamarind and raisen puree. For dessert we had a local cheese board with fig chutney and caraway crisps (had an amazing semi soft ewes cheese which was a cross between raclette and camembert) and Poached Rhubarb with thyme meringue, pannacotta, spiced gel and rhubarb sorbet. Nom Nom Nom. That about sums it up and I can see why its booked out every night. The atmosphere was great too, in a heritage building (of course) with nice music and calm vegetarians 🙂

At home we got a knock on our door not long after we got there and there was a smiling Ling offering a tray with two glasses of Baileys and a whole block of Lindt chocolate. She also bought us a new little fan to help the air flow in the room. I do like our land lady …..