weather- rainy, windy, mid 40's

The sun was out briefly today and all in all was a lovely day minus the rain, although I don't really mind the rain- but it did make our walking tour a bit obnoxious. Our day started rather early, leaving Salisbury behind at 9:30, we were on our way to Bath.

We met our tour guide outside the Roman Baths to begin our tour of the city (walking of course).

Bath, originally known as Habatha (meaning Hot Bath), is the only place in England where natural hot springs are present. Hot springs occur when an accumulation of water makes its way through the earth, heats up, finds a crack in the surface and bubbles up to create a natural hot spring. The Romans discovered these hot baths between 55 BC and AD 43- eventually the Romans had developed numerous towns around England and Bath was one of them. The cities designed on a grid-like pattern, contained their castles, temples, amphitheaters, and spas. The most notable of these spa cities is Bath. The Romans built up around these natural hot springs as well as constructed a water system to funnel the hot water into their newly built spas. Most of these spas were built between 65 and 75 AD. Around these bathing areas were also temples of worship and separate private baths. The Roman Bath Museum has preserved sections of these temples and bath areas. The excavation areas contain the actual steps leading up to the temples and many of the arches around doorways. The rounded temples were called tholos and were set on the outside of the complex for worship. The actual bath was set in the center of the complex, still to this day the original lead lining and bath structure is in tact. 2000 years later the water is still flowing and the bath still fully functioning, although swimming is not recommended. The main pool is five feet deep, perfect for swimming and remains a fairly consistent 80°F. 2000 years ago the pool was a clear blue, now because of time and the environment the water has a green tint from the algae and is no longer safe for swimming. On days like today the steam rises from the surface of the pool, as the rain drops meet the hot water and actually looks pretty inviting! As we moved through the rest of the displays we saw recreations of the archways and combinations of stones that have been uncovered in the years past. Some of the most interesting were the temple pediments, one showing Gorgon's head; a symbol that resembles a sun god, in comparison to the heat of the springs. We were also able to see parts of the unearthed temple courtyard. At this point in history, the Romans left and other civilizations built up around their deteriorating structures. The Normans and the Saxons were next to come and build around Bath.

In 1499, the Bath Abbey was constructed in the center of the town, as ordered by Henry VII. Before the Abbey was built, Henry swears he had a dream where there was angels climbing to heaven on ladders and so the design on the front of this abbey is two ladders on either side of the entrance with twenty or so angels climbing to heaven.

As the eighteenth century approached Bath became a health retreat for the upper class people of London. In 1700, townhouses were built, so the rich would have some place other than a hotel to stay while they were receiving their treatments. The Royal Mineral Hospital was established in 1736 and began the healthcare boom of that time. Eventually, Bath was considered the posh place to be and because of the healing powers of the natural spring water everyone and their moms were flocking to see what the fuss was about. Architects from all over the world were coming to Bath to build new modern buildings. Many of them were mimicking the style of the Romans, using crescent shaped structures. The most famous of this shaped building is the Royal Crescent containing 31 townhouses built for visiting Royals. The building was designed by John Wood. John Wood and his son lived in Queen's Square and designed many of the featured buildings Bath. King's Circus, was another crescent shaped building built by the Wood team. This particular building was designed in the style of Roman Circles, except that the King's Circus has only three streets enter the circle, instead of the Roman four. This particular building has very detailed freezes at the tops of each section of the circle, Wood says many of the subjects of these freezes credit the animal who gave him the idea to build this circle, pigs. Acorns adorn the tops of the townhouses because they are pig's favorite food.

The Assembly Rooms were next on the tour, built in the 1700's the rooms were very difficult to construct. The rooms were built for social gathering and meant to hold between 800 and 1200 guests total in both the upper and lower rooms. Today, we are only allowed to see the upper rooms, but they are decorated in rich colors with elaborate chandeliers hanging from the center. At these parties held in the Assembly Rooms, the guests would start with a stately minuet, followed by the older folks and men going to a separate room to play cards and gamble their inherited fortunes away. A certain, Mr. Roubucks won £33,000 in one bet and used the money to build a castle in the shape of the club, his winning card.

The Pulteny Bridge was next on the tour, and is one of two bridges in Europe to contain shops right on the bride. It was designed by Robert Adam in the early 1900's.

After the tour I had the opportunity to visit the Museum of Costume. The display started in the 18th century and touched on highlights and popular items of the times all the way up to today. A few interesting facts that I learned on the audio tour; the name of the tall bow tie worn in the 1800's was called a cravat. The myth of the 18 inch waist was dispelled by an actual corset of the time, that's purpose indeed was to create a 21 inch waist. Muslin at the time was considered to be one of the finest fabrics and this was referenced in our Jane Austen reading from Northanger Abbey;

"Do you understand muslin, sir?"
"Particularly well; I always buy my own cravats and am allowed to be an excellent judge and my sister often trusted me in the choice of gowns. I bought one for her the other day, and it was pronounced to be a prodigious bargain by every lady who saw it. I gave but five shillings a yard for it and true Indian muslin."

Upon leaving the museum, I could hear the rain beating on the roof, so I did some looking around in the gift shop (great books and cards, one of the best gift shop of the whole trip!) and waited for the rain to stop.
I did some shopping on my own and really enjoyed the overall atmosphere of Bath. It was quite nice to enjoy some time alone, shopping where I wanted to shop and stopping where I wanted to shop. And it was quite nice just to listen to the noises of the city; cars, buses, busy people, school children, chiming bells and many more. I stopped at a small coffee shop on my way back and go an "oats" cookie (aka oatmeal raisin) and a tea. I found my way back to our Pratt Hotel- a lovely early 1900's design, squeezed in between two other hotels. Our room was very cozy, high ceilings, a pull string light in the bathroom and huge windows. We had a slowly served three course meal (more chicken and salmon) and closed the evening with a fun game with new groups of people- it made us laugh and reflect on the last five days of traveling. It seems like we've been on the road for so much longer than five days- we are growing into our english accents and we are getting braver everyday about going out on our own and exploring the towns.