Day 8: Dipping into Bath

I am not ashamed of the puns.

Today was my only full day in Bath. I had plans to take a walking tour (an educational one this time), see the Roman Baths, get a pasty, do the Skyline Walk, visit the Cathedral, see the Assembly Rooms (big Georgian ballrooms that I wanted to visit just to pretend I was waltzing in them), try the famous afternoon tea for which the British are so renowned, and tour Bath Abbey.

I actually got most of that done, believe it or not. Not the hike or the assembly rooms (they were occupied, dammit!), but pretty much everything else.

I started with the free historical tour. The tour guides are great people who love Bath and want to share its stories with the world; they absolutely do no accept tips or money of any kind (the funny thing is, I normally jump at any chance to get something for free and I hate being expected to tip restaurant staff back home, the restaurant should have the ability to pay its employees properly, but as soon as they so vehemently announced that money would not be accepted my mind started coming up with reasons I could have for giving some to them: I don't know what's wrong with my head but it's apparently something awful). I learned so much about the architectural history of Bath (mostly in the 1700s when it became a big holiday place, the city everyone visited to see and be seen). It was absolutely fascinating.

One of the builders of Bath into a destination city was John Wood the Elder, an architect (the Elder because his son was also an architect and did some important stuff for Bath a bit later) who transformed the city. The Circus, this big circular set of apartments with three inroads and a big cobbled area in the middle (now it's grassy with some nice trees) was his design, full of Hellenic architecture.

One of the sides of the Circus

The picture isn't as detailed as I had hoped, but the Circus actually has a really nice representation of each of the three classical pillar types: the top level is Corinthian, then Ionic and at the bottom Doric. Up at the roof level you might be able to pick out some roundish knobby things: those are acorns, either representing oak trees which were sacred to Druids of the area or symbols of the story of Bladud, an ancient prince who had leprosy (or some similar skin disease). The story goes that he was kicked out by his family and people and the only job he could find was herding pigs who also had leprosy (or some similar skin disease). He and his pigs wandered around for a while until they came across this warm boggy area and the pigs decided to root for acorns. They snorted around happily and came out miraculously cured. Bladud swam or wallowed around a bit and he was cured too! And thus the magical springs of Bath were discovered.

Then we moved on to the Royal Crescent, designed by John Wood the Younger. It was constructed in a time when people were a bit less interested in looking at other people and wanted to see nature instead. It was built in the shape of a semi-ellipse, looking out over fields to the city of Bath down below.

The Royal Crescent

At the center of the Crescent is the Royal Crescent Hotel, unmarked but for a few small details. It's that classy.

The only defining features are the little tree-bushes and the extra semicircle of window to mark the center of the Crescent

After two hours of great history lessons* I returned to the city center and decided that it was lunchtime. I got a pasty from a place that apparently won the World Pasty Awards for Best Pasty. It was good, but the sweet potato was a bit strange. I liked their pork and apple cider one better.

After lunch I toured Bath Abbey, officially the Abbey of St Peter and St Paul. It was another great work of architectural art, and I wandered around staring at the ceiling for a bit longer than I should.

Ceiling: the stained glass panels there include 56 images from the life of Jesus (none of them would match the Tring tiles, though, unfortunately)

 The main hall. Stunning.

The ceiling

Then I went to the Roman Baths. This was the first museum I paid to get into, and I wasn't too happy about it but oh well (at least I got a student discount, saved a couple of pounds). It was worth it, I spent at least two hours learning about how the Romans in the area lived and viewed the baths. Although I wasn't too happy about the audio guide (the voiceover spoke annoyingly slowly but there was no other way to get the information, the little plaques gave only a sentence or two about the general subject matter of the exhibits), I learned quite a lot. What's special about these baths more than others in Roman Britain and even Rome is that they also had great religious significance. Because the heat source was a thermal spring and not generated by a furnace, sizeable temple to Sulis Minerva was constructed as well (the locals already worshipped their goddess of healing and wisdom, the goddess Sulis, here so the Romans tacked Minerva onto the name). The actual thermal spring was not used as a bath, housed instead by the temple.

The Great Bath (the green color is due to algae, I think)

A Roman drain. This is the closest we got to the water straight out of the thermal spring. It has so many minerals in it, it turned the rocks orange wherever it touched. Like Midas, but....gross.

Close-up shot. The steam coming off this water was powerful.

The baths were extensive, containing rooms for changing, massaging, immersion bathing, general bathing, and even a cold plunge. There was also some later English stuff piled on top of the baths, such as the terrace above it, with sculptures of important figures from Romain Britain like Julius Caesar and Hadrian.

Hadrian and Minerva

The thermal spring itself was not so sacred to the British; they raised the water level and bathed in it just like any other hot bath.

The thermal spring; that orange line around the walls is the water level during the British usage of the baths

After a great long tour, I got to take a cupful of the healing bath water, with 43 minerals! It tasted almost as good as Tempe water, it was quite warm, and I still have a cold so there you go. Maybe it doesn't work on skeptics.

After that, I got some cream tea (tea with a couple of bicuits and jam, around four o'clock) which was delicious, and then I FINALLY bought yarn! I'm going to make gloves, in a lovely robin's egg blue color.

For dinner I went to Yak Yeti Yak, a Nepalese restaurant complete with sitting on floor cushions. Feeling budgety, I only ordered an appetizer (pork dumpling type things, quite delicious); however, the minimum for a card was ten pounds and I didn't have any cash. So they waived the cost. I felt terrible about doing that to them, but also very happy.

I meandered past the Abbey on the way home and heard the organ rehearsing. I leaned against the front door and listened in for a bit; though I felt a bit awkward leaning against the Abbey doors, it was beautiful music and I enjoyed the sonorous end to my evening.

*For example, this guy whose name was I think Robert Adam was a big guy in Bath: he discovered a plot to kill George II (possibly George III or another king) and became a millionaire. Not a millionaire in today's money, a millionaire in 18th-century money. Unbelievably rich, and that was his first fortune (his second was in becoming the supplier of the Bath stone which became the building material for the entire city). He had a nice view of the surrouding hills but he thought trees were a bit boring so he had a folly built out on a ridge to add some interest. It still stands, and it's called Sham Castle because that's what it is: literally just a facade of a castle. I have more.