Bath, Day Two

On Tuesday, we wanted to dive into Bath's watery origins, as it were, and go and see the Roman baths. We caught the bus to town on this day, and walked down near the Abbey to the old Pump room and the Roman baths.

I didn't expect such a sophisticated display. We were given an audio tour radio thingy, which thankfully I could hear very well. The children had their own program, complete with characters from old Roman times as guides - both on the audio and in various visual displays. They also had a sheet to put stickers on, and swap for a certificate at the end.

We started up high, looking down on a reconstructed Roman Bath full of warm, green water. It would have had a roof originally, to stop algae forming. It still looked splendid, with improvised modern-built statues of famous Romans about the promenade, and the Abbey Spire above us. We pressed buttons at various stages to hear commentary on our radios - including some informal stuff from Bill Bryson if we chose. It was very well done.

I really enjoyed looking at a frieze reconstructed from the temple of Sulis Minerva which was an interesting combination of the Celtic world and the Roman. (This photo does it no justice). Laser photography super-imposed on it showed its likely original looks. Also interesting were folded pieces of lead inscribed with curses, chucked into the springs invoking the wrath of the goddess on the most trivial of offenders...

We finished the tour with a taste of 'the waters.' I expected worse, but the children thought it was quite foul enough!

Out we came into the spring sunshine. Wayne and I were happy to sit down for a bit, looking at the front of the Abbey. Stone ladders are carved on either side of the door, right up the towers. Angels climb up these, looking like they don't enjoy it one bit, looking down in fear. A couple near the top are depicted falling down, upside down! Their wings don't appear to work. The children meanwhile watched a fire-juggling unicyclist near the Pump Room. We had some lunch, then took the children to a very large playground that we had spotted earlier. (Dangerous roundabouts haven't yet been banished from such places in England, we have found.) Then we went back to our room for a bit of a rest.

In the evening we drove down again. We had a little snack and a drink at The Huntsman pub, before joining a tour called 'Bizarre Bath'. It is a very popular tourist attraction, although not pretending to be historical... just a comedy routine and a few conjurer's tricks as we walked about. A plaque celebrating celebrating architect John Palmer in a bricked-in doorway led into a spiel about strange building ideas... every bricked in window and door from then on was labelled a 'Palmer'. (Luckily we knew from an earlier tour about taxes on windows being the real reason these bricks were there. ) So that was fun, anyway, except perhaps for Annie, who had not visited the loo before we started, and for whom we could do nothing until we got back to the pub. (And it was a very dingy old convenience, when we finally raced her into it!) It was a very late night for the children, but a very satisfactory day.