I had a ball in Bath

A very happy Zara at some Roman Baths

I know it sounds cliche but I actually had an absolute ball in Bath today. I just got back and was looking through all my photos and gosh it's going to be hard choosing which ones to upload for this entry.

I'll start at the beginning. I caught a train from Reading this morning and arrived in Bath after an hours trip at about 11am. I was itching to get to the Roman Baths so I quickly found a pamphlet at the information desk and made my way there. I got there just in time because I only had to wait about ten minutes to get in and when I left the line was all the way down the street. Bath is a World Heritage Site and the Roman Baths are one of the things that have allowed it to be so. They weren't discovered until the late 1800s when someone was investigating some leaky buildings on top of the site because over the years people had let them fall into ruin and built a city around them. The buildings were leaking because of the water that was trying to escape from the underground spring (a much better leaky building story than the ones in New Zealand). From the outside it didn't look like much but when I got inside I realised that was because you had to go underground to see them. Bath is the only place in England where there are thermal hot springs (there are three) and one of them is where the Roman Baths are. They know that people were using these baths over 2000 years ago so it's surprising it took so long to discover them. I explored the baths and the underground museum for a good few hours before I went to find some lunch and go on the walking tour I'd booked.

Roman Bath House

Looking down from street level

Looking down at the hot spring

Model of what the baths would have looked like

Excavated remains

Roman female bust

Mosaic

Sacred spring of Minerva Solace

Sweet view

Sacred hot spring

A real Roman woman

I made a wish!

Drinking some sacred water for good health

As soon as I left the baths I turned right and realised that the Bath Abbey was right in front of me so I figured I could wait to find food and have a quick look in there. It was worth the look!!! I had never heard of it before but was quick to learn that it has lots of historical significance for England. Apparently the first King, someone named Edgar, was crowned there and Queen Elizabeth I commemorated this during her reign. The original abbey fell into ruin and Henry VIII started restoring it but when he had to divorce one of his wives and banned Catholicism all restoration work stopped. It wasn't until the reign of Elizabeth I that it was restored fully. The same architect that worked on Westminster Abbey worked on Bath Abbey and Bath Abbey has been nick named the 'Lantern of the West' because of the amount of natural light that gets into the building because of the stained glass windows. It was very beautiful.

Bath Abbey

Stone sculpture from inside the abbey

Look at that ceiling! Beautiful!

Impressive stained glass window

One of the many stained glass windows along the sides of the abbey

When I was researching going to Bath on the internet this week, I found out about a lady named Sue who runs walking tours leaving at 2pm every Saturday. I gave her a text earlier in the week and arranged to go on the tour and it was 7 pounds very well spent. I wasn't surprised when I found out she is an ex-teacher because she was so enthusiastic and very knowledgeable about the area. I learnt a lot from the tour and got to see all the main things in Bath. She was clearly a big Jane Austen fan and I thought this was great. These are some of things I learnt from Sue;

* Bath became very popular after King James' wife came to try and heal herself because she kept having miscarriages. 9 months after she bathed in the baths she had a son! That's when it really took off and became known for it's healing powers (real or not...)
* All buildings are built in the same stone (limestone from surrounding hills) and the same stone was used to build the side walls of Buckingham Palace. It's a yellowy stone.
* Bath was the first place for the crescent and circle streets in England.
* Hospital wasn't always a place where people got healed but a place where poor people could go (hospice) and there's still one running for that purpose in Bath.
* Fire insurance plaques were placed on the outside of buildings so if a house was on fire the fire brigade knew which houses they should extinguish fires in. If it had no plaque and was on fire they would just drive past it.
* The streets are very unchanged and would have looked the same when Jane Austen walked up them.
* It was a VERY fashionable place to be seen but was a place where people only came in the 'season' and was where people had their holiday homes.


There was a HEAP more, but my phone died and I could no longer take notes so that will have to do for now.

Street as it would have looked to Jane Austen

Oldest house in Bath c.1480

Pretty streets

See that clock at the end? Jane wrote about people meeting in front of that very clock.

Traditional Georgian garden, note the gravel instead if grass so dresses wouldn't get dirty ;)

Cute sign

Look at how beautiful the day was!

First crescent buildings

Remains of medieval wall

Old man in cool get up

Sue :)

Oh I just remembered a pretty cool thing for all those Les Mis fans out there. Remember in the film where Javert commits suicide? Well, it was filmed in Bath!

Look familiar? Obviously a lot of special effects but still a cool fact.

The tour finished at 4pm so I had a few hours spare before I had to catch a train back so I looked around a few shops and got a burger for dinner. The restaurant was a real treat because when I looked at the menu was very surprised because there was a kiwiburger and a little note beside it that said 25p from each burger sold would go to an organisation to help save the kiwi. When I ordered it the waiter started explaining the poor kiwi bird in New Zealand, was quite funny. Needless to say three kiwi guys own the restaurant and the burger was delicious!

Save the kiwi

Love a kiwi :)

I had a fantastic day out in Bath and highly recommend it to anyone who is heading over this way. Looks like next weekend I'll have to stay home writing reports for parent/teacher day in two weeks, a VERY hard task because I'm still getting to know the kids...

I'm off to sleep!

Love to you all xoxox