Baa - Baa- Bahth May 18th - 20th

My title is supposed to get you in the habit of saying Bahth rather than Bath but Bath is the only place other than London where we haven't seen any sheep so it seems totally inappropriate!

We left Oxford around 1:00  Tuesday and arrived in Bath at 3:00.  We had a beautiful drive through the lovely English countryside - again - and I want to mention something that we have seen for many weeks but I've never really emphasized.  This is the season for rape - don't be shocked!  Rape is the plant from which we get mustard seed and it is in full bloom in the spring in England.  It is a brilliant yellow and the fields of it are breathtaking.  You see so much of it that you have to be careful not to get complacent about its beauty.  It really is everywhere when you are in the country.

So after our drive into Bath, we got Ginger and Bill to their B&B.  Fabulous location - on the corner of the Circus, the famous circle of identical buildings, columns, etc and their room overlooks the equally famous Assembly Rooms!   We then drove on to our B&B, Number 30 it's called, where our hostess Caroline spent a good 20 minutes introducing Bath to us with maps and brochures before taking us to our room.  That was a first for us and a very nice gesture.

We walked back to Ginger and Bill's and the four of us walked into the center of town where the Roman Baths and the Abbey are located.  The history of the baths and the discovery of them is quite an amazing story.  In about 60 AD, the Romans discovered a gurgling swampy area where the water was coming up out of a spring and was very hot, about 118 degrees Fahrenheit if I remember correctly, and over several hundred years built a very extensive set of rooms and baths and a temple.  The Romans withdrew from Britain in the early 400s and the baths went into disrepair and "were eventually lost due to silting up" (Wikipedia).  Medieval baths were built over the next many hundreds of years in the same spot but the original Roman baths were lost until about the late 18th century when they were discovered during a construction project.  Since then, archeologists have discovered (the latest being in 1975, I think, or around then) that the baths are much more extensive than they thought.  However, if they excavate further they endanger the buildings above them of collapsing and you can't have that!   More of this later.

The famous Pump Room where Jane Austen drank the waters is literally next door and the Abbey is on the other side.  We briefly peeked into all to determine our schedule for the next day and then headed back over to the Circus for dinner at a restaurant strongly recommended by Ginger and Bill's hosts.  On the way, we had to pass the Assembly Rooms and noticed several police cars and security folks standing around.  In asking what was going on, we were told that Charles and Camilla were arriving at 7:30 to judge some British best chef's competition (oh the things these royals have to do!) or something like that so we decided to stick around despite our 7:00 reservation and we did get to see them!  Camilla had broken a foot several weeks ago so she was still hobbling around but John did get a couple of good shots.  They had to pull up close to the entrance because of Camilla's temporary handicap so most of our pictures were of the back of their heads!  But here's one that's pretty good of Charles and you'll see it better if you click on it to make it larger.

We enjoyed an excellent dinner at the Circus Cafe and parted ways until the next day.

The next morning John and I took Caroline's advice and took the two hour City Walk.  The guides are all trained volunteers and our guide was probably about 78 years old.  We could hardly keep up with him!  This walk was an excellent way to get our bearings in the city and see the influence of the many different eras  of architecture.  The most influential era  on the city was Georgian - the time of the 4 King Georges - the 1700's to the 1800's.  I told John I didn't know whether to describe the city as boringly beautiful or beautifully boring!  What I mean by that is that the majority of the buildings look the same - stone from the same quarry, same roof lines, same doorways and cornices over the doors, same chimneys, same window styles, etc.  In fact, John, who loves to photograph buildings and skylines, etc. took very few pictures of the city which I think is indicative of all this.  The charm comes from the mix of other periods that are interspersed around the neighborhoods like this lovely arch framing a typical Georgian street.

HOWEVER - there are the baths and the Abbey and the Pump Room, all remarkably memorable because of their beauty and the powerful influence they had on their contemporary populations hundreds of years apart.  What amazes me is how the evolution of history has placed them side by side and on top of each other!  Certainly makes it convenient for the present day tourist who hasn't much time to explore!  You just go from one to the next because they are literally next door neighbors.

As we toured the baths after the City Walk, I was overwhelmed with the size and complexity of the rooms and pathways and it all seemed so ancient, even when I came to the source of the water which was captured in the first pool. This is a picture of it below that John took.  Don't ask me how he managed to get what must have been the one split second when there were no tourists in sight because, believe me, there were hundreds of us.  I know you can't see it but right in the middle of this pool there is a constant bubbling and this is the spring where the hot waters are surfacing to the top.  You could see the steam a bit, too.  Still it all seemed a bit surreal until I rounded a corner in one of the areas and there was a drain about 4' across with water just pouring out of it - over one million liters a day!!!!!!!!!!  Still!!!  I was truly stunned.  It all came to life for me right there.  What could those Roman discoverers thought 2000 years ago when they discovered this? 

After the baths, it was time to feed me - it was about 2:30 - and I wanted tea in the Pump Room just like Jane Austen!  John did not and it took some arm twisting to get him to go with me.  It is a bit of a feminine activity I suppose but he wasn't complaining when we got to the scones and clotted cream and chocolate eclairs.  The picture below was the view from our seat and the window you see to the far left is where the Pump Room serves water from the spring and where you can look down right into the Roman baths!  I kind of chuckle when I think of the Victorians in their showy clothes and the Romans in the nude in their mixed baths just below.  Interesting dichotomy, don't you think?

The Avon River flows through Bath and the Pultney Bridge is a beautiful structure that spans it.  There are shops on it and boats beneath it and a beautiful weir constructed to control the flow of water over the drastic drop.   We'll be coming up this river the last week in June in another canal boat with Ellen and Philip.  We won't be able to navigate this part of the river of course, (the canal goes around this part) but we may be able to moor in Bath at this spot and then turn around to head up the canal.

We will have to go through the second deepest lock in Europe on that trip.  We walked over to the canal to see it and it is a bit intimidating.  But that's for another blog!

Early, early tomorrow morning we leave for Oberammergau in the Barvarian Alps to see the Passion Play put on by this village once every ten years for the last almost 400 years.  I am sure it will be an exhilarating experience and I'll be anxious to share it with you when we return.  In the meantime, I want to close with what I think is one of the best shots John has taken this trip.