Sunday, June 22, 2008
Bath
Today was one of the most beautiful days yet. The weather was high 60’s and sunny all day long. We drove an hour along the gorgeous countryside roads to get to Bath. When we got there we headed straight to the Roman Baths. The town was beautiful with the Roman architect and Georgian style buildings. First we stopped inside the restaurant called the Pump Room attached to the baths. We were pretty sure they used the room in the filming of the movie “Amazing Grace” since the character took a holiday in Bath. However, I read it was just a replica set. There was a bar with a fountain decorated with four fish with water from the baths shooting out of their mouth. You could buy a glass of water from the Bath. I have to say, I have had the best water since I’ve been on this trip. Not once have I tasted water with a metallic taste from the pipes like we get out of the water fountains at work. It all has been virtually tasteless. We waked around the building to get an actually tour of the Baths when two street performers caught our eyes. They were called Skate Naked. These guys performed an acrobatic comedy…more a comedy than anything. They were so funny we videotaped the entire show and you can view their act that someone else already posted on YouTube by clicking here. If you are going to watch it, I have to warn you it may not be your cup of tea as they perform in a g-string. I think people just stopped because they were wandering what are they going to say and do next? They had a joke for every culture in Western Europe, including Americans and Australians. After the show, we began our tour of the Roman Baths. There were telephones in almost every language that talked you through the tour. There were numbers posted on the walls and when you got to the walls you stopped and pressed the number to listen to the commentary. It was very informative and well worth the money. They had tons of Roman artifacts on display. I took a lot of pictures. The bathes were steaming with water from so deep in the ground (10,000 feet) that it came up at 116°F.
Bath was a very fashionable place during Jane Austin’s times. So of course they have a Jane Austen Centre. Due to time we skipped the whole museum and had pre-lunch tea in her tearoom. We also had scones, cucumber and cheese sandwiches with my tea and Tim’s hot chocolate. It was very delectable. I would have loved to go on a girl’s day out with my mom in Bath. She would have loved the tearoom, and they have a spa package for £50, which includes going to the spa, the Roman Bath tour, and a three-course lunch in the Pump Room. That seemed like a price you can’t beat. After we finished our tea, we walked to a park to eat lunch. There wasn’t much room to sit down due to the crows gathered to watch what I believe they call lawn bowling. We have always called it Bocce Ball, as it is an Italian game. They had tents set up, and spectators sipped on their drink of choice and watched games from the eight or more lanes. The only other time I saw that was in my own backyard at my 26th birthday party and at that it was a new game to everyone. Tim and I love the games so much, we want to create our own bowling lane especially for Bocce when we get our new house in Florida. After relaxing in the park, we got in the car and drove to Farleigh Hungerford Castle. I read online they had re-enactments. However, buy the time we got there we only had 20 minutes to see the whole thing before it closed. So we took video footage from the outside as our still camera ran out of batteries. And then we headed back to base. I highly recommend going to Bath if you are ever in the country.
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