A Muggy Day in Bath

Today was a little rough because the lack of sleep and constant traveling and exploring was finally catching up with us. We had a very early morning and when we had rolled up to the bus all of us were half asleep and pretty grouchy. Everybody was in slightly better spirits after we napped on the bus on the way over to Bath. We started off with a tour of the Roman Baths.

We took the audio tour which was really interesting to me because it covered quite a bit of Roman and Greek mythology. It was pretty cool seeing all of the remains of the original bath structures, but my favorite part of the tour were the videos that recreated the original structure and showed you exactly what you would be looking at if it were still standing. 

The water is really really gross and swimming with all kinds of bacteria, fungus, and such, so you are not allowed touch it or drink it, (even though I'm not sure why you'd want to... that green tinge isn't too inviting!!)

 Julius Caeser statue

 Model that shows where all of the original pools were and where the water that filled each bath came from.

 There were all kinds of ruins left from the original structure. The pieces that they have displayed imply that this Bath was a temple of some sort to Sulis Minerva (the Roman goddess of Wisdom... Athena is the Greek form). There were also a few tributes to Neptune (Roman god of the ocean... Poseidon is the Greek form) amongst the pieces. 

We were also able to look at the ancient "pipes" that they used to transport the water from the main springs into the other, smaller, pools.

 This is an alter they believed was used to make sacrifices to the gods and goddesses. It is the largest alter from this era.

After we finished our walk through the museum, we had the opportunity to try some of the water that came directly from the spring, not the green gunk filled water though! Not to worry!! It was very very hot and tasted pretty gross. Next, Peter took us around the city of Bath and showed us all of the gorgeous architecture. We saw people walking around dressed up in victorian-like costumes. Peter noticed us staring and explained that we were near the base for the Jane Austen society. A lot of her novels were set in or around Bath and they were having an event this  weekend so people were in costume and interacting with pedestrians. We also toured an old restore house on the crescent which was spectacular and had a lot of stairs for us to climb up. The bedrooms were my favorite because they had the intricate wigs on display.

 Model of the house on the crescent

While Bath was extremely interesting, I think we were all ready to get back to Oxford by the time we got back on the bus. One of the most unexpected highlights of the day was getting to see the rolling fields and Wales in the distance as we drove back to Oxford.

Cannot wait for Stratford upon Avon on Sunday!!

xoxo
SG