Category: Miscellaneous

Bath was named after – you guessed it – a Roman Bath that was here about 2000 years ago. It’s a major tourist destination and we visited today.

That’s the main bath itself but it’s actually a large complex consisting of a temple and several baths. Most of it is now under the street level of Bath (much of the museum is under ground) but very well preserved. It’s fantastically well presented and there’s loads to see.

That’s a ‘curse’ which is a pray for divine intervention that petitioners would write on lead then throw into the main bath. They have many on display and they’re almost all asking the goddess of the spring (Minerva) to punish thieves. In some cases the petitioner even suggests a punishment, such as Docimedes who wished that the (unknown) man who stole his gloves would have his mind and eyes removed!

2000 years ago these were written. It was fascinating!

Needless to say we greatly enjoyed the Baths and if you’re ever here don’t hesitate to visit.

That is ‘The Royal Crescent’, a curved line of homes that are apparently some of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in England. We went and had a gander, but to be honest it didn’t impress any more than many of the other examples of lively architecture that fills this city.

As we were strolling around we saw signs for a steam-powered fair which we just had to check out. Find it we did and it was incredible:

Both those rides are steam-powered, as in run from steam engines! So is this one:

The theme of the fair was restored amusement rides from yesteryear. While it wasn’t massive (about 10 rides) all of the rides were beautiful and almost all used steam engines! One children’s carousel was even man powered via a hand crank. We rode the ghost train (which gave us a good laugh), had some ice cream and chickened out from riding the ‘steam yachts’ (shown above).

It was very warm and sunny today. Let’s hope this weather follows us west tomorrow…

The (first class) train to Bath was great. Comfortable and speedy with free drinks and snacks, we could barely believe the quality of service for the relatively low price!

Once in bath we checked into our spacious apartment right in the downtown area (near all the attractions) and walked around the street for lunch.

We’re not that close to the sea (especially compared to Brighton) but there’s a lot of seagulls here and they are professional beggars! We hadn’t noticed the ‘please don’t feed the gulls‘ signs until after we’ve fed them a few scraps, but even so we stopped anyway when we watched one dive bomb some guy and steal a piece of pizza right out of his hands!

About a minutes walk from our apartment is this 500 year old Anglican Abbey. For only £6 each, we took a guided tour up the tower (221 steps!) and onto the very top. Here’s one view from up there:

As you can see Bath is a very pretty town. We’ll be visiting some of the more famous attractions tomorrow. The church tower tour was particularly good though, and the icing on the cake was the very pretty your guide who even said ‘too right’ like an Aussie 🙂

The river Avon flows through bath and the Pulteney Bridge, which crosses the river, is not only famous for its construction and the fact it has shops on it but is also older than Australia! (I keep running into things older than Australia here…)

I took that photo from the south side. Look closely and you’ll see two circular windows in the supports. Here’s a shot taken from inside the basement of the mosaic shop, which looks out through the rightmost of the two windows:

It would be a charming place to live!

Lots more Bath tomorrow…

Super tired after another day in Brighton. Amongst other things, we went to the Royal Pavilion.

Photography wasn’t permitted inside so I snuck the above. It’s a 200 year old Palace of incredible opulence. I wrote more about it on your postcard. Maybe 🙂

That’s the pier again. We rode the ghost train today, which was dumb but fun. We also spent more time in the penny arcade and won two key chains in the Star Trek machine 😛

That’s the i360, a brand new tourist attraction that opened today of all days! Lines were astonishing and we only saw the donut-like platform rise and fall once. Perhaps wind stymied it, but then I doubt they would have built it here were it not windproof.

As you can see it was a lovely day. We spent hours in the sun and I’m totally knackered. Tomorrow we’re off to our next destination. I wonder what we’ll see?