England - Bath

On our way to Bath, I managed for the first time to get a decent photo through the window of the bus (we must have slowed to a crawl or even stopped for some reason).  Again this seems to me to be both quintessentially England and sheer loveliness.

Note the stone walls.  Much like ours here in the Northeast, they are made without mortar, but the stones that are wedged on the top have a great deal to do with the integrity of the wall.  Once those start to loosen and fall out, the wall itself begins to fall apart.  These walls take a great deal of money to rebuild (as you can imagine!), but they are protected and cannot be taken down without all sorts of rigmarole.

While in Bath, we spent almost all of our time at the Roman Baths.  It was D's choice, and I enjoyed it, too, as we both like history, but next time I want to go see the Assembly Rooms and Jane Austen's home.  

I was amazed at how large this site is, and there is really no way I can give you an accurate idea of that because so much of it is underground now.  There is a model of how the site may have looked in its heyday, and that may help give at least some sense of it.

These photos are quite small in scale compared to the others, but again, if you click on them, you'll be able to see them a little better.  

This photo shows that excavation is still going on.  This man had just paused to check his work before beginning again.

One of the most astounding pieces found so far is this gold head of Minerva.  They do hope to be able to find more of her statue, but it simply may not happen.  It may not even be there any more; looters or the vagaries of nature may have had their way already.

The water is full of minerals as you can see from the color of the stones, and it is also quite hot.  I must share with you the fact that all visitors may try a taste (drinking it was considered of great health benefit), but there was a warning attached not to drink more than a sip.  Let me just say that the waters have great use as a laxative.  I didn't take even a sip!

This is a "photo op"  I just really liked; I never did get around to see what this woman had with her or what she was doing. 

One of the members of our group also visited the Baths and we exchanged cameras so each of us would have a photographic reminder.  The things hanging around our necks are audio tour guides.  Quite handy.

Just another indication of how large this area is.

 And here again is a mallard drake.  I would not have thought they would like being near this water, but it certainly didn't bother this one.

A view of the cold bath into which one dipped after tolerating the hot baths as long as possible.

Our last stop in Bath was at the Sally Lunn Tea Shop.  We didn't have enough time for tea, but we did buy a Sally Lunn cake.  We think it would probably have lived up to its reputation if we had had time for a proper tea complete with all the butter, jams, and clotted cream one could slather on it!

After Bath we headed off to Stourhead Gardens but that will be a treat for tomorrow.  Think calendar-style photographs!