In our hire car, a snappy looking Peugeot, we headed straight to Bath. We found a car park near the town centre, which is not always possible. Perhaps the damp weather kept tourists away. Raincoats on and umbrella up, we finally located the Roman Baths. Entry tickets come with audio guides. So along the various exhibits we went, learning about how the Romans developed the natural hot water springs into an enormous complex, complete with temple and pools to also promote healing.
There is a scale model of what the complex would have looked when first created.
The stone walls remain, but the original wooden roof rotted in the Roman times, to be replaced by a high arched roof using bricks. The technical skills of this civilisation were truly impressive. Below is an overflow drain they built which allowed excess water to be channelled out to the river.
The Romans built bath houses in their various centres in England. So sophisticated was the engineering, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, the English bathing standards slipped somewhat and it would be another one thousand years before the English would have such bathing facilities again.
This pool, now empty, has a bench seat around the edge, indicating people would come here "to take the waters" in seeking a cure for their ailments.
One fascinating exhibit is the remains of a man, in his 40s, believed to be from Syria and probably wealthy. Experts determined by his teeth his diet included honey, which only the rich could afford. From his skull, his likeness has been recreated.
A Roman stonemason took this photo of us. At least, that is how he was dressed and what he told me he was. Who am I to doubt him?
Next we paddled our way along some beautiful streets lined with wonderful buildings, to ...
The Jane Austen Centre. She never lived in this building, but she did once live in this street. The Centre promotes her work and focuses on how her various times visiting or living in Bath influenced her writing. A wonderfully whiskered man with a broad accent greets you on arrival. (Though he may have been on a break, as we only saw him when leaving.)
"Mr. Bennett," I said. "I didn't expect you to have such an accent."
"Damn B.B.C. types," he explained. "Makes everyone sound so la-de-da. Don't you be fooled, now Miss. Mr. Bennett would have sounded just like 'moy'."
Rob and I went to the Jane Austen Tearooms on the second floor for lunch. All the employees in the Centre wear Regency costume. I had TEA WITH THE BENNETS (sangers and a slice of Victoria sponge cake) and a pot of JANE AUSTEN'S BLEND OF TEA.
We headed off to Malmesbury, to the Old Bell Hotel, which claims to be the oldest hotel in England. The abbey next door was founded around 676 AD as a Benedictine monastery. So many scholars came to study their vast library, a place to accommodate and feed them was built next door around 1220.
It was still raining as we departed Bath ... as seen through our windscreen
but the weather cleared and we saw the most brightly coloured rainbow as we drove along.
On arrival, we discovered our room has been upgraded. We are now in the Sir John Rushout room. The Malmesbury Carnival is on this Saturday, and we will have a perfect view of the late afternoon parade from our second floor window.
Off we went to wander along the winding streets, peer down lanes and i to shop windows, then have a drink of 'Reverend James Ale' in the quaint Smoking Dog pub.
Then we grabbed some fish 'n chips (battered cod) from a shop facing the square, used as a car park, outside the Town Hall, and sat on the bench to the left of the gates to the local library to eat them.
Breakfast in Dublin, lunch in Bath, dinner in Malmesbury. Not quite a typical day.
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