Day Trip to Bath

A couple of weeks ago I decided to take myself off to Bath in Somerset. I'd been told it's a lovely city, steeped in history, and as it's only a 90 minute train ride from Paddington, I thought I'd treat myself!

A short walk from the train station brought me to the River Avon. The bridge in the background is called Pulteney Bridge and it's only one of four bridges left in the world with shops across the full span on both sides. I didn't get to see it any closer than this, so it's top of my list for the next trip!

My main reason for visiting bath was to see the Roman baths, built by the Romans on the site of the only hot springs in Britain. I like this view from inside the baths as you can also see the Cathedral. (Another thing on my list for next time.)

The bath is lined with 45 sheets of lead and filled withhot spa water.

This is the actual spring. Hot water at 46deg C rises here at the rate of 240,000 gallons (1,170,ooo litres) every day, and has been doing thisfor thousands of years. This is called the Sacred Pool as the Romans believed it was the work of the gods so they built a temple around the spring, dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva a deity they believed had healing powers.
In case you didn't know, the Roman name for Bath was Aquae Sulis!

This is a detail from the original temple.

This is the spring overflow. The Roman plumbing and drainage system is still largely in place. Lead pipes were used to carry the hot spa water around the site using gravity flow. Dam clever those Romans!

The spring overflow is where surplus water, not used in the baths flows out into a roman drain. The drain still carries all the spa water to the river Avon 400m away.


There was a lot more to the baths than I have pictures of, but was really interesting.

I wanted to see the famous Pump Room which was regarded as the social heart of Bath for more than 200 years. It figures heavily in most of Jane Austen's wonderful Regency novels. Unfortunately it's now a very expensive restaurant so I didn't get to look inside!

I headed instead to the Assembly Rooms which also feature in Jane Austen's works. They were used in Regency times for dancing, card playing, tea drinking, conversation and generally seeing and being seen. Now of course they are just big empty rooms, but I just liked this reflection of one of the beautiful chandeliers.

Last stop before finding food and coming home was the world famous Royal Crescent, a stunning piece of Georgian architecture. There are 30 houses in the Crescent, one of which is now the Royal Crescent Hotel (very expensive!), and Number 1 is open to the public. (another for next time!) I was just a bit disappointed with the Crescent cos it looks like it could do with a good clean, it looks a bit dingy!! Sorry the pic is so narrow... it's a panorama I stitched together from 4 individual shots.

That was my last stop, and I wandered back into the town centre doing a bit of window shopping along the way! The shops are gorgeous, little and boutique-y, and expensive!!

A nice meal on the terrace at Garfunkels completed my day! I shall go back again soon when hopefully there will be fewer tourists about!!