Bath Time

Since Kevin was so kind as to take me to not only one but two Pemberleys on our way down south, I decided to be kind and not force any Jane Austen stuff on him for our first full day in Bath.  Instead, we decided to take in a little history by visiting the Roman Baths Museum.  But first, we took a walk through the city up to the famed Royal Crescent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Royal Crescent is a series of 30 Georgian row houses built in the late 1700s by John Woods.  However, Kevin read somewhere  that Woods only designed the front and thus each house is different from the back and are varying sizes, which I find really interesting.  Also, the development was initially called The Crescent, but gained its Royal moniker after it housed Prince Frederick, the Duke of Albany and York.  

 

 

After we were done checking out the lives of the rich and famous, we headed down to the Roman Baths museum.   Underneath the city of Bath lies a network of aquifers which are heated by a geothermal fissure to a temperature of 46 ° C at the surface.  The spring was discovered by the Celts in 836 BC and dedicated to their god Sulis (their equivalent of Athena/Minerva).  When the Romans came to town in 60-70 AD, they built a temple honoring the Goddess Minerva and spent the next 300 years building and developing a bath complex around the spring.   When the Romans were driven out in the 5th century AD, the Baths gradually fell into disrepair and were covered up.  In the 12th and 16th centuries, Baths were built upon the old Roman ruins until the site was finally abandoned.

  

Today, the baths are part of an elaborate museum detailing the lives of the Romans at the height of the Roman Baths popularity as well as the technology behind the functioning of the baths.  I found the vast number of different rooms fascinating.  The Romans built elaborate steam rooms by building up the floor and heating the water under the floor with a furnace to create steam.  Additionally, they had cold and warm rooms along with the baths at their natural 46 °C temperature.  I was however disturbed that they lined all the pools with lead to keep the water from leaking out.   I have visions of the Romans growing gills or third arms due to lead poisoning.  I will however give them credit for their engineering as many of the things they built are still functioning today, including the lead lining on the pools and the overflow drain.

The still functioning overflow drain

After we checked out how the Romans did a Spa Day, we decided to check out how a modern person in Bath does the spa, we headed over to Thermae Bath Spa.  Opened in 2006, it was the first spa in Bath since 1978 and the only natural thermal spa in England.   The spa is a  massive complex consisting of 4 floors with a different attraction on each :  indoor thermal pool, a massage suit, 4 different steam rooms with different aromatic scents and a rooftop thermal pool with a view of the city.    They sell time in the spa in 2 hour increments as long as traditional spa services such as massages and facials.  Since I’d never say no to a massage and Kevin loves getting his back rubbed/scratched (he’s constantly harassing me to scratch his back), we decided to also get a massage while we were there. 

 

The spa was a fun was to spend a few hours, but I’m not sure how people spend more than 2 hours there as Kev and I had just about had enough of the pools and steam room when we left.  But how often does one get a chance to relax in a natural thermal pool?  To top off a day filled with my favorite things – history, spas,  massages and not having to scratch Kevin’s back - we had Indian for dinner.  I’m glad that England took over India as a colony as it developed their love of delicious Indian food, a love that I definitely share.