England, Part II: Bath

Me, clutching my tour interpreter device, at the Roman Baths,
with Bath Abbey in the background

We've been wanting to visit England for a long time. The only place either of us had ever been in England was London, and it's been decades since then. A friend back in Minnesota (Sally, who used to live in England), asked her British friends for recommendations of places other than London for us to visit. The list was long and fun to think about, but one place came up quite often: Bath.  So we decided to check out Bath.

We spent a couple of days there, staying in an Air Bnb in the central part of the city. We didn't have any plan, just walked around, admiring things, and that's really all you need to do in Bath. There was a lot to admire; the town is old and beautiful and full of interesting shops and pubs that aren't corporate chains. The history is a bit mind-blowing, as Bath was the westernmost town in the Roman Empire. It really puts things in perspective, to think that the United States is (hopefully not was) just a short blip in the grand arc of history.

On one of our walks, we climbed the 212 steps to the top of the Bath Abbey and got a tour of the bell and clock tower:

Down a narrow passageway in the Bath Abbey tower you come to the back of the clock, which is about 6 feet across. The tour guide told of a tour a few years ago when a little boy pushed on one of these mechanisms behind the clock, inadvertently putting the clock out of commission for months and requiring about 20,000 British pounds to fix. I was surprised they still let tourists anywhere near these clockworks, but all they did was warn us, "Please don't touch anything," which is very trusting of them. We made sure we didn't touch anything!

Our tour guide at the Bath Abbey, playing a hymn on the big bells on this "keyboard". Perched near his right shoulder is the "sheet music": a stack of simple hymns to play on the bells, some of which weigh several tons. The bells also have long thick ropes that can be pulled when the bells are set to pealing all together; it requires a whole group 
of people to do it. 

We also walked on the Pulteney Bridge over the river Avon. The bridge was lined with shops, and looked like this from the back:

. . . and we had fish & chips & peas for lunch in the centuries-old Guild Market one day. Apparently serving peas with fish & chips is a thing there:

... and we spotted this interesting assortment of wild animal food in a window:

... and we met friends of Sally's and her husband Frank's: Phil and Helen, who live nearby. And would you believe I completely forgot to get a photo! We met at the Pump Room restaurant next to the Roman Baths and had an elegant lunch there (which Helen graciously sneaked off and paid for without us realizing it; eating out is not cheap in England!), accompanied by a pianist at a grand piano. Phil & Helen had to rush off to pick up their grandchildren, ages two and five, from nursery school (they were watching the grands for a few days) but we had a lovely and funny visit with new friends, which is always a treat.

After Phil & Helen left, we took a tour of the Roman Baths.

(stock photo from European-heritage.co.uk -- better than anything we could have taken)

The site of the Roman baths, which were built on a natural hot spring, was used by the Celts in the Iron Age as a place to worship a goddess named Sulis. After the Romans invaded and conquered this region in 55 BC, they spent about 300 years building the complex bath system (the United States still isn't 300 years old). The various rooms — separate for men and for women — consisted of a hot bath (caldarium), a lukewarm bath (tepidarium), and a cold bath (frigidarium). 

Amazingly, after the Romans withdrew from Britain in the early 5th century, the elaborately engineered bath system fell into disrepair, and through a series of floods was lost under silt and forgotten. But the supposedly curative waters of the hot springs continued to be used over the centuries as a place of healing.

It wasn’t until the year 1880 that the Bath city surveyor architect discovered the remains of the Roman baths. The site has been excavated and extended ever since. They're still excavating, and heaven knows what all they’ll eventually discover under the streets of current-day Bath.

You can still get a free drink of Bath water (which tastes just as bad as it sounds) at the Pump House restaurant.

We really enjoyed England; it's ancient and beautiful like Germany, but they speak English -- like a dream about a magical place that turns out to be real!