Beautiful Bath

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Our day was so filled with interesting things, we barely noticed the gray skies that never broke today.  We began with a walking tour of Bath, led by one of the city’s volunteer guides.  Our little group walked from the Abbey, Roman Baths and adjacent Pump Room through the town center and beyond the original confines of the Roman-walled city to the Royal Crescent and the Circus, the famous rows of Georgian townhomes. It was a great overview of the city’s history, personalities, and architecture, conducted by a loving native daughter.

We spent the afternoon in two of Bath’s chief attractions.  The Abbey, with its soaring nave and fan vaulting is inspiring, historic, and very much a functioning church.  Foregoing the upward climb to the tower, we descended to the underground “vaults” to take in a museum there.  From the Abbey, we went next door to the Roman Baths to explore the extensive excavations there.  Bath is the site of Britain’s only hot springs, which have drawn people here for religious and therapeutic reasons since pre-Roman days.

Bath is preparing for Christmas.  Municipal holiday lights are being hung, shop displays are growing and, as we have seen all over Britain, restaurants are urging us to book our holiday parties now to avoid disappointment!  Halloween just seems to be a minor blip on the radar screen, a potential retail bonanza missed. Tom has decided that they just don’t have enough holidays here, so it’s all Christmas, all the time.