(Bath, England)

Taking my piping hot mocha, in its familiar dark blue and white paper cup, I was excited to start my Saturday morning. Cafe Nero is a coffee store chain found throughout London and Dublin. I prefer the coffee here to Starbucks, and their lattes and mochas are delicious. Grant and I got to the tour office, where we were supposed to meet the rest of the family and our tour bus a bit early, about 45 minutes. So we settled at a chair and table to eat our morning breakfast of fresh baked croissants and Grant’s favorite, cream danish.

Our tour bus left on time and luckily we were able to find a row of four seats. Perfect for our party of four. The first stop was a two hour bus ride out to a historic town called Bath. The one thing I had set at the top of my London itinerary was to see Stonehenge. Grant’s stepmom thought it would be a really good experience to visit the town of Bath and the Roman ruins there. She described it and it sounded awesome. I was doubtful at first whether we could find a day tour that could take us to both sites, but lo and behold, we found one!

Bath is a lovely, sun washed stone town that features prominently in Jane Austen’s works, notably Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. The town was established by the Romans as early as AD 60 and many of the buildings are primarily built in the Georgian style. what stands out about this town is its (yellowish white) color as the roads and buildings are all made of local Bath Stone. The Romans found the water from a nearby hot springs to be of a healing and cleansing nature, so they built a lavish bath which flourished between the 1st and 4th centuries A.D., complete with separate men’s and women’s changing rooms and steam room. Once the Romans left, the bath had fallen into ruin and was buried over by layers of dirt. It remained like this for hundreds of years and was discovered in 1879.  This led to a big excavation project to uncover the ruins. Also discovered nearby was a temple dedicated to the Goddess Minerva.

Exploring the ruins, it was easy to picture what it may have been like in Roman times… very extravagant and would put a lot of modern day spa baths to shame.

The Roman bath exhibition was were very well put together and allows visitors to explore and see parts of the original archaeological excavations including cross-sections of the stone aqueducts to carry the water from the springs to the bath. At the end the exhibition, you have the opportunity to sample the mineral water from the springs. It is purported to heal many different ailments and to keep the skin smooth and youthful. I tried 2 cupfuls and really had to force the water down on the last cup as the water tasted very “mineral-earthy with a hint of sulphur”. Yeah… but at least my skin will be clear! Thankfully, as only time would tell, I didn’t suffer any stomach cramps from the experience.

Afterwards, we had an hour and a half before we had to meet at our tour bus so Grant and I walked around Bath taking photos.

Stay tuned… Stonehenge is coming up.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017