(no subject)
Went to Bath on a day-trip for my 26th birthday yesterday! I walked around with my friend Tara, who was just at the end of her whirlwind across-England tour.
Highlights included:
--the Roman Baths, which have been converted into a walking-tour museum with audio-tour guides. These (and the tourists) somewhat lessen the effects, though the musky damp smell is 100% authentic. The guides were obsessed with highlighting the baths' "powerful mystery" and its religious function (as a temple to Solis Minerva, a sort of combo-deity between the Celtic Solis and Athena; to be fair, the golden head of Athena that remains *is* beautiful and powerful-looking, and archaeologists have dug up a number of curses, written in Latin cursive on tiny, rolled-up lead sheets); however, they seemed to have no conception that there might be unorthodox Romans who just wanted to take a dip or that some people may not have believed the "healing waters" hoo-hah. But anyway, the baths were gorgeous feats of engineering---from the plumbing system controlled by gravity and sluice gates to the "hot rooms" with hollow floors beneath which steam was driven, winged on either side by changing rooms (separate-sex by the 2nd century) and "tepidariums." The Romans corralled the actual hot spring itself into one large, deep pool that they channeled for the whole complex; the water was an algae-green and slightly bubbling with gasses, and constantly overhung by a low mist. In the 1900s the Victorians erected a viewing platform over the original great bath, which would've been open to the sky, and added little sculptures of famous Romans who had significance for British history: Casear, Hadrian, etc.
--the Circle, an early Georgian "square" of beautiful, connected rowhouses surrounding a round green of three large trees
--a giant manor house
--the Jane Austen house---not really a highlight, since it was a dinky little museum, but it had a great tearoom with an amusing portrait of Colin Firth and served some delicious clotted cream and scones
--some lovely botanical gardens with a random Shakespeare memorial (I guess since the Avon is nearby)?
--a spectacular sunset, viewed from the window of the train as I was leaving Bath at 8:45
Highlights included:
--the Roman Baths, which have been converted into a walking-tour museum with audio-tour guides. These (and the tourists) somewhat lessen the effects, though the musky damp smell is 100% authentic. The guides were obsessed with highlighting the baths' "powerful mystery" and its religious function (as a temple to Solis Minerva, a sort of combo-deity between the Celtic Solis and Athena; to be fair, the golden head of Athena that remains *is* beautiful and powerful-looking, and archaeologists have dug up a number of curses, written in Latin cursive on tiny, rolled-up lead sheets); however, they seemed to have no conception that there might be unorthodox Romans who just wanted to take a dip or that some people may not have believed the "healing waters" hoo-hah. But anyway, the baths were gorgeous feats of engineering---from the plumbing system controlled by gravity and sluice gates to the "hot rooms" with hollow floors beneath which steam was driven, winged on either side by changing rooms (separate-sex by the 2nd century) and "tepidariums." The Romans corralled the actual hot spring itself into one large, deep pool that they channeled for the whole complex; the water was an algae-green and slightly bubbling with gasses, and constantly overhung by a low mist. In the 1900s the Victorians erected a viewing platform over the original great bath, which would've been open to the sky, and added little sculptures of famous Romans who had significance for British history: Casear, Hadrian, etc.
--the Circle, an early Georgian "square" of beautiful, connected rowhouses surrounding a round green of three large trees
--a giant manor house
--the Jane Austen house---not really a highlight, since it was a dinky little museum, but it had a great tearoom with an amusing portrait of Colin Firth and served some delicious clotted cream and scones
--some lovely botanical gardens with a random Shakespeare memorial (I guess since the Avon is nearby)?
--a spectacular sunset, viewed from the window of the train as I was leaving Bath at 8:45