The Roman Baths

Hi All,

I'm sorry I haven't written all week, but it has just been crazy over here. I had a presentation in my Jane Austen class and then I was teaching and I just haven't had time to put these up, but today was my day off and so I'm ready to tell you all about the Roman Baths. On Friday, we decided that the bus tickets to London were too expensive and that the next best thing would be to go see what our city is famous for.

Melissa, Tessa, and I took a self guided audio tour of the main exhibit (which was much more extensive than I had expected it would be). They also had a children's audio tour which, I'll admit, I probably listened to more than the adult one. This first picture is of Bath Abbey from the ground floor of the Baths. They said that the ground level had been raised so much since Roman times, that when they built the city they had no idea that it was even there. The handrail at the top of the picture is at ground level with the rest of the city. When people found the spring and the baths beneath the city, they were all shocked and amazed.

There were a lot of rock benches all around the baths that people used to sit on, and so we thought that we would join them. Some really nice British girls offered to take this picture of the three of us after we took one of them. Also, there were signs everywhere that read "Caution, this water is not safe enough to drink or even touch" which most of the parents trying to convince their kids to touch the water clearly didn't read.

Inside the building, branching out from the original bath was a large exhibit of what the rest of the Roman Baths probably looked like. I am not a history person, but I tried very hard to imagine all of the people who used to go to the baths and what they would do in the different parts. I actually managed to get pretty into it! This picture is of a man made waterfall that allows the water from the springs to circulate.

Here is my beloved Abbey again, from behind the back of the Julius Ceasar statue. They built statues of all the famous Roman rulers around the first floor (second floor) of the Baths.