England Trip, September 2009, Day 4
This morning I checked out of my hotel in London and took a train to Bath. No, bath tubs aren't so rare in England that you have to take a train to get to one. Bath is the name of a city in England. It's famous for its ancient Roman baths.
I had barely scratched the surface of London, but I wanted to see other parts of England while I was there because I didn't know when or if I would be able to return. I chose Bath because it was nearby, so I wouldn't lose a whole day to travel, and I was interested in the Roman baths. There were also other famous sites nearby that I could reach more easily from Bath.
I had barely scratched the surface of London, but I wanted to see other parts of England while I was there because I didn't know when or if I would be able to return. I chose Bath because it was nearby, so I wouldn't lose a whole day to travel, and I was interested in the Roman baths. There were also other famous sites nearby that I could reach more easily from Bath.
This is a picture of my hotel room at the Apsley House Hotel in Bath. Do not adjust your monitor. Yes, this picture is blurry. Yes, the next picture is blurry too. I told you I take blurry pictures! But these are the only pictures I have of my hotel room in Bath and it was such a pretty room. The bed wasn't very comfortable though; it was soft and lumpy. It was the complete opposite of my wonderful bed in London.
This was really more of a bed and breakfast style place than a hotel, although they called themselves a hotel. It was owned by two couples, and they served a nice hot breakfast for free in the morning.
This was really more of a bed and breakfast style place than a hotel, although they called themselves a hotel. It was owned by two couples, and they served a nice hot breakfast for free in the morning.
Here are a couple more blurry pictures of my room.
These are some less blurry pictures of my room and the adjoining bathroom. Unfortunately I neglected to take a picture of the toilet for my mom, but it looked a lot like the first one. I could have inserted the first picture here and pretended it was a new toilet and she would never have been the wiser, but that would be dishonest.
This is a picture of the outside of the Apsley House hotel I was staying at. Every building in Bath is made out of this same sort of stone. It is a requirement that all buildings be built with it. However, to save money, modern buildings are often made out of cement with a thin layer of the stone covering it.
This was an interesting looking house across the street from my hotel. Or was it an interesting looking house-shaped plant? You decide.
This is a random picture I took while walking to the center of town from my hotel. Supposedly, my hotel was a thirty minute walk from the center of town. However, there is no place in the entire world more confusing than Bath. It took me a lot longer than thirty minutes because I kept getting lost. I had two maps of the city of Bath, and I'm convinced that neither map was drawn by anybody who had ever set foot in the city.
I liked my hotel a lot, but if I were to visit Bath again I would probably choose to stay somewhere closer. After being on my feet all day, it was a pretty long walk back to the hotel. Most nights I ended up just taking a taxi back, not just because of the distance but also because it was usually dark by the time I headed back. My hotel was on the outskirts of town with less lighting and less pedestrian traffic at night. Plus I figured that, if I couldn't find my way there when it was light out, I surely wouldn't find my way there in the dark.
I liked my hotel a lot, but if I were to visit Bath again I would probably choose to stay somewhere closer. After being on my feet all day, it was a pretty long walk back to the hotel. Most nights I ended up just taking a taxi back, not just because of the distance but also because it was usually dark by the time I headed back. My hotel was on the outskirts of town with less lighting and less pedestrian traffic at night. Plus I figured that, if I couldn't find my way there when it was light out, I surely wouldn't find my way there in the dark.
After walking for about an hour, I finally found the Roman Baths! My pictures of this place don't do justice to it at all. I was really impressed by it. It's hard to say what I enjoyed most in England, but this was high on the list. This picture shows one of the baths where people used to bathe in the waters fed by hot springs. Obviously nobody takes baths here anymore. I don't think anybody knows exactly how old they are, but they dated them back to at least 76 AD. It was incredible to be surrounded by something so old. I was never a fan of history in school, but it's completely different when you're surrounded by it.
This is another picture taken at the Roman Baths. I was on the balcony that you can just see overlooking the bath in the previous picture.
The big building you see in the background is the Bath Abbey. I'm pretty sure all roads in Bath lead to the Bath Abbey. No matter how lost I got, or no matter where I was trying to go (even if it was nowhere near the abbey!), I always seemed to end up there. Fortunately, there was a taxi queue there and the taxi drivers somehow knew how to get to different places.
The big building you see in the background is the Bath Abbey. I'm pretty sure all roads in Bath lead to the Bath Abbey. No matter how lost I got, or no matter where I was trying to go (even if it was nowhere near the abbey!), I always seemed to end up there. Fortunately, there was a taxi queue there and the taxi drivers somehow knew how to get to different places.
This was supposed to be an emperor by the name of Vespasian. The statue, that is, not the guy behind him. There were several statues like this positioned around the balcony.
In addition to the baths themselves, there was also a museum here which wound through the old structure and had objects from back in that time on display. Most of the pictures I took were extremely blurry, much worse than the ones I took of my hotel room, but a few came out ok.
The above picture is a mosaic. The sign says:
Sea beasts mosaic
Fragment of a marine mosaic showing a dolphin and sea horses, probably 4th century AD. The mosaic was found during excavations near Saw Close, Bath in 1859.
The above picture is a mosaic. The sign says:
Sea beasts mosaic
Fragment of a marine mosaic showing a dolphin and sea horses, probably 4th century AD. The mosaic was found during excavations near Saw Close, Bath in 1859.
People used to write curses on thin pieces of pewter to a goddess and roll them up and throw them in the baths for her in hopes that she would take action against people who had wronged them.
This picture is of the front of the Bath Abbey mentioned earlier. You can see how crowded it was in the center of town. London was a lot like this, but my pictures didn't show it as well. This area was a major gathering place. The Roman Baths were in the building on the right, and there was an open area with benches to the left.
This is a picture of the square in front of the abbey and the Roman Baths. I don't know if the locals called it a square, but that was my name for it. The building on the right is the same side of the abbey seen in the previous picture. You can see the guy playing the guitar in the middle of the square. There were often people here playing instruments. I sometimes sat on the benches here when I was waiting for something such as a tour and read a book on my Kindle or watched the interesting people.
In this picture, I was standing in the same spot as I was in the previous picture but facing in the opposite direction. Don't let the signs fool you. They were not helpful at all. I think they pointed in the opposite direction of the actual location of the sites. My poor sense of direction had nothing to do with my difficulties, I'm sure.
I was standing here waiting for a tour to begin. Every day they have free tours of the city provided by people who live and work in Bath. What I didn't realize when I took this picture was that the gentleman in the foreground on the left was my tour guide. This was the only picture I took with him in it.
I wasn't sure if I would like this tour, but I was glad I took it. It was very interesting. We walked all over the city for two hours and he pointed out a lot of things I never would have even noticed on my own, and told interesting (and sometimes funny) stories related to them.
I was standing here waiting for a tour to begin. Every day they have free tours of the city provided by people who live and work in Bath. What I didn't realize when I took this picture was that the gentleman in the foreground on the left was my tour guide. This was the only picture I took with him in it.
I wasn't sure if I would like this tour, but I was glad I took it. It was very interesting. We walked all over the city for two hours and he pointed out a lot of things I never would have even noticed on my own, and told interesting (and sometimes funny) stories related to them.
This is one of the places we went to on our walking tour. It's a famous (and apparently very expensive) residential area called the Royal Crescent.
This is a close-up of part of the Royal Crescent. The rules require that all the doors in the Royal Crescent must be painted white, black, or brown. However, you can see that there is a yellow door here. It was owned by a lady whose door was yellow before the rule was made, and she refused to paint it. The city tried to take her to court, but it took a very long time for anybody to come out and look into the matter. By the time somebody came out and looked at the door, the color had faded until it looked practically white. They said they didn't see what all the fuss was about, and put an end to the case. After that, the lady gave it a fresh coat of paint. Eventually the lady who lived here died and the home was passed on to somebody else. I can't remember if it was a relative or not, but the new owner also insisted on keeping the door yellow. I thought the story was funny, so I took a picture of the door.
This is a picture of a different residential area in Bath. It is curved kind of like the Royal Crescent, but this place formed a circular shape divided by roads, with a grassy circle in the middle.
This was the last picture I took on this day. Not long after the tour, I found some dinner to take back to the hotel with me and began the long trek to my hotel. I got thoroughly lost, but eventually made it back before my feet fell off. That was the last time I attempted to walk back to the hotel at the end of the day, although I did walk into the city from the hotel one other morning.
This was the last picture I took on this day. Not long after the tour, I found some dinner to take back to the hotel with me and began the long trek to my hotel. I got thoroughly lost, but eventually made it back before my feet fell off. That was the last time I attempted to walk back to the hotel at the end of the day, although I did walk into the city from the hotel one other morning.