Today we fell in love with Bath. It has been said that Jane Austen hated Bath. Now I love my girl Jane, but I will promptly disagree with her on this one. It is sometimes called the Florence of England, and I can see why. Bath is beautiful and charming.
We slept in as long as we could, and we did this by allowing these three naughties to watch some boob tube...
Tate is not amused at my sneaky picture taking...
We headed up to breakfast, and they put us in our very own private room! Wow, what luxury! I wonder why the special treatment? Could it be the three rowdy boys that are with us? I think so...
It was a lovely room, looking up out to the street...
And it was very nice that we were in there in private, so we didn't feel bad about eating breakfast family style. And when I say family style I mean noisy and crazy.
They boys decided to order a soft boiled egg and they liked the look of it, but not what they found inside.
Tate enjoying his breakfast...
And Todd waiting for his...sleepyhead.
We got dressed and ready and headed out to explore Bath! We crossed the Pulteney Bridge, which is often compared to the Ponte Vecchio. It is charming, with lots of little shops all the way across, just like the Ponte Vecchio. It was raining this morning and the boys weren't too happy about stopping to snap a picture on the bridge. Oh well. We are mean parents that like to take pictures of our kids. But the picture didn't come out, so they won in the end. Those pesky kids!
We saw this little sign for a market and since I enjoy a good market or two, we decided to go in and browse. It was also a nice relief from the rain.
It was a cute little indoor market selling anything and everything. In the middle was this sign and pillar. The pillar had been in this exact spot since the 1770's, and it is where deals were brought and struck. It is where the saying "pay on the nail" originated. I hadn't ever hear that saying, but it was still cool to see.
Look who we ran into in the market!!!
If only his sister in law would have been there, that would have been really amazing...but the Queen was there and Thatcher decided to get his picture taken with her.
We had a good time roaming around looking at all the stuff for sale.
We headed out of the market and over to the main square. The rain had turned into a light drizzle, which was nice. We found this little fountain by the main Bath Abbey...
And then I made the boys pose for another picture. These boys are troopers and good sports through all our travels.
We got to the Roman Baths and decided to do as the Romans do and go take a tour. I've been reading up on the Bath's and Todd and I were excited to see them. We love ruins and all things Roman after all!
Pretty lobby to the Bath's...
We bought our tickets and got our audio guides. The boys were very excited that they had kid audio guides, they really love those things! We headed into the museum and the first thing you see is the overlook to the main bath.
These bath's were part of a major temple/bath complex built by the Romans. The waters come from below the ground and are heated by natural hot springs, the only one in England. Because they had found these hot springs, they believed the waters to have special healing powers and properties. This whole Temple Spa was dedicated to the Roman goddess, Sulis Minerva.
These ruins weren't found for many, many years, and were below street level. It is fascinating that they found them and all the baths were in such good condition.
I love how at these historical sites in Britain they have these enthusiasts dressed up as the time period. Here are two Romans overlooking the bath...
This is overlooking the most sacred bath of the complex, this is where the goddess Sulis Minerva was thought to have powers. The people wouldn't bathe in this bath.
A model of what the temple/bath complex might have looked like back in the times of the Romans.
These are some of the remains of the entrance to the temple dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva. One of the most famous symbols of the bath is that head in the middle, the Gorgon's head.
A ruin of a statue found that used to be a memorial on a tomb. This was a fancy Roman lady by the way her hair was styled.
There were many tombs and burials that were found here at the Bath's, the freakiest display is this human skeleton with a reconstructed guess at what the face of this man looked like.
You walk through many parts of the complex that have original ruins, it's pretty awesome.
Here is the face from the statue of Sulis Minerva, that was probably in the courtyard of the complex.
Showing the underground water source and complex system built by the Romans.
The main bath where the Romans would come to socialize. The water is green now from Alge, but back in the Romans time it was clean because there was a roof above this pool protecting it from the elements.
Our very own Roman bathers!
The whole gang in front of the main bath...
Taking a rest on some ruins, ya know no biggie...
This is looking up into the pump room, a now restaurant attached to the Bath's, where you can kinda see a fountain that pumps up water from the Spa. The water here is still supposed to have healing properties, and people have been coming here to get some for many years.
Here is the outside and entrance to the Pump Room restaurant.
The boys favorite part of any historical visit, the gift shop...
We then decided to go eat some lunch because we were starting to get hungry. We walked over to the little square in front of the Bath's and ate at a yummy little cafe. The food was good, and since it was a little bit of a chilly day it felt good to get some warm food into our belly's.
The best part of lunch was when Todd went to the restroom with the boys. Tagg was goofing around (as usual) and Todd scolded him and sent him back to me. A few moments later, Todd heard the bathroom door open and someone went into the stall next to him. He was sure it was Tagg and so he thought he would scare him a little and pull a prank. He got up on the toilet and put his hand over the stall wall and said in a deep scary voice, " I am going to GET YOU!". When he said that, he heard a grown man's voice scream back, "Oh my gosh!!!!!". Ha ha ha ha! I am still laughing thinking about this. Todd was mortified and quickly ran out of the bathroom! When he got back to the table he told me this story and I am not kidding when I say I LOST IT. I couldn't stop laughing for the next hour...
After lunch we headed over to the Bath Abbey, it is a really beautiful church.
Inside I was blown away by the beautiful stain glass windows and detail on the ceiling...
Tate was blown away too...
After a little while of exploring the Abbey, we took a walk and saw the Jane Austen museum...
...and also the Royal Crescent, which is a half circle of houses.
After all this exploring the boys were begging to do something "fun" so we headed across this park, with the most beautiful flowers, and found a little mini golf place.
The boys were SO excited to mini golf. Poor deprived European travelers!
It was really fun to get play as a family and I loved gawking at the amazing foliage of this area. So breathtaking!
The flowers here in England look almost wax to me sometimes they are so perfect! I can't get enough of them.
It was getting late-ish and time for dinner so we headed back to the heart of Bath after our mini golf game. Todd took this picture of the boys and I down one of the streets of Bath.
I had heard about a good place to eat called Sally Lunn's. It is very historical and the oldest house in Bath.
We went and asked if they had room (a TON of restaurants need reservations, which can be annoying for a family). The nice gentleman who worked here told us he did and went upstairs to prepare a table. A few minutes later a woman walked over to us and asked us if she could help us. I told her we needed a table, and she looked us over and said that there wasn't any room. I was like, ummmm your co-worker is preparing a table for us right now upstairs. Well she was shocked, and I could tell taken off guard and went upstairs. She came down about 5 minutes later and told us to follow her, and sat us upstairs in a practically empty room. So yeah. She didn't want to seat us because we had the kids with us. Nice one. I was ticked, but I also told the boys they better be on their best behavior! Finding family friendly restaurants here in Europe is ridiculous.
We had a really delicious dinner at Sally Lunn's but the service was ridiculous. My biggest complaint about the UK is their lack of customer service. It drives me batty actually.
Here is Tate outside Sally Lunn's after dinner taking a little stroll...
We headed back to the hotel after dinner and looked at the beautiful sunset and sights. Here is looking at the bridge and the cool water feature they have in the river...
It was such a great day, I fell in love with Bath. It is so beautiful and charming!
