The train ride went pretty smoothly. We had to switch trains in Reading, arriving in Bath around lunch time.
Catching the train to Bath
We are staying at The Henry. We have a wonderful room in this old Georgian building. The owners, Steve and Liz, were wonderful hosts.
Our room
Brandon's side of the room.
After getting settled in our room, we headed out into Bath. First stop was for some pictures of the traditional English phone booth on the sidewalk outside our hotel.
The English phone booth
Second stop was lunch. We chose a great Thai restaurant, Salathai, for lunch. We have really enjoyed Asian foods here in Europe. Cinese (some readers have commented taht I can't spell correctly, but this is how its spelled in Italy...pronounced "Chi - nay - say") was our favorite for a long time. Lately we've been enjoying Thai food more frequently.
After lunch we wandered through the old part of the city a little bit, following the Rick Steve's walking tour.
The oldest home in Bath
Many of the buildings in Bath had very interesting stonework.
Walking the streets of Bath
This is for Andy - the Royal mail
Then we hopped on a City Sightseeing bus to get an overview of the city and its history. We like the Sightseeing buses and try to ride them in each city we visit.
After our bus tour we walked around town to get a closer look at some of the sights we saw on the bus tour.
Parade Gardens
Starbuck's break
The Pulteney Bridge
We stopped for tea at a shop on the Pulteney Bridge. Katrina wants to have tea each day we are in England.
A Roman mosaic found in Turkey. I spotted this in a mosaic shop on the Pulteney Bridge. I've been interested in trying mosaics and this shop had beginner kits. In fact, the kit I bought will make this very same picture.
Avon River, from the mosaic shop
We spotted lions all over town. More than 100 of these lions were painted and decorated by local organizations and businesses. They are put on display for a month or so, then sold at auction for charity. Each lion has a unique them and name. Last year they auctioned off pigs.
This afternoon we split up for a bit. Katrina headed to a museum while I took Brandon to the park he spotted earlier in the day. A couple of hours later Katrina met us in the park and we headed back to the room for awhile.
The main attraction in the city of Bath are the Roman Baths. Long before the Romans arrived in the first century, Bath was known for its warm waters. When the Romans arrived, they named the popular spa town Aquae Sulis, after a local Celtic goddess.
Today a museum surrounds the ancient bath and is very popular with the tourists. Katrina found out that the baths were open in the evening and that the baths were illuminated by torches, so we decided to visit then. This proved to be a good plan as there were no lines and the museum was fairly empty. Great for picture taking.
Roman Baths
The floors of Roman baths were often elevated on stone pillars like these. This provided the ability to heat the floors from underneath.
Brandon checks out the spring that feeds the baths. We could see bubbles of sulpher gas in the spring. The spring water comes out of the earth at a temperature of 48.5 celcius, pretty darn hot.
When we completed our tour, we were hungry for dinner. It was late, but we are accustomed to eating late. Unfortunately for us, the English must eat dinner earlier in the evening than the Italians do. Almost every restaurant was closed. We found an Italian pizzeria on the way back to the hotel.
Brandon enjoys some bruschetta for dinner
So far we really love Bath. We are looking forward to exploring it more tomorrow.
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