Saturday, June 24, 2017

June 24 2017 Second Rest Day in Bath










Oldest pub in Bath opened 1713

This morning Agnes and I headed to down town Bath to visit the Roman Bath, Bath Abby and The Assembly Rooms.  Jos volunteered to drive us down so we didn’t have to walk which was great not having to walk the 1.5 miles. We were going to have more than enough miles on our legs by the end of the day.
The main downtown square is a walking area and was packed with people.  We hurried right to the Roman Baths to beat the line ups.  The Roman baths were built between 60- 70 Ad on the site of hot mineral springs.  The water comes out of the ground at 96C.  The Roman Bath House was actually a bath house and temple to the god Sulis Minerva (see bronze head above). It is one of the best preserved Roman Baths and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Even though we got there just as the baths were opening it was still packed.   It took Agnes and I, 2.5 hours to go through the Baths.  It was really amazing.  There you are walking along on stones which were laid down 2000 years ago.  It must have been great to have been one of the Romans who got to use these facilities.  Maybe being one of the slaves who worked there might not have been so great.   
After we got out of the Bath House we headed off to have lunch.  From there we headed over to the Abbey.  OOPS closed for a wedding.  Well off to the Assembly Rooms.  OOPS closed for a wedding.  Someone with lots of money must have been getting married.  So kind of disappointing, you would think they would put this sort of stuff on their web page (we checked opening hours earlier). 
After a coffee we walked down through the main downtown walking area and across the Puleteny  Bridge which has shops on both sides of the bridge. It was a very neat spot.  The area across the bridge is the Laura Fountain and Great Puleteny Street which is lined with magnificent 230 year old town houses. It was absolutely stunning.
Jos came down with the van and picked us up.  Having a chauffeur service is just one of the little perks of this deluxe tour. 
Back at our townhouse we had drinks and cleaned bikes before our tour director cooked us a delicious supper of Jambalaya.
Tomorrow is a 50 mile ride down to Stonehenge and Aveybury.
Terry

4 comments:

Mike B said...

A lovely rest day and culture to boot. It doesn't get better. Enjoying your blog.

Jim said...

Great tour of Bath. I did not realize it was such an impressive Roman town. Finally, Agnes makes the picture cut. I am sure she is having quite the adventure. It was 100 deg here on the ride at 8:00 am. 😊

robert C said...

hope you enjoy Avebury. was there on a cold and snowy morning once and found it as or more fascinating than Stonehenge--maybe because anyone with any sense wasn't wandering through the slush like we were.plus it's just.....there........and not the big attraction across the road from the carpark......or it could have been the cosmic vibrations I was getting from actually being able to touch the stones. enjoy the trip. enjoying the blog.


wendeth1 said...

So much fun following your trip! Great pic & commentary🚴🏻‍♀️