Day 4 Roman Baths
Day 4 Tuesday April 23rd.
Sandy found that there are free tours of Bath provided by volunteers everyday. You just need to meet in the plaza in front of the Grand Pump Room at 10:00am. Very convenient since we are staying right in front of the meeting place. We got there at 9:45 and there were three guides. The crowd was divided into three groups and we all followed our guide for a two hour tour of Bath.
The guide was very informative and took us to many impressive sights, like the Royal Crescent. The Royal Crescent is single building consisting of 30 terraced houses laid out in a large crescent. It was built between 1767 and 1774. It is also the backdrop for may scenes in Bridgerton.
We walked the promenade that couples walk to talk to each other when they were courting, We also saw Kings Circus, a historic ring of large townhouses forming a circle with three entrances. Convinced that Bath was the principal center of Druid activity, the architect designed the townhouses to mimic the outer ring of Stonehenge.
It was a lot of walking for us, so we found a pub and enjoyed a nice cold Cider and some lunch.
Back to the apartment for a quick nap, then we went to the main event. The Roman Baths!
The Roman Bath Audio Tour is well worth it. You can stop and start the tour anytime and jump to any area you happen to be in. The geothermal bath house is very impressive. The tour provides all the information on the history, including the pre Roman history of the Celtics worshiping the goddess Sulis (Minerva), the Roman invasion, to 16th and 17th century royalty using the baths. Scale models of the original structure were also very cool to see. It was actually a spa and had many different work out rooms as well.
The evening was still young, so we hiked to the Pulteney Bridge. This Bridge spans the River Avon in Bath and is unique in that it has shops built across its full span on both sides. There is also an unusual weir (low-head dam) just below the bridge. It makes for a cool photo.
We ended the day at “The Dark Horse”, a subterranean cocktail den voted top 4 best new cocktail bars in the world in 2016. The drinks were overpriced and just ok, but the atmosphere was fantastic!
