Bath

Not content with all the things there are to do in London, we struck off across the country yesterday to see Bath. I think my brother and his wife wanted to get a sense of the countryside and see what life is like in other parts of England. Bath isn't exactly your typical town, being a huge tourist destination in its own right, but it has a lot of history and a rather unique sense of place so it seemed like a good choice.

I met my brother, sister-in-law and niece at Paddington Station and we caught a 9:30 a.m. train, which rocketed smoothly across the fields and farmland and got us to Bath in less than an hour and a half. We walked into town and visited Bath Abbey, the site of religious buildings dating back to the time of the Saxons.

The structure itself has been demolished and remade several times over the centuries. What's there now is a Gothic building dating back to the 1500s. I particularly enjoyed the downstairs museum, with its examples of medieval floor tiles and other artifacts found when parts of the abbey were excavated.

Then we went to the Roman baths, which I had never done in the several times I've been to Bath. I don't know why because it was quite fascinating -- not only the pools themselves, which in the time of the Romans were fed by water from an underground warm spring -- but also the exhibits of all the Roman debris they've found in and around the springs. Coins, glass, headdresses and masks, jewelry, you name it. Some items were tossed into the springs for ceremonial or religious reasons, including "curses" inscribed on bits of lead, calling on the Gods to exact vengeance on certain thieves or miscreants.

You wouldn't want to swim in the spa now. Apparently the Roman plumbing has given up the ghost, because the pools aren't refreshing themselves the way they would have back in the day. There are modern spas nearby that perhaps use the same spring as a source for fresher, warmer water. There was a spout to taste clean water from deeper in the spring, before it got to the stagnant pool above, and it tasted warm and minerally.

After the baths we hoofed it over to the Royal Crescent, an impressive arc of 18th-Century townhouses overlooking a park where I walked Olga way back in 2013. (How time flies!)

And then it was time to catch our train back to London, so we hustled back to the train station via the promenade along the river, and got there with about ten minutes to spare. A few more random photos:

A ghost sign over a closed shop, harkening back to the days of film developing;

Some rabbit graffiti;

Some colorful hair;

And a sleepy dog on our train home. I used to often hold Olga in this exact position, but this dog, a whippet, looked to be about 10 kilos lighter than Olga!

Today, more sightseeing around London. Sorry I am largely absent from blogland at the moment but I am reading all your comments and I will catch up when I can!