Beattys Overseas

After a lovely day in London at our very generous friends' home, we took a daytrip to Bath, which is WSW of London.  Our 90 minute train ride provided some lovely scenery, and a little iPod/quiet time for each of us.

Bath is a very special city, famous for the natural hot springs that lie there, complete with a very well-preserved site of public bathing.  During the Roman occupation of Britain, elaborate temples and bathing complexes were built at the Bath hot springs, starting in the first century and visited for four centuries. After the Roman withdrawal in the fifth century, these fell into disrepair and were eventually silted over and disintegrated. The hot waters, thought to be medicinal, still had a strong presence in the city, and were used through the Middle Ages and redeveloped in the eighteenth century, housed in gorgeous neo-classical buildings.  Georgian and Victorian-era architecture is featured at the complex, as the City of Bath developed around the sacred waters.  The Roman complex was rediscovered in 1890 and reopened to the public in 1897.  We visited the Roman Bath complex, which is meticulously designed in its presentation of the underground baths and archeological findings.  With our ticket to the Baths, we were also provided tickets to the Bath Museum of Fashion, which was also very cool, but not nearly as extensive as the baths.  (Full photos in the England photo gallery)

Whitney really wanted to see the Royal Crescent,  a road of 30 limestone houses designed in a semi-circle shape.  It was built in 1774 by notable Bath architect John Wood and his son (also named, shockingly, John Wood).  It is among the greatest examples of Georgian architecture in the United Kingdom, and it's quite breathtaking.  The crescent faces a large lawn, which was built to provide the wealthy residents an unobstructed, picturesque view of Bath.  Within the Royal Crescent lies the Royal Crescent Hotel, which apparently has a spit in the basement kitchen that was operated not by human kitchen workers, but by dogs.  Apparently, if the mutt didn't move fast enough, the cook just shoveled a few hot coals in the treadmill to liven up the pace.  (Naturally, Whitney is horrified at the thought, but John overheard the fact from a walking tour guide whose group we followed for 10 minutes.  Hopefully, he's full of bologna).