I had so many photos of my Bath trip to share, I thought it would be a good idea to do a second post. I've already spoken a little about where I stayed on my recent trip to Bath and my visit to the Assembly Rooms so this post is more about what I saw.
Two masterpieces that should not be missed on a trip to this historic city are the Royal Crescent, a beautiful crescent curve of townhouses, and the nearby Circus, a circular street. Even though I've seen them before I was still impressed by the scale and symmetry of the buildings, they really are stunning.
Bath stone is used to clad most of the cities’ beautiful Georgian buildings. Much of the city has not changed over the past 200 years. Even today, modern builders must use the same building materials in the heart of the city.
The Romans knew that they were on to a good thing when they discovered natural warm water springs in the then swamp areas around Bath. They built the Roman Baths so they could clean and socialise. Entrance to the Baths and museum is well worth the fee. You will be given a free audio player, which gives an overview of the site and more information about the artifacts found there when you enter and there are informative free tours with a guide once an hour on the hour.
I found the curse tablets particularly fascinating. The
curses, which date back between the 2nd and 4th century AD, are mostly
written in Latin on pieces of lead and pewter and are addressed to the
goddess Sulis Minerva.
One
of the tablets is written in British Celtic - the only text known to
survive in that language - while another tablet contains the earliest
known use of the word Christian in Britain. People used the tablets to ask the goddess to punish thieves. One
tablet asks for an somones intestines to be ‘quite eaten away’,
while another one reveals that the victim of a theft of a bronze vessel
wanted the cup to be filled with the thief’s blood.
After a full day of sightseeing we headed back to our hotel with an obscene amount of tasty takeaway from Schwartz Bros burgers and watched Doctor Who in the fluffy robes the hotel provided and had a mini pamper session and put a face mask on.
My weekend trip to Bath with Martyn was lovely and I can't wait to head to Budapest with him for a week long adventure at the end of this month.
