22.09.2011 – 22.09.2011  18 °C

Early start today as I wanted to see the Roman Baths before having my hair cut and then my plan was to head to the spa for a relaxing afternoon.. Well sometimes my best laid plans just don’t come off….

So I got going pretty early (although I did have a wait for the bathroom..) before getting down town with my first stop being the post office to send home some accumulated junk. I swear I’ve spent hours of this trip in various post offices… every post office (whether I’ve spoken the language or not) is not a ten minute journey.. In this case I was in the post office for almost an hour!!! There was one lady serving and the post offices here in the uk don’t have a queue they just have a ‘take a number’ system. So when I looked inside it didn’t look too busy…… you then know the drill, ‘do I just leave or do I wait’ type thoughts continue to run through your mind.. you then decide you’ve already waited for 20 mins and how much longer can it be etc…  I can laugh about it now but at the time I was pretty annoyed let me tell you!

Finally got my parcel away and got myself to the Roman Baths.. by now it is just under an hour til my hair dressing appointment and the lady on the front desk is telling me the Bath’s will take at least an hour and a half… Aaahh.. So I do the right thing, ditched the Roman Baths for after my apptn and went and found myself a coffee shop to while away the hour…

To cut a long story short; I missed out on my relaxing spa session in the afternoon!! By the time my hair apptn was over it was now 2pm and time to see the Baths. The Bath’s themselves are pretty impressive. They were built by the Roman’s around 40 AD and encompass at least a few city blocks. The Roman’s tapped into the natural hot spring and dedicated the complex to Silius Minerva the water goddess. Inside there is one large bath (the King’s bath) which is probably just a bit smaller than a 25m pool and many smaller bathing chambers (tepidariums, frigidariums etc). The complex is one big museum with half of it dedicated to how the Roman’s lived and the other half actually walking amongst the ruins to see the Baths.

The archaeologists think that Bath (which was called Aquae Silius by the Romans) was one of the main Roman hubs in Britain and possibly in Western Europe. Right next to the Bath complex was a temple dedicated to the water goddess which actually housed the holy spring (the actual spring that feeds the bath complex). Inside the spring, archaeologists have uncovered many different prayers that were written onto finely beaten metal sheets. Most of the prayers are to avenge some wrong or to request the help of the goddess with personal issues.

I think the thing I find most amazing about the Roman Baths is the fact that the plumbing for the main King’s Bath is still operational! The hot water still flows out of the holy spring and through underground aqueducts into the King’s Bath. From here the excess water (so that the bath doesn’t overflow) is siphoned off and flows out into the river. The archaeologists are still digging under the city centre looking for more parts of the baths, I can only imagine that next time I visit they will have discovered another whole section to the bath complex!

By the time I had wandered right through the complex it was well after 5pm and I was ready for some dinner so I decided to forgo my spa experience and go back to the hostel for some dinner and a sleep. I’ll just have to add the spa experience to my ever growing list of ‘next time’ list!