Bath

Visited 27th September 2003--------

Report by Midgey

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Being later in the year, the weather was warmer than expected. We were picked up by the coach 8.40am, proceeded through Oakwood, Barnet and Potters Bar before joining the M25 at junction 24 heading anticlockwise. Plan was to take M25 to Heathrow then join the M4 to get to Bath. Saw Bath for the first time at 12.00pm, actually got to the coach park by about 12.20.

Neither of us were brave enough to go into this shop. so we don't know exactly what it sold. Have to wonder though don't you?

Firstly headed off towards the Roman Baths, probably most people's reason for going to Bath, main reason it is well known. Bath has the most complete Roman remains in the country. Arrived at the Baths and found out that if we wanted a ticket into the baths it would cost us £8.00 each to get in, or we could by a joint ticket for the baths and the nearby Museum of Costume for £11 each. As we had decided to visit the Museum anyway we bought the joint tickets.

As we headed to the entrance to the baths we were handed a phone-like object to listen to the audio tour on. (This turned out to be more trouble than it was worth as the American tourists seemed to stop dead and listen to it whenever it started talking, wherever they were at the time. This made it difficult to get around some of the more portly ones - Shimmer). We walked out of the ticket area onto the balcony above the main bath, and on first glance, to our disappointment, it looked as though the balcony was the only area that you could get to. Great, we thought, we have paid all this money just to look over a ledge at a slightly steaming pool of green water!

There were numerous signs warning not to drink or even touch the water as it's toxic. Shame nobody told the Romans this, no wonder their empire collapsed

We did look over the edge, and saw that there were people sitting around the side of the pool, so at least there was a way down. Made our way round the top, pausing to grab a couple of photos of Bath Abbey which is situated just next to the baths. Steve said "well at least if nothing else we managed to get pictures of the Abbey that we wouldn't have got otherwise as we didn't have the room".

Picture of Bath Abbey from the baths that we wouldn't have got otherwise

As we headed back inside we noticed the stairway down, so that's the way we headed. We found ourselves in for a surprise, downstairs was much more than just the baths, there were exhibits, including a wooden model of what the baths complex would have looked like in Roman times.

We worked our way through the crowds - it was really too busy - and headed down more stairs. At the bottom of this smaller set of stairs were the remains of the roof sides of the temple of Sulis Minerva, as we walked further into the building we saw more roof remains, then came to a room with the actual remains of the temple. Other things on display included mosaics and more roof bits - it did say what these things were called, pallisers I think, but can't really remember! After the remains of the temple you got to see the overflow area for the baths, this was basically a hole in the wall that gushed warm, and indeed, rather smelly water! This area then led to the side of the main baths. To both sides were the remains of other baths, including furnace rooms and a circular plunge bath that was now being used as a wishing well.

The Roman statues lining the walkway were very impressive, they were also not made by Romans at all, the "small print" identified them as being sculpted by Victorians shortly after the discovery of baths!

After almost an hour in the baths we headed back out into the sort of sunshine. After passing a living statue of what looked like a metallic Gandalf, we headed off in search of lunch before heading northwards towards the Museum of Costume. Lunch was found rather quickly in the form of Burger King. A very small, very cramped and very busy Burger King. Needless to say lunch wasn't a very pleasurable experience and we made our way out as soon as possible.

Bath is built on a hill, so apparently the people who live here are all very fit. Appearances can be deceptive.

After popping in a couple of shops we headed towards the Museum and within ten minutes or so we were heading down the stairs in the lavish Assembly Rooms towards the museum, with another audio tour...This time one we were planning on listening to. First thing that hits you about this museum is, well, less people for one which was a big help. Sorry, the main thing you notice is the dim lighting. This is because, as you are informed in the introduction on the audio tour, light is very damaging to cloth, especially their older exhibits. (Hence the lack of photos for this part of the report - Shimmer).

The first item you come to is a silver tissue dress. It isn't actually made of tissue it was just the name given to the particular type of fabric, some sort of silk I think. This particular item was nearly 400 years old and the oldest complete item in the museum. As you travel round the museum you travel in time, from the earliest fashions, from the early 17th century, to the present day. There are separate parts of the audio tour for each display case. As well as costumes for women, there were also some for the men, though not all that many as men's costume didn't alter as much as women’s over time. In fact one case held five male models, which covered a whole century of male dress. The only thing that really changed was the style and cut of the waistcoat!

A case showing men's caps from the 18th & 19th Century. Yeah, I know it's not very interesting but this was the only exhibit in the whole museum that was lit well enough to take a photo!

Once leaving the Assembly Rooms, by pushing our way through a wedding party, we headed back towards the coach via a comic shop we were looking for. Unfortunately we couldn't find it so we just headed back towards the coach park. On the way back to the coach we noticed a store that sold dvds etc, so we popped in and managed to get a few dvds we were after.

Back on the coach by 4.45pm and back on the road by 5.00pm. We stopped again in Reading and finally got back to Enfield about 8.15pm. All in all not a bad day, could have been better as a few things went wrong but on the whole quite enjoyable. Midgey's fave parts of the day...Museum of Costume and the two quality original Volkswagen Beetles we saw!