On Thursday, we decided to take the trip to Bath to see the famous 2000 year old Roman baths.  The city itself is a lovely place to visit and we started our tour with a two hour guided walking trip around the city with Bob, one of the Mayor’s official guides to the city.  It was absolutely fascinating to view the city with someone who could bring it alive with stories and behind the scenes info, both old and new.  One of the amusing things we learned was about the evil spells the Romans would cast on people that pissed them off.  They had scribes write the curse on a copper plate, they would roll it up and throw it in the sacred hot pool hoping the water goddess would wreak havoc on the offending party.  Things like someone having his tunic or sandals stolen while he was in the bath would be cause for the terrible curse of Minerva to be invoked.  Reading the curses was pretty entertaining and brings life to the place.

The Roman baths themselves were the best preserved and most interesting we have ever seen.  It’s pretty hard to travel anywhere in Europe and avoid Roman influence so, we have seen a few Roman baths.  Not like this!  The natural hot springs still bubble up from the earth and sooth sore muscles and supposedly cures everything from arthritis to gout.  It was an truly remarkable site and worthy of anyone’s time to visit.

On a side note, we have taken to packing a picnic lunch for our daily outings.  Fish and Chips and Steak and Ale Pie is good the first time but, you cannot exist on it.  Let’s just say that dining in England is not like France, Italy or Germany.  Eating our ham sandwich in the city square while we waited for our city tour was a joy compared to some of our restaurant experiences.