I have to admit I have been a bit delayed in writing this post as this trip was in December but with the excitement of Christmas and half a dozen birthdays over the Christmas and New Year period I have been a bit lazy in taking the time to sit down and organise myself with my posts.
The week before Christmas is my husband’s birthday and this year I decided to take him away for the weekend, so I chose a lovely location, hotel, sites to visit and of course arranged for our daughter to spend the weekend at her nanny’s house. My mum had recommended Bath in Somerset, England as she has visited for a weekend break there every year in December for the past 3 years and said we would love it. If you don’t already know Bath is very well known in November and December for its amazing Christmas Market as well as historically known for the famous Roman Baths and of course the Geoffrey Chaucer’s Wife of Bath (memories of A Level English come flooding back!). There is so much that you can do in Bath that our short weekend was not long enough to do it all. In saying that we had the opportunity to spend time together and just relax, eat and drink in the amazing country pubs and restaurants. Honestly, it was the perfect weekend away.
The reason that I have decided to write this post two months after our weekend break is because I wanted to share my experience of the Roman Baths. As per usual I couldn’t stop snapping the sites and lost myself in the mind blowing history of the Roman Empire and how Bath was once known as the Aquae Sulis “the water of Sulis” which is why the Temple of Sulis was built in this beautiful natural location.
Here are the lovely snaps and a little bit of history to suck you into a complete different way of life and how they enjoyed the local baths. So I stuck my audio tour headphones on and lost myself in this amazing place..
This is the main bathing area where the Romans would either come to bath due to lack of water supply to wash in their homes or they would come here to socialise and have a swim.
As you can see the reconstruction of the surrounding pillars in the 1894 allows the Baths to still be enjoyed as a historic site today.
The extraordinary pools of water are actually rain water that falls and filters through the limestone layers of the ground and is then heated up by the geothermal energy which comes from the inside of the earth raising the temperature of the water to up to 96 degrees (which is why you can see the steam rising) how astonishing!
This amazing piece of artefact use to be at the entrance of the Roman Baths before the baths were destroyed, as you can see it has pieces missing but a light projection is used to complete the image of the Gordon’s head which symbolises the Roman water god. However it was Sulis Minerva, the water goddess and her temple that mythology says was the goddess of the Roman Baths.
This tunnel was made to help reduce the over flowing of the water coming into the baths, the noise and the heat was so relaxing and amazing to see this natural water passing underneath us.
This is a natural pipe that flows from the main baths into the smaller warm rooms.
This water is said to be unsafe to touch until its is filtered and then can be drunk.
This water fountain was made so that visitors can taste the water from the natural spring, it was still warm and the taste was quite unusual and it did leave a metal taste in my mouth. I won’t be changing my bottled water to this natural spring water thats for sure.
I hope you liked my Roman Bath Experience, and if you fancy planning a weekend away in England then Bath is a beautiful place, especially at Christmas Time. I can’t wait to visit this beautiful place again soon.