Bath (Roman Baths, Bus Tour)

It is September 9th and our trip is moving along quickly. It is hard to believe that one week has passed since we flew out of the temple and headed to the Isle of Wight.

The main goal of the day was to be in the downtown area at 11 AM to witness the parade of all the people dressed in Regency attire walking through the city of Bath. Some 800 people were going to do this. I heard they had to pay some 18 pounds for this privilege. What amazed me is how much clothing they had on and how hot they MUST have been. I was baking. Anyway, more on this parade in a bit.

Our first stop in the morning, before the parade, was the Roman Baths. For 25 pounds, you got the privilege of seeing some pretty nasty water spring water that seemed to need a flushing. At least the main pool looked that way. Honestly, the tour was very interesting as we learned about how the springs filled this place and the Roman’s used it to bath and be treated like kings and queens as they bathed in the hot springs. It was fascinating to hear about this history and see all that they did in creating these baths. It is kind of a marvel. But clearly now, no one would ever want to strip down and use any of what I saw. Anyway, been there, done that.

Finally, the parade had arrived. We stopped at a bakery and got some stuff to eat, since it had only been an hour and a half since we had breakfast. Constant hunger pains we had that we eliminated with lots of pastries and sweets! :-) We landed a nice spot on the street where the dressed up crowd came by. People really get into this stuff. Later that day we ended up in a place where they were selling Regency clothing. Pat and I guessed that it was about 900 pounds to get a real good outfit for a man that included fancy pants, socks, shirt with ruffles, hat and shoes or boots for the time. You have to be really committed to this stuff. Honestly, I would have loved to have gone to the ball that night to see them decked out and doing the dance of the times. I actually snuck into a room where they were teaching folks how to do this dancing in preparation for the ball that night. But a guy saw me and ran over said I could not see such. Who knows why. I found it odd that you could not watch. But such were their policies. As we walked around the city, there were tons of people still in their dress. It was a big deal and they really enjoyed acting out this way. To each his own as they say.

In the afternoon, we took the hop on, hop off buss that took us on the outskirts of the city. It was a nice ride but showed us very little. I had hoped for a nice tour that would stop and let us see the city from the hills above. But no, they did not do that. When we passed the University of Bath, all we saw was their parking lot. Why that was a point to show us, I’ll never know.

We did a few other things in the city, even trying to see the Assembly Hall site that was on the National Trust list. However, the Jane Austen affair had taken that over. That is where we saw the booths selling Regency attire. And we had to pay a couple of pounds to have that experience. All good. Denise and I jumped on the bus down to Parade park where we wanted to just find a shady spot and chill for a bit. Pat and Lisa wanted to walk it which they did. Both couples ended up in the park in a nice shady area. While there, a fellow we had met on the boat at The Needles on the Isle of Wight, had sent us a list of places via email. I reviewed that list and determined a place to go. So I called them and made a reservation. We ended up walking a few minutes to Cote, a very nice restaurant. It was in the center of the city in the middle of a square. The food was amazing. I had a tuna seared salad that was so good. I’d go back to Bath just for that salad. After dinner, we headed to our flat to take our nightly sauna as we tried to go to sleep. I was looking forward to leaving the heat and heading up into Wales the next day in hopes of cooler air. And it turned out to be the case!

Pictures:

The parade begins. The following pictures show many in their Regency dress. It was fun to see the different types of dress that they used.