Bath

 

No -as you might have guessed from the title of this post -we did not all get in a bath and play with rubber duckies.  Bath is a small town about 10 minutes from Bristol by train.  Named Bath for the Roman Baths that are the main tourist attraction, it is a charming little town and we had a relaxing day with the Wallens there. 







Jed took this picture!

We began by visiting the Roman Baths and museum surrounding them.  They were huge and old and we wished they were still in use so that we could try it out.  The main bath was outdoors and had no roof over it, but there was a spring of warm water coming from the hot springs that flowed into it.  It would have been nice to soak in -except apparently no one thought of cleaning out the old Roman Bath which was covered in pond scum and looked very dirty! They do have a modern Bath Spa in the town, but the price was not very friendly to our budgets.  There were lots of other baths in the complex as well.  Some were just for men, others for women, some warm, some cold.  Many of the floors were broken down and only stacks of flat stones, that had held up the floor from the foundation, were left.  In the museum area there was a fountain with water from the spring that you could drink.  Jed was very eager, but as soon as he got a taste he wanted to spit it out.
 
And I have to admit -it was gross water! It was warm and had lots of strange mineral tastes in it.  One of the best parts of the Roman Baths was the audioguide, well at least the kid's version of the audioguide, which we were all listening to by the end.  There were funny stories and sound effects making you laugh the whole way through -including a dying goat which sounds morbid now... but hearing the fake bleating and the fake cutting out of entrails and stuff was really funny.... okay now I just sound creepy but believe me it was funny!

Moving on, for lunch we got some pasties and then we went next door to Bath Abbey.  After admiring the beautiful interior of the Abbey, we started our tour going up the tower.  Climbing windy spiral staircases with very narrow steps we got to see the bellfrey, the rafters, and behind the clock! Dakota even got to ring the tenor bell! 

 



Next we walked to the Bath Aqua Glass factory where they make a special aqua blue colored glass.  We watched as the glass makers bent hot glass into vases and glasses -it was amazing! Then me and Jed got to blow big glass bubbles!!!!







We spent the rest of the day lounging around Bath, walking to the nearby parks and of course eating ice cream! We found a balloon man -which I (Harper) was really excited about I really wanted something balloon! He had a bunch of people around him but he made Jed a sword, and then Neal an alien man.  I gave him some change (he was working for donation) and he gave me a balloon flower which made me so happy! =) He was pretty skilled, we even watched him making an octopus!


 


After visiting a tea shop called the Mad Hatter's -complete with Alice in Wonderland tables and chairs- we headed home from our unusually relaxing day. 


 

P.S. If you are ever visiting Bath and you are going by train, be sure to check out the 2 for 1 deals through First Great Western. Almost everything in Bath is 2 for 1!