Day 41, 29th June 2019, Bath

Had a lovely breakfast this morning sat by the window overlooking the garden was delightful.  

Left at 10am for a free tour of Bath.  Our guide was Adrian, he was an interesting and knowledgable man.   He made the history of Bath come to life.     It was a free tour, put on by the Mayor of Bath there were 7 guides and about 15 people in each group.   We enjoyed the tour and would recommend it to you if you are ever in Bath.   

It is very busy here, lots of tourists, best not to be here on the weekend.  It is coming into peak tourist season, so I presume it will only get worse.  90,000 people live here and 6 million visitors come every year.  There are 3 hot springs in England, they are all in Bath and have been here for many thousands of years.  Water reaches the top at 60C. It was believed the water cured people of illness.   Up to 90 diseases have been cured!  Good job we drank some of the water yesterday ?

Some things we learnt – 

In 43AD the Roman’s invaded, they stayed here because of the heated water.  It took 150 years for the Romans to build the baths, then they left Bath.  The Baths disappeared from view and were forgotten, until 1878 when they were slowly excavated.  

Bath Abbey is 1500 years old, it is the 3rd church on this site. Elizabeth I completed the abbey in 1616, it has been open since. 

The oldest house in Bath was built in 1482, most buildings are over 200 years old.   

Most of Bath’s buildings are made from the local, golden-coloured, bath stone.  The dominant architectural style is Georgian, which evolved from the Palladian revival  style that became popular in the early 18th century. 

Pulteney bridge took 5 years to build. Finished in 1774. It has shops both sides on the bridge.  There are only 4 in the world, this one, Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Rialto in Venice, Krämerbrücke  in Erfurt, Germany.

Jane Austen lived here for 5 years at the beginning of the 19C at 4 Sydney place.  

She didn’t like Bath, she preferred to be in the country.  

The bath stone that the buildings are made from is white when it comes out of the ground.  It ages to a tan colour.  In the 1950s the stone was cleaned, it was Black and Tan beforehand from grime.  

During WWII the English bombed Lübeck a northern German city distinguished by Brick Gothic architecture.  Hitler retaliated against 4 historic cities here, including Bath, 417 people died. 1000 buildings were destroyed in England at the 4 sites (including 300 historic buildings and 20 churches) They were rebuilt. 

We went to The Circus, a circular street, England’s first, there are 33 houses in 3 segments. Over 300 columns on the houses.  

Corinthian columns on the top floor, Ionic on the 1st and Doric on the ground floor.  No 7 The Circus was sold in 2007 for 4million to Nicholas Cage, he sold it 2 years later. There are  5 stories, a basement 3 stories plus the rooftop.  

Next we went to the Royal Crescent, it has 114 columns. Building started in 1764 it took years to finish.   It is the best example of Georgian architecture in Bath.  

Bath is a special place, it became a UNESCO world Heritage site in 1987.  It is the only city to be listed besides Venice.   

It is hot here today 29C and humid. Felt tired after the tour, we went and had some lunch and rehydrated.  Then visited the Victoria Art Gallery, they had a great exhibition which we enjoyed. 

We  looked inside the Bath Abbey, but there were far too many people in there, so we thought we would go before dinner when hopefully the town will be quieter.   

It was too hot to climb back up the hill for an hour, so we took refuge in a very busy Starbucks, it was one of the few places that had air conditioning!  

Before dinner we had a look inside the Abbey.  It is amazing, glad we went inside.   It was very busy though, way too many people.

Then we headed to the Marlborough Pub for dinner.  It had cooled down a bit by now, but unfortunately the pub was still hot and muggy, and no air conditioning.  Dinner was good though, as was the beer.   

Was good to get back to the B & B, looking forward to another good sleep before heading to Birmingham for a week tomorrow.  Looking forward to spending time with friends & family.  

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