Bath, England

I realized that I had never written about Bath. Ron had been there before I came, and then we went there when Julie, Matt, and the kids were here visiting. For some reason we did not take many photos from Bath. The first ones are just views of city streets. (Bath is built on limestone hills and has a population of a little more than 90,000.)



The next photo shows what is known as the Royal Crescent, built in the 1700's. It was built to look like about 30 3-story homes in the shape of a crescent. The front is very uniform, but parts of the building were sold to individuals, who could each design his part of his house any way he wished. So, sometimes what looks like two houses from the front, is actually only one. Also, the back of the building is not uniform---it has different roof lines, sizes, etc. according to how the homeowners finished their houses.
The next photo is Bath Abbey, built first in the 11th century at this site, then rebuilt in the 1500's.
Because it is such a tourist area, street entertainers are numerous. The first one on the left is a juggler, and the other two are just people from the audience. Julie got to help him a little, but we did not get a picture! (She did not have to dress up!)
You might notice my strange looking outfit----it is actually my jacket tied around me. That day it was hard to decide whether to wear a jacket or not, as you can tell by looking at us!
The last photo is of the Great Bath. There is archaeological evidence that the hot springs area was originally the site of a Celtic shrine to the goddess Sulis. When the Romans came into power around 43 AD, they took over the hot springs and turned the area into a typical Roman bath house, with various rooms for hot and cold baths, changing rooms, massage rooms, etc. The water was believed to cure many ailments. The photo shows the large bath area. Water is still warm there, but no one is allowed in the water. It is a good thing, because we saw several rats swimming in the water!
Bath is well known for good quality blown glass. We went to a glass blowing demonstration that was very interesting. Ron, who usually takes our pictures, was busy entertaining Collin while we were there, so we did not end up with any photos!