Bath at Christmas

This took place on December 4th.

The good thing about Swansea University, is that the school does a lot of good trips to introduce the international students to the new world around them. This is how I was able to see Stonehenge, Avebury, and Amsterdam. Plus they had a free trip to Cardiff at the beginning of the year, which is when I went to the castle. Even a quid trip to the Gower! I just wish there were more!

I was quite tired after getting back late from Yule Ball the night before, but luckily have become an expert bus napper. This meant that by the time we all arrived, I was quite refreshed. Plus I was with some of my friends, which seems to give me a natural energy. Focus is placed on interacting with them and exploring instead of thinking about my bed.

But Bath was pretty cool on it's own. The whole city looked as if it was from another time period. Old fashioned architecture and all very Roman. Which is because this was one of the cities Rome invaded. But to be fair, there were few places the Romans didn't invade.

Bath Abbey

What a door! And just now noticed the random guy with a Firefly hat! :D

The International Squad

As a proud Rotaract member, always on the lookout for stuff like this.

It was a gorgeous town and filled with plenty of holiday cheer! We were able to find a fudge-making store that was giving away free samples. We may like fudge in the United States, but I would say here it is a cultural staple. There are shops for it all over and people (rightfully so) go nuts for it. Probably right up there with English toffee.

Spreading the fudge.

Onto the next board with some more!

Neatly kept to set

In general, I just loved walking around the city and taking it all in. Everywhere we stepped was beautiful! Gorgeous buildings around every singe corner!

But what's that?

Father Christmas! (The proper name for Santa here)

Crowded Christmas markets. I wish these handmade nutcrackers were cheaper...

Our first stop after looking around for a bit was the Roman Baths. What the city of Bath is famous for! I had seen pictures from fellow study abroaders in Swansea, but had no idea just how gorgeous it could be in real life! I was also unaware that it was a whole museum that told of the ancient history and traditions. 

If you look closely, you can see statues adorning the top of the wall.

Guys in costume to help set the scene.

One of my favorite photos from the trip.

The bath is created from a hot spring that bubbles up at 115 degrees each day. It comes into the King's Bath here, which was built in the 12th Century A.D. There is also a reservoir beneath the baths which the Roman engineers created as well. Two smaller hot springs were nearby the main bath and were also used by the Romans.

The sacred spring was at the heart of the site and was used as a place of worship for those who entered. Bathing in generally was used for worship and not just to get clean.

Old chunks of the bath, some of which held inscriptions.

 

Model of the baths as they were.

Model of the baths as they were.

The Temple Pediment

 This was the front of the Temple of Sulis Minerva that looked down on all the visitors as they entered. There are only pieces left, but in its glory day it would stand nearly 50 feet tall.

What the whole design looked like in it's hay day.

Here are some more interesting parts of the exhibit:

Cool old head statue. Don't remember the significance, but I like it.

A skeleton dug up with a facial reconstruction above it.

Head of Sulis Minerva

Sludgy, muddy water

They used a pully system to construct the bath out of heavy stone.

The Roman Drain

Immersion Pool

 And now...onto see the actual baths! We kept getting peaks at it throughout the exhibit and the whole time we could see the steam rolling off of it. The Romans would hae been quite toasty in that bath. But they had cold water baths that they would go in as well. All part of the worshipping and cleanly process.

Am I in Rome? Or the UK?

Group photo! With us slowpokes who read everything and listened to all of the audiotour.

Found a Roman to pose with.

Another bath (outside the main one). This was a cold water bath where they would do a cold plunge.

All the empty baths looked like this. I wonder if this is what's beneath the water? Or if they are old
support systems for a floor.

Roof spine fragment.

Where yucky water meets pretty green water. All those minerals...

Ye olde pipe.

Love how they put this!

West bath for those unsavory folk.

Now I have read one of the signs I took a picture of (how I remember some key facts and names), I see that these pillars were indeed to hold up a floor. Hot, smokey air was drawn from a smokehole and circulated around the pillars. It also passed through hollow tiles in the walls. There were vents all around the room to let in the smokey heat. No bath here, just essentially a sweathouse.

Hypocaust of the Heated Room

 At the end of your visit, you hae the chance to drink some of the bath water. It came out warm from the tap the always flowed. I suppose this means it came fresh from the spring. I tasted it...and it was awful. Metallic and full of...flavorful minerals. I would like to bath in it. Probbly great for the skin!

The ones I fell behind with wanted to go shopping in the Christmas Markets, but they were a little too clausterphobic for me. Instead, I went off to find Kaileen and Robin and do something else with them. They had finsihed awhile ago and were waiting at Starbucks. 

We were content just to wander around and see what lies within the city. This took us to an indoor market. I've noticed pretty much all the markets in the UK are indoors. It's too rainy of a country to do otherwise. 

This market even had it's own pillar.

 Although it was too expensive to buy, we were able to find chocolate wine in the market. Free samples were given, and it was extremely tasty. I could definitely have that dribbled over ice cream instead of chocolate syrup. There were many other fun stores within and it was nice to just walk around and explore.

Bath is such a pretty city, that you don't have to do uch other than walk around. I did want to go to the Jane Austen museum, but we never did get around to that. Looking back, I'm not really that upset. Going in and out of stores and generlly just walking around gave me a good feel for the city. And I made the discovery that people really capitalize on the name of the city. There were MANY stores that sold luxory bath products. Even the gift shop for the Roman Baths themselves.

Best name for a cafe.

Even the non-touristy deserted places were cool!

We found a yarn shop.

 I was extremely excited to find a yarn store. As many know, I am a big knitter. Nothing would have made me happier than to find some cool yarn to take back with me from Bath. But sadly, it was all the same brands at even higher prices (because of the conversion rate). Kaileen commented that if I know brands, I must be an experienced knitter. I can be a little hardcore with it at times...

Robin getting doggy kisses.

A yarn store and a dog. What more do I need in life?

We essentially just spent the rest of the day exploring and trying to get inside the Christmas markets. The markets were so popular and crowded that you would at times be stuck in the middle with hundreds of people around you and no way to move. I don't typically have anxiety with crowds, but this got to me. Mainly because there was no way to escape. The others felt the same, which is why we tried to avoid it a little. Which is funny as the Christmas markets were the whole reason we came at this particular time.

Thick crowds of Christmas cheer.

He's so serious despite his hat.

 We found a really old wood shop where every item was handcarved. As I will let you read below, the shop is over 600 years old and still in its original spot. Probably not a top tourist attraction, but I thought it was pretty cool.

After some more exploring, we found the oldest sweet shop in bath. It too was crowded (this whole city was crowded), but we coud look at chocolate and various other forms of sugar to keep us calm.

 

Some Christmas decorations hanging in the street. Pretty much every UK city has these too.

Indoor craft fair.

Lots of cool stuff, some of which I could actually make myself.

At one point we decided to brave the Christmas markets again. The other two had some things they wanted to go back for, and I was willing to look fondly at my 60 quid handmade nutcrackers and attempt to find a smaller one that was cheaper (the smaller ones didn't look as good and were still overpriced).

We also found a place on the holiday map for "The Lodge." I wanted to try mulled wine as it is a holiday tradition here. The others were a tad more hesitant, but willing nonetheless. When they found that there was mulled cider instead, they wanted to try that, as we were all cider fans and therefore might enjoy that more. Nonetheless, I was insistant that we went for the mulled wine as it was traditional.

Because we are poor study abroad students and mulled wine was £3.50 ($5), we each split one and passed it around taking sips. Surprisingly, it was very good. The alcohol pretty much cooks out, so it's more along the lines of warm, spiced, grape juice. There is still some wine flavor, but not as strongly as you would expect.

The other two with our beverage.

We went back out to brave the markets some more before escaping their clutches and simply wandering around some more.

Soon the sun started setting and we were getting far outside the main part of the town. Our method for exploring was to simply turn down any unfamiliar street we had not yet visited. By this point we were seeing construction (new store, houes, or something of that sort).

We decided then that it was best to start heading back. Since we were still in the UK, there was no problem using data to navigate ourselves back to the main city if needed. But the other two generally were able to remember how to get back. I wish I had those navigational powers.

We found a store called IKEA which much later would be descibed to me by Al as "an IKEA for stuff." It essentially had everything you want and had no need for, but at a very good price.

This one was ultiple stories and incredibly huge. Like IKEA, there is a definite flow you have to follow. You HAVE to go through the entire things and will defintitely get something you never needed. I can't see anyone walking into that store with a purchase in mind as the stock is constantly changing and nothing there is particularly useful.

Everyone needs a hula girl for their car. If not that, for sure a robot.

I quite enjoyed myself and had fun looking at all of the wacky products. At the end of it, though, it was time to get food and then head back to the bus. We went to a spicy chicken place that was like an off-brand Nando's. Still very tasty. 

We took it to the bus station to eat, but arrived there quite early and were unable to locate our bus. Things at that bus park were very crowded and disorganized. Our bus was at least a half hour late (and it was a hired coach who's only job was to navigate us). No one from the uni was ushering us into one spot. Instead we just sort of had to find each other and ask the very frustated people trying to organize the area where/when our bus would arrive. No answers were clear.

People crowded the park and flowed off the sidewalk, giving the drivers backing up a really hard time and those in charge had to keep shouting at the pedestrians to back up. I was very thnkful when our coach finally did arrive as it meant getting out of the chaos we had been absorbed in all day and that we would finally be somewhere warm. 

This would be my last adventure before heading hom for the holidays, though heading home would be an adventure all on it's own. A nearly five hour bus ride to the airport, ten hour flight, and hour drive back home. Plus harassment from the people in the airport and missing a bus on the way back to Swansea afterwards. You would think I would be sick of travel, but still I was excited for my pre-planned adventure to Italy after finals.