Bath on a Budget

After our highway to Hell hike (damn I am good at whatever that is called when you use the same letter multiple times), we decided to take it easy and ride the bus to downtown Bath. Busses are very reasonable cost wise and efficient.

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Bath is where the ancient people of England bathed and rejuvenated themselves. The Romans were the first to build structures around the natural springs. That’s right, the Romans ruled English territory for around 350 years, starting from 43 AD.

After the Romans were done, the Georgians ended up further developing the baths and created the ideal setting for the show Bridgerton. That’s right folks, many scenes of this show were filmed here. For our educational purposes, we did a scavenger hunt that took us around town. It was only 30 Pounds. One of the spots was the Royal Crescent. I have to say, it was absolutely incredible.

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On a fun note, during the Georgian era (named for having 4 consecutive dudes #kings named George), they built homes OVER the Roman Baths. You see, they had become so dilapidated that the Georgians didn’t realize they were building over anything significant. It was only discovered that the houses were built over the baths when water was flooding the basements.

So, the baths you see today are not actually Roman. The foundation you can see is Roman but everything else was built to look like it would have back in Roman times. We didn’t spend the 78 Pounds to go into the Roman Baths, but we did go into the King’s and Queen’s Bath. This allowed us to see an active bath, the famous yellow stone and possibly get a sample of drinking water from the natural spring.

However, we were denied a drink from the fountain of youth because it tested as the fountain of death. Why you ask? Well, because it had higher than normal traces of meningitis in it. Dodged that bullet. Overall the water is safe to swim and play in and there has only been one case of someone dying from swimming in a hot spring because of the brain eating amoeba. This was just to be SUPER cautious.

We ate at this adorable place called Sally Lunn’s. It is the OLDEST house in Bath. Pretty neat and didn’t cost a fortune. We had tea time and Andre said my favorite line yet. “I could get used to this English Tea thing. It’s a good idea.” He said this as he read his new book on the Romans. This cover photo is my favorite photo of the trip so far. It’s so cute. I am so happy Andre has decided English Tea is a good idea; it has only been practiced since the 1,650s in England.

Some fun facts:

• That bun you see the food on top of is what folks used to use as plates back in the day. Plates weren’t invented until the 1,500s!
• The recipes we ate today are the same as back in the 17th century.
• Cream Tea is not a type of tea; it is the tea accompanied by scones, clotted cream, jam, etc. This was very confusing for me as the waitress asked what type of tea I would like and I kept stating Cream Tea. Oh god did I feel stupid once I figured it out. I finally ordered the Blend Tea. Lord help me.

Here is a solid reenactment of the waitress and me as I ordered tea:

Afterwards, we obtained some treats and headed back to the hotel. We are leaving tomorrow to hop on a cruise to Norway for 16 days. Internet might be sparce.