The Roman City of Bath

Summary of the Day

The family took a day trip visiting and exploring around the City of Bath. It was about an hour and a half drive from our hotel, which meant a lot of knitting time of me, homework time for Shayna, podcast time for dad, and sleeping for Ima. Luckily, we have a driver here (Ryan "the magnificent"), so none of the drivers of the family-- okay, so dad-- have to navigate British driving and navigation. 

The ancient Roman city Bath is an ancient bathing place where hot water rises from the ground to create a warm bathing pool. This was considered unexplainable to the Romans, who declared it a home of the god Suris Minerva, and continued on to worship their gods by these magical healing waters and present sacrifices to the divine powers. They then built temples and structures surrounding the bath to formally honor this hot ground water. 

We toured the city itself first on a double decker bus with a live audio tour, and then proceeded to enter and explore the remains of the famous public bath, where wealthy Roman patrons would bathe their most likely sweaty and disgusting bodies.

It was a record heat wave today, and a cool bath sounded like a great idea. The water was hot and ancient and we weren’t even allowed to touch it, but it did give me a great idea for a modern Roman bathing area. A public place where townspeople of all ages and walks of life could enjoy the refreshing, healing touch of water on their skin. A social place, a forum, if you will, filled with chatting and mingling, linked through this celebration of an Earthly element.

……..Then I realized I’d just invented the swimming pool.

So that was a bummer.

With love from Bath,

Rebecca “Rivi” Dollinger