The Romans weren't soap dodgers!

On the 19th we began early for a big day of driving north. Out onto the A38 and then at Exeter, changed to the M5 which runs up to Birmingham. At Bristol however we turned off onto the A4 and headed for Bath. After parking on the outskirts of this town, we caught a double decker bus into the centre where all of the action is. The town Bath is named for the naturally occuring springs that bubble up in what is the centre of the city.

The Romans, believing in the therapeutic value of the water and that is could also cure the mind of worries, built an elaborate set of baths around the springs. Over hundreds of years as the Roman empire was in decline the baths fell into disrepair and eventually were even built over. One day however a person had a flood in their basement and when repairs began the magnificent main bath was re-discovered. The main bath is probably about 20-25 metres long and about 10 metres wide. Up to 1.5million litres of water bubbles up naturally still from the ground and it is about 46.5C. On the day were were there, with the outside temperature being 2.5C, heaps and heaps of steam was coming off the surface. The further excavation of the site revealed private and public bathing houses of the main bath and various places of worship. The kids loved it and really it is a great place to stand and gape at the ingenuity of the Romans some 2000 years ago.