Our American friends had told us to look forward to a magnificent breakfast at The Kennard, and they were right. The room was elegant and the food was, as the English would say, purrfect. The meal was finished off with freshly baked Danish pastries. Yum!
Our really helpful receptionist advised us not to take the open topped double-decker bus tour but rather take the walking tour of Bath because it's not a really big city and we would see so much more. She was spot on.
We set off straight after breakfast with the weather very different to yesterday. It was great that we were here for summer! The Abbey seems to be the heart of the city and the square in front a great gathering place.
The Roman Baths entrance is right there too and to our surprise, when we arrived, there wasn't a queue into the baths so that's where we began our inspection of Bath.
The baths offered a great perspective of the Abbey.
Looking down on the baths.
Looking across the water from ground level.
We each had our own tour commentary so could move around at our own pace. This was really informative and made the tour very interesting. Bath was established by the Romans because of the thermal hot springs they discovered here in England. They invented a new goddess and set up a religious site with a temple and the baths. The whole place was very well patronised by the Romans but after they were called back to Rome, the site fell into disrepair until it was rediscovered.
I found the story about this head really interesting. It would have been on the tomb of a genteel lady. The well-healed ladies of Bath worked hard at maintaining the high fashions of Rome even though they didn't live there any more. Hair styles were a big part of high fashion. This head demonstrates the hair fashion of the era. The lady had a highly trained maid who started working on the hair at the back, carefully plaiting the hair into many thin plaits, adding extra plaits that the lady would have brought from Rome with her, hair extensions! The plaits were then wrapped around the head and brought to the front where they were arranged in small clusters on the top of the head. I think it looks hideous but back then, when you didn't have much else to occupy you, having your hair done filled in a good part of the day. It seems that life in Bath was very much class orientated.
Lunch was next, we opted for the healthy option. I'll let the photos tell the story.
Our choices were made and eaten with great enjoyment!
Now for the walking tour. Our guide was Phil and his tales of life in Bath were enlightening, we could imagine the comings and goings of the gentle folk of Bath very well. He led us all around the city, explaining how Bath became a World Heritage Site in
1987. Bath is one of only three cities in the world, Venice and Brazilia being the others, where the whole city is classified.
The symbol of World Heritage.
The Royal Crescent is a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping crescent. Every door must be painted the same colour but one lady rebelled and painted her door yellow. After many court battles she won the right to keep her yellow door and now the door isn't allowed to be painted any other colour but yellow!
The chimney pots on the top of the chimneys are a lovely feature of the city skyline, as are the street lights.
This lady is making fudge. I couldn't leave without sampling some.
We called into the Pump Room where High Tea is served in the afternoon. The band was playing beautifully, the food looked very yummy and the flowers were pretty.
If you stand by this fountain you will be offered a drink of Bath spa water, we declined the offer.
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