Bath, England
On our honeymoon to London, we knew that we wanted to visit somewhere outside the city. Looking at available motor coach tours, we settled on a visit to Stonehenge and Bath. While Stonehenge was alright, Bath was the true star of our day trip.
Bath was founded as a town in 60 A.D. under the name Aquae Sulis, meaning the Waters of Sulis in Latin, referring to the Celtic deity, Sulis Minerva, who was worshipped at the thermal spring in present-day Bath. With Romans and their natural affinity for bath houses, it was only appropriate that a town would begin here at these hot springs on the banks of the River Avon.
The Roman Baths are the star of the show in this town. The site began to deteriorate after the fall of the Roman Empire. The original site flooded and silted, but this helped preserve the site for many years. Today, the Roman Baths have been restored to most of their original glory. There were three main baths, including the caldarium (hot water), the tepidarium (lukewarm water), and the frigidarium (cold water). The site also contains many artifacts from Roman times, deposited as offerings.
Unfortunately, people are unable to swim in the baths today thanks to the presence of Naegleria fowleri, a deadly pathogen, in the water. The waters are off-limits today, but the well-preserved site is open to visitors.
The town of Bath returned to prominence during the Georgian era, when it was redesigned as a spa town where the wealthy went to take in the waters. Most of the town’s uniform construction came from that period. Today, millions of people travel from around the world to take in the history and charm of this small town.
Besides touring the Roman Bath site, we had lunch in a local pub and spent some time walking and shopping on the Pulteney Bridge. The pub was one of the best meals we had on our first trip to the United Kingdom and provided a great punctuation point to our time in the city. The feeling that I had in Bath was one of contentment and happiness. London is an impressive city, but even on this first trip to the United Kingdom, my affinity for the smaller towns and cities in Great Britain was in place. Overall, we enjoyed our afternoon in Bath. Although it has been many years since my original visit, Bath is a place I highly recommend to first-time travelers to the United Kingdom. Bath is close enough to London that it makes a decent day trip. It is also close enough that you can head to Bath immediately after flying into London if you decide to make it a base for visiting the western part of the country.