Today was such a fun day! We were suppossed to go to Bath as a group, but at last minute yesterday Darrin said it could be a free day, but that he encouraged us to go to Bath. Bath is a very historical town that is about an hour or so out of London. It is where the only natural hot springs in England are located and they are the historical Roman Baths. When the Roman Empire was in power it extended all the way up into England and they created a giant spa. Also along with the pool they built a temple dedicated to the Goddess Silus Minerva.
Julia, Kylee, Megan, Ashley, and I decided to still go to Bath this morning. We woke up at about 8:30 and got on the 10:30 train. We are always really slow on days that we don't have to meet as a group ha ha. Anyway the train ride took about an our and a half or so, and I again slept the whole time. I'm starting to look forward to train rides because it gives me some time to catch up on some sleep. Ha ha it's quite nice. We go to bath a little bit before noon. We stopped at a little pasty shop for lunch. I really like pasties a lot. It's funny though, I've liked English food more than any place we've been. Probably because it's the most similar to America's. Anyway, after lunch we went into the Roman Baths. This was so cool for me. It's still almost completely standing. The Romans were architectural geniuses. They created tese large swimming pools and sauna/steam rooms with cooling off pool. They had their own heating system and their own drainage stystem, to heat the steam rooms and to drain the pools for maintenance. The steam rooms were really interesting to me. They built large rooms and then used tiny bricks stacked on top of eachother to lift the floor of the main ground. The heat was then pused into the rooms and would heat the floor from the ground up. It was so cool. When they were escavating the baths archeaologists discovered many objects from the Romans that had gotten stuck in the pipe system and rooms. They found beautiful jewels that had been from headresses, masks, rings, and all sorts of other things. That was really neat to see.
Also amongst the Baths was the temple dedicated to the Goddess Silus Minerva. She was considered to be some kind of sun goddess. Her temple was used for sacrifices, but there was also a large bath inside her temple. People would sacrifice animals outside in the courtyard on the alter, but would sacrifice objects and money into the pool on the inside of the temple. When archaeologists discovered this they found many different objects in the pool. One thing they found that I thought was quite interesting was the curse papers. The Roman people would throw wadded up papers into the pool. Historians discovered these and found writings on them. The papers held curses. The people would write curses they wished to happen to someone and would ask the Goddess Minerva if she would grant these wishes. Ha it was crazy! They had a sign with some of the things that were said on the papers. They were not very nice wishes.
After we finished touring the baths you can go to the restaurant and try some of the spa water for free. Ha so we went and tried it. It was horrible tasting stuff. I just had a sip, but it was really hot and very mineral tasting. I hope I didn't contract some disease.
We headed to the fashion museum after the Baths. This museum was a blast. It headed major designers clothes, but showed the fashion changes throughout time. My favorite was when they compared designs from the 50's and 60's to designs of today and they practically matched! It's so funny how design just repeats itself especially in fashion. They had a special exhibition on the Supremes while we were there. That was sure neat to see. It was all of Diana Ross's and the other supremes old costumes and dresses. They were stunning.
Like I said before Bath is a very historical town in more ways than one. Jane Austen had lived in Bath for a portion of her life and many of the famous scenes from her books come from the village. Walking down the streets really make you feel like you're walking the same steps as Elizabeth Bennett or Emma Watson. It was so fun! In the town they have a center that is dedicated to Jane Austen. It created a home that would have been similar to hers. It was so darling! We spent some time in the gift shop and I got some cute Mr. Darcy photos for my mom and my sisters. I also purchased a book of witty comments by Jane Austen in letters to her family. I've already read some of it and she was such a funny, but classy lady! No wonder all of her books are such classics. We didn't have time to take the tour of the center, but we did have time to have tea with Mr. Darcy! They had this room that was created to look like a Regency living room. We had tea and crumpets in there. All around us were pictures of Mr. Darcy and other characters from Jane Austen's books. It was so cute. And now I can say I had tea and crumpets! ha ha.
After our little outing at the Jane Austen center we had to quickly get back to the train because the other girls had to make it to some shows tonight. I decided to stay in and get some homework done because I had already seen Les Miserable back in Salt Lake. I enjoyed today a lot though! Bath is a beautiful little town.
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