Bath, UK (The Roman Baths.)

Bath, must be pronounced Bahhhhhth.

Bath is easily recognized by the "bath stone" that the buildings are made of. It is a form of limestone, and when it was quarried, they found that the stone could be angled into any shape, unlike slate, that separated into layers.
The whole city was the honey color that you see here.
The stone was porous, you could scratch it.
Some of the older buildings were a darker patina, like soot and exhaust had stained the stone.

We saw these guys.
I am pretty sure they were death-eaters.

The biggest tourist attraction in Bath, are the Roman Baths.
They are the only hot springs in the UK, and were estimated to have been built in 836 BC.
It was hard to wrap my brain around walking on stone that the ancient Romans laid.

We walked down the streets of Bath towards the pump house.
Have I ever mentioned how much I love my husband?

Right there, on the streets of Bath, there was a camera shop.
"Let's go in and look." he said.
I knew that the dollar to pound ratio sucked, and there was no way I was dropping a wad of cash on a new lens in the UK.
We walked in, and looked around.
This nice store guy came over and I told him we were on "holiday" and my lens broke.
That nice bloke went in the back of the shop, and brought out a used Canon lens.
He sold it to us for 50 pounds!
Sam insisted. He was sad that I was sad.
I was back in business, baby!

We found our way to the pump house, where the Roman Baths are.

It started to rain a little, on and off, just a nice mist.
The rain, when it hit the hot spring water of the baths sent up plumes of steam.
It made for some pretty photos.
You will see those later.
England was very accommodating for me and my new lens!
Here is inside the Bath house, from the upper level, looking down.

Now I need to clarify here.
The bottom portion of the Bath house is original...from the Romans.
You can see the more gray colored stone, and then the bath stone that is on top is from the late 1700's.
I ran into this cute little tour guide who told me that the original bath house was in ruins when it was discovered.
They cleared out most of the original rubble that had fallen down into a central area, so they could re-build the general structure.
That rubble pile is in a big warehouse building where they keep broken projectors and whatnot.
He said occasionally archaeologists will go through the rubble and pull up carved relics.
He thought it was silly that "We are so concerned about keeping the tourists away from all of the statues that are new (built in the 1700's) and the real treasures lay in a rubbish heap."
I laughed at the fact that he thought the statues built in the 1700's were new.
Dude. That is older than MY WHOLE COUNTRY.

What might this be? A smile on my face, and a camera with a working lens!

Bath spa water fell as rain up to 10,000 years ago up on the Mendip hills above the city. Then it ran underground, until it found the limestone fissures and fault-line up to Bath.

There are many legends surrounding the waters of Bath. They are said to have healing properties that included curing of paralysis, palsy and gout. There are also stories of barren women becoming instantly fertile due to the healing properties of the spa water.

This is a photo of Gorgon. It was thought that those who looked at Gorgon would be turned to stone.
I guess I should have warned you about that one.
Internets, you still there?
Okay, good.

See the lovely steam?
The water in the spa is a balmy 115 degrees year-round.
They allowed people to get into the water and swim around up until the 1970's.
Then the FDA or someone came in and said the water wasn't safe.
It may have had something to do with the chick who DIED after swimming in the water from some form of fungal meningitis.
They tell you not to even touch it.
The water contains over 43 minerals. And who knows what else.

Of course we touched it.
Don't be a fool!
When in Rome, and all that.

I would have jumped right in and swam around. It was warm water. And contrary to the way it looked, it wasn't stinky.
The ducks weren't dead.
We figured it if was good enough for ducks...it was good enough for Wadley's.

Seriously, how smart are those ducks?!!
If I am ever reincarnated as a duck I want to live in the Roman Bath houses.
All the kids, as always, very interested.

Incidentally, Jayden was easy to spot in a crowd. That jacket of his was pretty eye-catching.
You can see in this photo where the original bath house was. The brick wall is original up to the crumbly part as well as the bottom of the pillars. Here is a closer look:

You can imagine with thousands of years of use, the stone floors got worn down. When that happened, the Roman's just threw new stone slabs over the worn ones. The floors were uneven in parts.

Behold! Bahhhhth! Me and Heidi.

They had a bath area for women. A bath area for men, and then later, they just had a free-for-all bath room. A lot of naked parties happened there.
Good luck if you dropped your soap.
Inside the museum area, they had partially excavated areas.
They are still discovering areas of Bath.

This area has turned into a sort-of wishing pond for tourists.
There were coins in the water from many countries.
Sam wished he had his metal detector for the billionth time.
Which I am not sure why?
The money was visible.
I don't know why you would need a detector.
I guess loot is loot.

We all made wishes.
I used a really cheap coin.
Heidi said it was worth less than a penny.
Maybe that is why my wish did not come true.
I guess you have to use larger denominations.
I probably offended the coin gods.

More cool shots:

I had a hard time leaving the Bath house. It was warm there.
We bought a couple of things in the gift shop, and moved on.

Family group shot!

It was a long, fun day.
We all went back to the cottage and took baths to warm up.
Separately.