July 10 - All I Needed Was a Good Bath

(John) Things got back on schedule today. We had a relaxing day and saw several major sites in Bath. Of course, as I mentioned before, we attended Eucharist at Bath Abbey. That was followed by a crowded but fascinating walk through the Roman Baths of Aquae Sulis. It's a spectacular archeological site, filled with 2000 year old Roman ruins, and capped by an 18th century social club and spa.

Around lunchtime we had coffee and panini - using that time to check E-mail, post on our blog, and read the paper. A little down time helped me recover from yesterday's frustration.

Soon after lunch we had a personal tour of the Bath At Work Museum. This site was highly reccommended in the Rick Steves guidebook. I think it was well worth the 4 pounds admittance. Basically, it was a walk through a small scale Victorian factory, foundary, and bottling plant: Bowler & Sons. Our guide was a charming, ancient, and nearly blind pensioner who used to come into the Bowler shop when he was a boy.

Then we toured a Georgian townhouse and learned about the lifestyle of the gentry who would let houses in Bath for the prime social season.

We capped the day with a narrated bus tour of town on the upper deck, enjoying the view, the jibes and bon mots of the guide, and the sunny summer breezes of this beautiful city.

Now we are on our way to dinner at Brown's café, a kind of sophisticated pub with tables outside that look upon both the abbey and the river Avon. Tomorrow we tour the Cotswolds by car, perhaps a quick jaunt throgh Oxford, and then back into wounded London for two nights.