July 26/13

Hiked up one side of the Cheddar Gorge today. At the point where it gradually starts its descent we turned back. After that there would have been a steep climb up the other side. Not only did we not feel up to that, apparently most people don't do it. The views from the gorge and the surrounding area were very nice, but it was a bit of a slog in the heat.

Next we drove to Bath to see the Roman Baths. The museum displaying many of the artifacts is directly over top of the original site. The first baths date back to a few hundred years AD. There are 3 natural springs near the abbey, and the Romans constructed a complex of bath houses to take advantage of their natural temperature - 46 degrees celcuis! After the Romans left, the buildings decayed until the baths were revived again in the 17th century. Besides the hot baths, there was a cooling off pool. The King had his own bath dating from the 12th century. They believe that some of the baths were co-ed, but others separated the men from the women. The baths were considered to be spiritual as well as relaxing. Sometimes the bathers would offer gifts to the goddess Minerva there, and even wrote curses on stone tablets for people that they didn't like. Many excavated objects such as the tablets were on display.

Bath has so many listed buildings that the entire city has been named a World Heritage site by Unesco. One thing considered to be a crowning glory is the Royal Crescent, a semi-circular terrace of majestic houses joined together and overlooking Royal Victoria Park. Apparently the houses hardly ever come up for sale.

On the way to our B&B we had to travel on VERY narrow roads. When we needed to pass a parked vehicle on the final stretch, we had to fold both mirrors in and I had to guide Michael past it from the front of the car! He barely made it through. Then we had to repeat the process when going for dinner! Had we known, we would have looked for a restaurant near the Roman baths, but we've usually had luck getting a place to eat near the B&B.