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Roman Baths = 2000 yr old Health Club

This morning my alarm went off at the beautiful hour of 530am. All 170+ students at the ISC piled onto 4 coaches and we drove to Bath, located about 4.5 hours northwest of the castle. I had no clue what Bath was about until I got there. Again, the pictures don't begin to describe what it is like.

I spent about 2 hrs wandering around the roman baths and the museum around it. It is really a fascinating place! Over 2000 years ago, the romans found this spring and thought it was sacred and built a temple surrounding it. It was a place of great worship and healing. There are all kinds of remnants of alters and godly statues within the museum. It is especially interesting because the site has been very untouched. There are ramps that go through the various portions of the temples. The museum does a fantastic job of recreating what it was actually like when the romans lived there.

There were many, many pools throughout the temple complex. There were change rooms and pre-pool pools where people would get cleaned before entering the main pool. These pools are quite warm and all naturally heated. While the pictures look kind of ugly, it was absolutely fasicinating being there. I really couldn't get enough of it! There were little video recreations of what the romans would have done there and it showed them jumping and frolicking andplaying games in the water. Crazy to think of people goofing around in these pools over 2000 years ago. CRAZY!

Another amazing thing about these baths is the sewar and drainage system attached to them so they work properly. Unbelievable engineering! The sewar system stilll works perfectly after all this time! The picture above shows how some of the sauna rooms were heated. There would be a floor over top of these stone plates and these would be heated by a nearby furnace. The heat would rise up from these towers and heat up entire rooms in a sort of sauna style. In these rooms various massages would take place.

Well... this picture was a little awkward to take. I couldn't help myself. I had to get a picture of this (which was right above the urinals in the guy's bathroom). Ha. Roman Baths Bathroom. Classic. The problem with getting this picture was that it is kind of awkward trying to take pictures in a busy bathroom. Soooo... i hid out in the stalls pretending i was blowing my nose until everyone left that part of the bathroom then quickily took the picture and ran out. I felt a little dirty. ah well... funtimes.

Here I am chillin with my best friend the audio guide. They are really funny because everyone walks around the museum as though they are talking on cell phones.

JIF - Cell phones are called Mobiles.

Every few feet there would be a number on the wall and you would punch that into the audio guide and this guy would tell you all about it. Fun times. He was my best friend. I miss him.

I ended up tagging along on a tour of Bath with the english class. They are studying Jane Austen (who wrote a lot about and lived in Bath). The tour showed all the different locations Jane Austen mentions in her books. It was pretty boring because i have never seen or read anything about her. It was a good way to see some cool parts of Bath though. Much of Bath is built on hills and the above shot is taken of Bath on the side of the road at the higest point in Bath.

Here is Bath Abby, which is located at the end of the roman baths. Many of the churches I take pictures of seem to look quite similar. Ah well, they still make wicked pictures.

My day in Bath ended with a trip to Sally Lunn's. You cannot go to Bath without going here! It is the oldest house in Bath and apparently a secret recipe for buns was found in the house. They are amazing! I sat in there and had half a bun with jam and some sort of creamy spread along with a cup of tea. Mmmmm..... ahhhh.......

Bath is really an amazing city. They go to great lengthes and cost trying to conserve the original architecture and uniformity of the buildings. It feels a little bit like a fairy tale town. It is funny though, because there are all these old, old buildings and in them are stores like Burger King and Starbucks.

Parlez vous Parliament?

Yet again, I made may way to London. Today I did a little window browsing down Oxford st. and dropped in to the Apple Store (very suave...lotsa fun iPod stuff). I then went on another tour of the National Gallery, this time focusing on more historical paintings in the early 17th century.

The highlight of the day was certainly the tour of the parliament buidlings. They were crazy!!! So overdone! The first oom you walk into where the queen would enter is covered everywhere in gold. I couldn't take any pictures inside unfortunately, so you really have to see it to believe it. The House of Lords was equally crazy. Gold chairs and well... gold everywhere. The House of Commons was almost identical to Canada's. (No surprise... as it was quite obviously modeled after Britain's). Above is Big Ben again, just at the entrance to Parliament. I've never been a huge fan of Big Ben until I saw it in person. It is really a fantastic, beautiful monument.

JIF
The U.K. = England + Wales + Scotland + Northern Ireland
Great Britain = The U.K. - Northern Ireland

Ahh.. Look at how much fun the students are having!

It was at this point (on my way out of Parliament) that I decided I would take advantage of the opportunity and stop and Muster a little bit. So there I am... Mustering.

Hangin out with Winston Churchill out front of Westminister Abby.
Churchill is such a copier. Geez.