Bath and Stonehenge – Day 5

I am still running a day behind, but still trying to catch up.
This day we got up early and headed to Bath. Bath is a town in southeast England found among rolling hills.
First building was a Quaker Meeting Hall.

The Bath Abbey which is known for its stain glass windows and tower.

Notice the angels climbing their way to heaven

Again the colorful flower hangers.

It is known for its Georgian architecture and mineral hot springs which the Romans made into their baths.  In the past when I have visited Roman Baths, they were just ruins, which is not the case here.  They have excavated to uncover several rooms that were used as part of the bath buildings and the hot spring is still active and flowing.
As you enter the museum, you are greeted with a grand ceiling.
 you then cross over to walk around the outside pool surrounded with Roman statues.


And another view of the Abbey.
And with the statues were also the faces for the downspouts.
 And Bear had to make an appearance – he never misses a warm bath.
Then we went inside again to see alot of rooms and what they had uncovered here.   These were two of the tombstones they found.  The one on the left was a cavalry man – you can see the legs of the horse.
The arch above the temple -The pediment carries the image of a fearsome head carved in Bath stone and it is thought to be the Gorgon’s Head which was a powerful symbol of the goddess Sulis Minerva. 
This is a piece of the column that supported the temple.


And inside the actual hot springs flowing through what they called the pump room to fall into the channel which took it to the different rooms.

We then walked outside to see the pool again but from the lower level.

Entering into the East Bathing Rooms, there is one where the floor would have been raised to let the hot air pass underneath to heat it, If they wanted steam they would pour water onto the floor.  In this image, you can see the stacks of tiles that were used to support the raised floor.

There were lots of other rooms and more ruins on this site.  We viewed a number of the rooms and then we exited to get a bite to eat on the coach while we traveled to our next stop.  In doing so, we saw this man playing in the square. We didn’t have time to sit and listen – too bad, he was very good.
 A couple more images from the Abbey.
And then we walked by Sally Lunn Buns – it is the oldest house in Bath – going back to 1482.  a restaurant that has been in the bun making business since 1680.  Look at the size of that Bun!
We then walked to get our sandwiches and spotted this.
Now it was time to leave for our next stop – Stonehenge.
You must use their bus to get up to the site.  Once there, you can walk around listening to their audio explanations about the site.
 Barbara and Cathy trying to stay dry and warm – as the site is on a hill and the wind was whipping around us and lots of rain off and on.  Marta Morris hiding in her rain gear. Here are the ladies from the Valencia Lakes Women’s club wearing our Walk for the Cure tshirts.     
Dinner on our way back to the hotel was in a typical pub.