This is a retrospective post, having visited Bath several weeks ago but, for completeness I thought I would write it up.
Bath is a place i visited when i was a child, but alas time has dulled my memory somewhat, and so we decided it might be a nice day out to pop over there and visit the Roman Baths. It is a strange town, merging the old and the new clumsily together, but I did enjoy the variety of knitted jumpers most of the residents of the surrounding area seemed to insist on wearing. It made me realise that Noel Edmunds was not wearing those jumpers on Noel's House Party for a bet/dare/charity, but because they are considered de rigueur in the West Country!
Still, you could tell when we got closer to the Baths as the knitted jumpers started to thin out and the number of people with expensive looking cameras started to increase in frequency. Obviously, being a major source of tourism dollars, the buildings surrounding the Baths were lovely and well maintained.
Sarah and I joined the queue of Asian tourists, and i was already moaning at the price of the tickets, which were £12 each. Now, i am not a skinflint, but shelling out over a tenner to see a place where the Roman hoi polloi scrubbed their spuds was excessive to my mind. It never ceases to amaze me how much we can charge for entrance to some of our national treasures (see future post on Warwick Castle!). For perspective, i paid ($40 or £25) for a three day pass to see all the temples in Cambodia. I need to remember though that our museums in London are all free, so it is not all bad...
Once we got into the Baths, it really was a surprise at how much you got to see and walk around. I felt slightly guilty for moaning about the £12, as i definitely got value for money. Yes, there were obviously Baths, but also we got to see the springs, some of the Roman finds they discovered when excavating the site, there were temples there too, and also a variety of people dressed in period costume mingling in with the crowd and trying to make us feel like we had stepped back into the past.
Clearly these people were frustrated thespians, who just loved hamming it up for the tourists, who loved the interaction. I did enjoy the priest character who was offering up a human sacrifice to Oceanus (i think), but i was not brave enough to go up to him and get my photo taken in case he offered me to appease the gods!
Bath is a place i visited when i was a child, but alas time has dulled my memory somewhat, and so we decided it might be a nice day out to pop over there and visit the Roman Baths. It is a strange town, merging the old and the new clumsily together, but I did enjoy the variety of knitted jumpers most of the residents of the surrounding area seemed to insist on wearing. It made me realise that Noel Edmunds was not wearing those jumpers on Noel's House Party for a bet/dare/charity, but because they are considered de rigueur in the West Country!
Still, you could tell when we got closer to the Baths as the knitted jumpers started to thin out and the number of people with expensive looking cameras started to increase in frequency. Obviously, being a major source of tourism dollars, the buildings surrounding the Baths were lovely and well maintained.
Sarah and I joined the queue of Asian tourists, and i was already moaning at the price of the tickets, which were £12 each. Now, i am not a skinflint, but shelling out over a tenner to see a place where the Roman hoi polloi scrubbed their spuds was excessive to my mind. It never ceases to amaze me how much we can charge for entrance to some of our national treasures (see future post on Warwick Castle!). For perspective, i paid ($40 or £25) for a three day pass to see all the temples in Cambodia. I need to remember though that our museums in London are all free, so it is not all bad...
Once we got into the Baths, it really was a surprise at how much you got to see and walk around. I felt slightly guilty for moaning about the £12, as i definitely got value for money. Yes, there were obviously Baths, but also we got to see the springs, some of the Roman finds they discovered when excavating the site, there were temples there too, and also a variety of people dressed in period costume mingling in with the crowd and trying to make us feel like we had stepped back into the past.
Clearly these people were frustrated thespians, who just loved hamming it up for the tourists, who loved the interaction. I did enjoy the priest character who was offering up a human sacrifice to Oceanus (i think), but i was not brave enough to go up to him and get my photo taken in case he offered me to appease the gods!
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