Bath Spa, Wiltshire

I've always wanted an authentic roman experience, and the city of Bath, Wiltshire was a good

one to begin with. We left from our cozy little serviced apartments in Swindon at 8 in the

morning, a little let down by the really windy and cold weather...but happy about the clear

skies.... We hit the train station by about 8:15, and took the 8:30 train to Penzance with

Bath enroute.. I love train journeys and was delighted even while we were boarding the

train.. I chose the window seat and the scene was beautiful with landscapes sprawling

endlessly and farms with really healthy looking (read fat..hehe) cows and sheep.. the houses

in all those little villages were all of the same size and shape and made of a typical red

stone... Arrived at Bath at about 9, and with the help of a tourist guide centre, we planned

our day. As soon as we stepped into the city the georgian architecture of all those

buildings seemed as if the city hasn't changed much from a long time... limestone houses

with really small windows...lots of crescents... abbeys..made me feel like i've gone back in

time.. the most obvious thing a tourist does in an unknown city is take the city tour..

which we did.. The city is known for a lot of little things.. Apparently earlier people

built very small windows in the houses so that only a small portion of daylight gets into

the house. Now people wanted it that way so that they didn't have to pay a lot of tax,

because they were taxed for the amount of daylight getting into the house! (thats where the

saying "daylight robbery" came into picture..)..

The highlights of the city include the Roman bath, which are actually natural mineral hot

water springs from the River Avon (Avon means just river, so "River Avon" is really

just"River River"...) where the romans had a worship place for their goddess "sulis" and so

the place is aptly called "Aquae Sulis"... An interesting place with all the walkie-talkie

assisted self guided toursin and aroud the bath.. The ancient temple relics were also a good

sight to see..

The city is also known for its famous resident.. Jane Austen..and tea.Here tea was regarded as the drink for the upper class and so was made much more expensive than wine or any of the other intoxicating drinks.!

Next we took a ride to take to the stonehenge (meaning the hanging stones).. one of the

wonders of the medival world... the winds at stonehenge almost blew us off.. it was cold as

hell and the so windy.... the wind actually moved us ahead.. so we didn't even need to

walk..:D.. Again, the stonehenge tour was with a self guided walkie-talkie... Now apparently

the stonehenge was built about 3 times and then apparently people just gave up..!..:D.. Each

stone had a reason and history behind it.. Interesting to listen while you stroll around the

structure..

Off from stonehenge we headed to this beautiful little village called the 'lacock village'.

Known for the shooting of 'Pride and Prejudice' on one of the streets and also for

HarryPotter's home.. the house where Voldemort kills Harry's parents James and Lilly

Potter...After seeing these places, We had a nice cup of tea in a Roman Bakery and were off

back to Bath.. On the way back, was Solsbury hill.. atop which Peter Gabriel (of Genesis

fame) had a spiritual change of heard experience and he decided to quit the English band to

start off on his own.... This is where he wrote the song Solsbury hill..(his first solo) The tour guide was nice enough to play the song for us as we went past the scenic hill... 'Had to listen.. had no

choice'..:D :D