Gerbil Roadtrip Part 2: Bath

Bath is a world heritage site and it was first estbablished as a spa with the Latin name Aquae Sykus vt the Romans in the AD60s. They built baths (hence the city's name) and a temple in the surrounding hills around the hot springs. 

Autumn splendour as seen from the carpark where we left our rental overnight. It was free! Yay for small town charges.

We wandered through town to get to the Roman bath before it closes for the day. This is what Victor wants to be when he grows up.

Entrance to Roman baths..

My legs look so long here.... hehe.

JB and Victor had been a few years back so they abandoned us to go to a nearby pub. They demanded a photo together underneath the sign though.....

The main outdoor pool

 There were people dressed up like they were from Roman times sitting by the pool. But by the time we got down there, they have left so I'm not sure if they were selling tacky trinkets or not.

View of the abbey from where we were.

There were statues of past Roman emperors that looked down into the pool...

 I think the dude on the left is Julius Caesar.

 This is Constantine the Great.

Photos of the baths before restoration.

After that, we went through the museum and exhibitions about the baths.

Model of the layout of the baths.

 Model of the buildings as they were....

This reminded me of the model Monica did of our house hehehe. We were all very impressed by it.

Original tiles from the buildings....

Mosaic wallpaper

Keys from back then....

Coffin.....

Cool skeleton....

Typical behaviour while sightseeing ... mad taking of photos by me and Damon listening attentively to his audio guide.

So studious.....

Different types of coins used by the Romans....

Oh yeah they were a superstitious bunch and worshiped this Minerva deity. The archaeologists found relics of these curses left by the bathers and they were usually for something really trivial. They would pray and write to Minerva and asked that she finds them the culprit that stole their cloak (presumably while they were naked and in the pool hehehehe) and that all the culprit's teeth will fall out for their crime. 

It was getting dark by the time we made it back outside to the pool area and the lighting added a different atmosphere to the place.

One of the small baths in a room....

It was quite dark inside these rooms so my camera did really well actually.... these were the tiles that used to be heated up by the slaves for the bathers (i think)....

Another room..................

Damon doing his weird look again.............

Love the colours here....

This perfectly circular pool was my favourite. The sparkles in the water were from the millions of coins people had chucked into the pool... the usual.

I like the colour of the water. It may also have something to do with the images of hunky Roman bathers they projected onto the wall heheh. 

 This made me laugh out loud heheh so true.

 There was a football/rugby/ball game in town so all the restaurants were fully booked. We went to Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant as it doesn't require reservations. The wait wasn't too bad.

Bffs

Victor was sooo happy... he had the two loves of his life near him. JB and alcohol.

I had crab risotto.... don't know what possessed me because i don't like risotto. Victor finished it off happily.

Someone's rabbit ragout i think.

It was Remembrance Day the next day so there were poppies being laid out.

Bath Abbey

The next day, we got up early to go move the car as it wasn't free from 8 am onwards... Saw this in a window shop on the way there..

Mackers for breakkie....

Check out Damon's crazed smile... again.

 After that, we walked around Bath for a bit.

We spotted some sunlight so stopped to absorb some much-needed Vitamin D.

And then it wasn't long before someone started doing silly things to shadows so it was time to move on.

 

Love in its purest form.

This is The Circus and it reminded me of Regent Street and its circular buildings...

We ended up by the Avon River...

Pulteney Bridge

I looked away for a bit and next thing I know, the gerbils have walked off and gone to the other side of the river!

This looks like a paparazzi shot of a clandestine meeting between lovers....

.... and one of a weird dude sitting by himself on a park bench.

While they were on the other side of the river, I went off to take photos of the Abbey..

We then regrouped and went off to Sally Lunn's for brunch. Victor kept pretending to wander into my photos just when I was about to take them... tsk tsk tsk.

Sally Lunn is traditionally served sliced horizontally and toasted. It is served with sweet or savoury toppings or just spread with plain or flavoured butters, jam and clotted cream. I was soooo excited about this because I love my white flour carbs and also, JAM and CREAM! Winner.

bahahahaha at JB's hat hair.

I may or may not have ordered two buns compared to the others' one each. The waiter was a bit bemused when I kept going with my order and I said 'they are all for me' hehehe. In my defense, I had human trashcans there to mop anything up.

This was sooooo good. The strawberry jam is favoured by the royals and the clotted cream was like butter but creamy and sweet. Le sigh. I finished this all by myself and Victor didn't even get a chance near it heheh.

My second choice was cinnamon butter and it wasn't as good. So I gave it to JB to finish off.

After that, we were outta there. Last stop of the day : Cotswolds.

Gerbil Roadtrip Part 1 - Stonehenge

The gerbils, aka my group of close-knit friends, went away on a weekend road trip in early November. We decided to hire a car, pick it up at Heathrow Airport and then drive the couple of hours to Bath with a side detour to Stonehenge and Cotswolds. 

Anyway not much to say about the first part of the trip except that it was a bit of a let-down... for me anyway. Some other people might go ga-ga over it but I was just not that enamored by it. There weren't any druids there chanting or making potions... i was disappointed. Heheheh.

The ticket price included a headset guide so we could hear about the history and purpose of Stonehenge. I got bored listening just to the instructions of how to operate the thing so I didn't bother hehe.

Maybe it was the angle of the stones from the entry way but it just didn't look like what I imagined it to look like... or is it just me?

Who else has the urge to blast the rocks with some water to get rid of the greenery... no? Just me? They look like our badminton court's tiles after a period of neglect.

This is the photo I will not be posting on Facebook... no need to encourage MORE rumours. You ruined my life, Vic. Thanks a lot.

A different view of the stones...

Great thing about travelling with more than 1 person (aka Damon who has awful photography skills) is that there are a few other people around to take photos of me!

I flagged down a random to take a photo of us as a group. I thought it would be obvious that they need to get Stonehenge in the background.... apparently not as this was the result.... 

On my second attempt (after the first person was out of earshot haha), I asked a dude with a serious piece of photography equipment around his neck. I figured he would know what he was doing so I didn't give him any instructions. THIS was the result. *shake fist*

I decided that it would be third time lucky so I took my time finding my next target. Meanwhile, the stones wait......

While I waited for a worthy person to ask for help, I decided to double check my camera's settings etc. Even my test shot was way better than any of the other pitiful attempts.

Finally, I decided on a lone Japanese girl who was dragging a suitcase around. I specifically said "Can you please make sure you get Stonehenge in the background?' and she did. Yay. It's not perfect but it will have to do. I rewarded her obedience by offering to take a few snaps of her. Unlike her, I didn't need any reminders of getting the star attraction in the photos.

THIS is more like what I think Stonehenge should look like. Look how small the people look.

There was this lone rock a bit further away from the stones. I wonder if there was any significance to its placement. More importantly, check out the Asian cheapskates on the wrong side of the fence. The didn't want to pay the entrance fees so took photos from the outside. Tsk tsk tsk.

After the whole photo fiasco, it became a running joke throughout the whole trip whenever photos were being taken. Someone would crack the joke and said 'Could you please get Stonehenge in the background'. I bought Monica a Stonehenge postcard and the boys thought it would be funny to take a snap of it .... in the background. =)