Bath

This photograph is of the Royal Crescent in Bath. It doesn't look very exciting in this photograph, but it is really a beautiful piece of architecture. Just being in Bath, getting lost among all the beautiful buildings, was probably my favorite part of that town. But the Roman Baths were also lovely and educational. I knew about them solely because of my love of all things Austen (so I didn't even know about the Roman part) but more educated people may know not only it was an important sacred site for the Romans in Britain, but that it had been a sacred site for a long time for the Celtic peoples who were already there.

Basically it is a hot spring, and because hot springs were (and still are to people like me) mysterious, people attached great religious importance to the hot springs. Therefore, the Romans built a bathing complex and a temple around the hot spring. The baths make an appearance in Jane Austen's work because in Georgian times their supposed healing powers were very much in vogue and people spoke of "taking the waters" to help them recover from some malady. Although you are no longer allowed to bath in Bath's Roman Baths, you can still drink the disgusting water in the elegant pump room upstairs.

We also visited the beautiful Bath Abbey you will find photographed below. The flying buttresses on this church were particularly stunning because I have never seen ones like those in this building before. Beautiful.