Bath water

rain, temps 13

Not perhaps surprisingly, it's raining. pouring...but we still love Bath. It's a glorious city!

Went to the Roman baths today. I didn't realize they'd only been found and excavated in 1880. Amazing. They suspected they were there - but no one knew where, or for certain. Then a woman living in the centre of Bath complained to the city that she had warm water leaking into her basement.

An inspector went. Sure enough, she did.

He had the brights to call the Chief Archeologist for the area and he knew immediately what it was. But the whole place was built on. Private homes. But he convinced the city to buy up all the homes in the very centre of Bath, tear them down, and dig.

They were stunned by what they found. Almost perfectly intact Roman baths. The entire aquaduct system still working 2,000 years after being built!

the tour was great fun. We had those wands you hold up to your ear and press a number, and out came all these fun, interesting facts.

I was tempted to steal a couple and send them to the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa to show them how it could and should be done.

In fact, I think we could simply use exactly the same tour. Ancient Roman Baths, modern Canadian parliament. Almost indistinguishable. A bunch of powerful men getting into hot water.

Then had a fab lunch, thanks to a recommendation from Teresa and Nancy yesterday. There's a bridge in Bath called the Putney Bridge...it's the only bridge in England that has shops on it. But down one side there're stairs - they're almost invisible.

'They're narrow, and slimy, and dingy,' said Teresa.

'And they're dark,' added Nancy.

There's a reason these two women (who adore Bath) aren't writing the tourist guides. But they sure know their restaurants. If you take those stairs they lead down to the River Avon and a tiny restuarnat called the Riverside Cafe, build into the stone wall of the bridge.

We had a wonderful lunch. Ordered Dandelion and Burdock brew to drink - then had to send it back because it was .5 percent alcohol. Not much, but too much for me. But how could you not love a place that turns weeds into drink?

Off to Bristol tomorrow morning and a tour of Wells and Glastonbury.

Thanks for coming with us to Bath - hope you've enjoyed it!