Day Two of Spring Vacation Euro Trip

After dinner last night, Jessica, Sarah, her two roommates, and I went out to the girls' favorite pub- a place called "The Huntsman" (hahaha, please, someone tell me that also brings to their mind Snow White...). The picture to the left is the three of us there.

Today, we spent the day with Sarah! in Bath and saw the old Roman Bath, Bath Abbey, and the Jane Austen Centre, among other things.

First, Sarah showed us her program building, and then sent me and Jess off to see the Baths (which are fairly expensive, and which she had already seen). I could just write about them, but I think it's probably easier to just show you with pictures and notes beneath them:

ROMAN BATHS


view from above


These are apparently "curses" people would throw into the spring waters in order to punish others who had wronged them. What's cool about this particular one, you can read below:


"These are the only words in British Celtic known to survive anywhere." The Celts in Britain did not have a written form of their language, so the Romans, when they transcribed it, did so in their own Latin phonetic alphabet. Cool, huh?


Apparently the spring has prehistory too; as archaeologists have found arrowheads here.

This is the actual spring--lots and lots of steam...


The drain


Margaret Ann and Jessica in front of the Baths


Jessica and I might've taken a few, umm, slightly illegal pictures in the Baths. As in, apparently, you're not supposed to touch the water. We kinda did. Just a little.


Algae is gross/awkward.


These little prep school boys were there on a school field trip that day.


Oh. There's that sign that apparently we missed. Oopsie. Maybe we're illiterate. Or just bad at following directions.


And, oh, look! They even have a second one for children too young to read. Apparently Jess and I are illiterate AND stupid.

Today wasn't my first time seeing Bath Abbey--I visited it with my family several summers ago, but I had never gone up the tower before.

I particularly love the ceiling inside; it's a really beautiful vaulted ceiling, and the entire thing is in white (I believe) limestone, which is neat because, as a result, it's so much lighter inside than most cathedrals.
Sarah, Jessica, and I took a "Tower Tour", which, on a Friday morning, turned out to be just the three of us. The climb up 212 (? if I remember correctly) stairs was not too bad; I was more afraid of falling than anything else. We walked up around and around a dark-ish stone spiral staircase; when I got over the fear of tripping and falling down the steep steps I enjoyed pretending I was climbing the stairs of the secret passage up to the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. Don't make fun, please. I hear you laughing at me.

Anyway.
It was really, really cool--we got to see the clock (or rather, crawl into it is more like it) and the tower bells and learn all about how they're rung. It was actually really fascinating; I learned that only Anglican Churches and some Episcopalian ring bells differently from the rest of the world; they use a method where they flip the bell all the way from one side upside-down to the other, so it rings only once in a 180-degree swing. European churches just pull the huge ropes and let the bells just swing. Very cool.

After seeing all the bells and learning about the different machines and peopled used to ring them, they had us walk the final fifty-or-so steps up the tower to the roof, where we could see the entire city. The sun came out just in time too, and so we got some great pictures (see bottom of blog post).

Post-abbey we grabbed some lunch at a baguette place (yum!) and walked over to the Jane Austen Centre, which turned out to be a bit of a flop. And by a bit, I mean, it was quite a disappointment. For our student price of 7 GBP, we acquired nothing but a ten minute talk from a very intense, and rather scary, old woman dressed in regency-wear, and then got to walk through the "museum" portion, which had essentially nothing but photos and costumes. It was rather pathetic. There was this REALLY, REALLY pretty dress in it, however, which I really liked. Man, I'm living in the wrong century. There was also an entertaining sign about fan language, which we laughed at and took turns imitating. Got some good photos. Also something of note: there were all kinds of paraphernalia in the bookshop with Mr. Darcy on them, including an "I heart Mr. Darcy" t-shirt. Wowwww. If they're not trying to play off the teenage girl bookworms, I dunno what's that's about.

The view from the top of Bath Abbey Tower. Sarah's flat is at the far end of the row of buildings on the top left of the photo. The River Avon runs behind the park in the middle of the picture. And that weird field-thingy on the other side of the river? Cricket pitch :)

In the Jane Austen Centre, we enjoyed reading this sign....

...And Jess enjoyed enacting its instructions. This pose is, I believe, "My love for you is breaking my heart."

I really, really, REALLY want this dress. Like really. Such a pretty color green. I am such a fan. Why didn't I live in the age of Regency England? Oh, right. Because then I wouldn't have Harry. Okay then. Glad we clarified that.

The view out the window of the room where Jessica and I stayed in Sarah's flat--what she and her roommates apparently call "the awkward room". Apparently it was once a bedroom, but now it's not supposed to be one anymore, so they shoved the bed against the far wall and stuck a kitchen table in the middle hahaha :)