After walking upwards of ten miles
on Saturday, spending Sunday at the spa would have sounded wonderful to any of
us. Although we could not get into an
actual spa, our Sunday excursion got us pretty close. We took a two-hour bus ride out to the
magnificent city of Bath to see the Roman Baths and have some free time in the
area.
Since travelling to Italy and
seeing the ruins of Ancient Rome, I have been fascinated with the Roman culture.
The Romans highly valued their class standing and public image. During the reign of the Roman Empire,
man-made baths were a common occurrence.
Being present to socialize at the Baths was a showing of wealth, and was
important to retaining class level, as well as keeping up with the latest
gossip.
The Baths we visited are formed
around a natural hot spring, and the Romans believed these waters to be from
the gods. In order to harness this
natural wonder, the Romans built the complex that is still standing today. A temple was also built at the site and
dedicated to the goddess Minerva. Many
Romans bathed there hoping to be healed.
It was common to throw valuables into the springs as sacrifices to the
gods. In addition, a formal alter was
built, allowing priests to sacrifice animals to the gods.
Because of its spiritual
significance, people travelled great distances to visit this particular bath
complex, causing the city to form around it.
Visitors to the baths could choose to go into a hot bath, the caldarium,
a lukewarm bath, the tepidarium, or a cold bath, the frigidarium. The bathing process was quite complex, and
often involved making use of each of the three bath temperatures. One would work up a sweat in the caldarium,
move to the frigidarium to scrape the dirt off of themselves, then finish in
the tepidarium, where olive oil would be rubbed into the skin like a lotion,
and where most of the socializing would occur.
Aside from being fascinated by the
history of the Baths, I fell in love with the city of Bath. It’s going right onto my list of places to
return to. Bath is a smaller, very
residential community, home of the University of Bath. It reminded me of an American college town,
but prettier with better shopping. I
really wish we would have had more than an hour of free time in the city after
seeing the baths to explore and relax, but that just gives me another reason to
go back!
After reluctantly leaving Bath, we drove
another hour to Stonehenge. Our tour
guide told us a bit about the history of the famous site. Hearing about the technology and manpower
that were needed to move the rocks from their origin to this location, and then
into the formation was intriguing. We
seemed to be in the middle of nowhere when the bus stopped. I’m not sure what I expected it to be like,
but this definitely was not it. We left
the bus and could see nothing but fields, no stone formations in sight. After walking down a path, there it was. It seemed over-rated at first, but realizing
what was actually in front of us, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was
amazing.
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