Bath

The next day of our trip brought us to the city of Bath (which, I've been told, you must pronounce like "Baa-th," and not like how us Americans would say "bath"). Bath is famous for being the only place in England with natural hot water springs-- thus the name. This city was originally inhabited by the Celts, and later by the Romans who settled here in 75AD. Naturally, the Romans built the first bath house here, and it has been a spa town ever since then. In 1702, Queen Anne came to this city to enjoy the luxury of the natural springs, which catapulted Bath into a very chic place to live and visit. Jane Austen fans will probably remember that Jane herself lived here for a few years, and Bath was even the setting of two of her novels.

When we got into Bath, we headed straight to the city center where the Roman Bath House and Bath Abbey are located. While we were trying to decide where to go first, we got to watch a street performer who juggled flaming torches while riding on a unicycle! Not a bad way to start our day. After the show, we got some lunch at a local pasty store (I promise to blog someday about pasties... basically, it's a meal in a pie pastry... warm, filling, and delicious!), and enjoyed it sitting on a bench in the middle of the city square.After lunch, we headed to the Roman Baths. While waiting in line (or "in the queue"), we enjoyed the view of the Abbey next door.Back to the Baths.... As I mentioned before, when the Romans settled in Bath around 75AD, they built a bath house making good use of the natural hot springs in the area. For the greater part of the 2000 years since it was built, the Baths lay in ruins under the ground, unknown to the people living above. But now, they have been excavated restored to its former appearance.This stone shows the earliest recorded date for the building of the baths, 76AD. Here is a model of what the baths originally looked like, and how they were built upon later on.Adjunct to the baths was a Roman Temple to the goddess Minerva. Here is a gilt bronze head of Minerva, and this is a picture of the temple pediment that they are re-assembling. These are the original stairs up to the temple.Here is the Great Bath from over-head where the statues of Roman govenors look on, and from pool-side. The bath complex also included the sacred spring, the spring overflow, plunge pools, sauna rooms, and changing rooms with heated floors! The furnace was under the base floor, and then they would build another floor on top of these pilings. Heated floors! Ingenious!Apparently the Romans would come to the baths daily. They were very keen on staying clean, as well as staying in the social scene.

It was a GREAT tour, and my favorite part of our whole trip.

After we left the Baths, we decided to take a walk around the city. We started by walking across Pulteney Bridge. Pulteney Bridge is one of the few bridges left in Europe that is lined with shops and restaurants. This is a picture of the road across the bridge, and from the side. We then took a stroll up to the Circus. The Circus is a circular space surrounded by three sections of townhouses. They were built in the mid-1700s, and exemplify a Georgian-style of architecture. This is a picture of the near-by Royal Crescent. As we headed back towards the city-center, we came across the Jane Austen center. I know all of you Austen fans will kill me for not going in, but I know you would also agree that it probably wasn't the most husband-and-three-young-children-friendly kind of places to visit.

Bath was a really incredible city to visit. It had it all: the history, the incredible architecture, chic shops, even flame-juggling unicyclists. A great outing for the whole family.

Cheddar Gorge

On day 2 of our trip, we headed 10 minutes down the road to the village of Cheddar. As you may have guessed, this town is credited with being the first to make Cheddar cheese. Apparently, they have an old order from a king to a cheese-maker in this town for their Cheddar cheese-- hence the name.

We started off our time there with a visit to the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company. For a small admission price, we could tour the factory and see where and how they make their cheese (which is credited as being the only cheddar made in Cheddar!). We were somewhat familiar with the process after having toured the Wensleydale Cheese Factory 2 years ago. We watched the DVD of how the cheese is made, and we got to see the cheese-maker putting the large casks of cheese into hot water to smooth them out, and then squish out all the liquid again. After the tour was over, we were able to return to the store-front and taste the variety of cheeses that they make on site. Some of the flavors were: mild, medium, mature, vintage, and cave-matured. That's right... cave-matured. I should mention that this town also has a gorge and caves (which I will tell you more about in a minute). Well, what's interesting about the caves is that they stay at a pretty constant temperature of about 11 degrees Celsius, which makes it an ideal location to mature the cheese. This came in very handy to the cheese-makers of yester-year, as it provided them with a kind of constant refrigeration. Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed the cheese and bought a few blocks to bring home with us. Yummy!

After lunch at a local pub, we got on a bus to tour the Cheddar Gorge. The Gorge is made up of huge limestone cliffs. It was very impressive. We saw both people and goats climbing the gorge!The bus then dropped us off at Gough's Caves. As we walked through the caves, we were able to listen to an audio tour that told us about how Richard Gough excavated the cave in the late 1800s. We also learned about "Cheddar Man," Britian's oldest skeleton (dating to about 7150BC), whose remains were found in this cave in 1903.
Here are some of our favorite shots from inside the caves. And of course, we got to see the Cheddar Cheese cave-maturing!After our time in the cave, we went to the Cheddar Man Museum, which was kind of creepy, to be quite honest. Then, Ethan and Tim finished up our time there by climbing up the Lookout Tower to enjoy the view of the area.It was a great day in Cheddar. Maybe not the most romantic way to spend Valentines' Day, but such is life when you travel with kids....

Wells Cathedral

Tim and Maddie had this week off from school, and Ethan had Monday off from work, so we thought that last weekend would be a good time to take a short trip "down south" to the Somerset region of England.

On Saturday, we drove down to the town of Cheddar... yes, Cheddar, as in the cheese! (By the way, I mentioned to Ethan the possibility of staying in the town of Cheddar, and without the least bit of hesitation, he said, "We're going!" What can I say?... the boy loves his cheese.)

Anyway, we chose to stay in the town of Cheddar because it was in driving distance to a few places that we wanted to see; namely Bath and Stonehenge. Also, my good friend Kelly recommended a particular house to rent that she stayed in once (and from experience, personal recommendations from Kelly are golden!).

On the way to our rental house, we made our first tourist stop at the city of Wells. Wells is known as the smallest city in England, and it was made popular due to it's incredible cathedral. As a general rule, all of the cathedrals throughout England are located in major cities; but Wells is pretty small in comparison.

As we walked through the town on the way to the cathedral, we came across the market square where the market stalls were starting to close up. Just beyond the square was a wall and shops where there were two exits: one for the Bishops Palace, and the other for the Cathedral.The Bishop's Palace was, of course, the residence for the Bishops of Wells, and was first built in the 1200s. In the mid-1800s, it was restored, and the upper-story was added to it. The palace even has a moat going around it with resident ducks, which my kids loved of course. We then walked to the Cathedral, and our jaws hit the floor. It was just stunning! This picture is of the West Front which was constructed around 1230AD. There are a number of figures carved on this front which include Biblical scenes, kings, bishops, and apostles, with Christ at the top.Inside the Cathedral was just as beautiful. (By the way, I hope these pictures are all right... I wasn't allowed to use my flash.) This pictures is of the Nave, and this is the ceiling.These "Scissor Arches" look so modern, don't they? But actually, they were added to the Cathedral in the mid-1300s as a medieval solution to sinking tower foundations.

The far end of the Cathedral was closed off for a service that was going on, but we were able to see the clock. The Wells Clock is the second oldest working clock in England, dating back to the 1380s. It still has its original medieval face which depicts a pre-Copernican universe with the Earth at the center and the sun & moon revolving around it! This clock is also unique because it has a 24-hour dial, and it represents the motion of the sun and the moon, the phases of the moon, and the time since the last new moon. If that weren't enough, every quarter hour, there are jousting knights that come out in coo-coo fashion, and this guy, called the Quarter Jack, strikes the bell on the hour. It was quite a sight, to say the least!
After our time in Wells, we headed to our rental house in Cheddar. Rental homes are a great way to travel, I have to say. For the cost of a reasonable hotel stay, we had a whole house to ourselves, including three bedrooms, and a kitchen. We brought food with us and prepared all of our breakfasts and dinners at home. It was a great way to save some money, but also such a plus to have space to spread out.

Next time, I will blog about our day in Cheddar (and yes, we got to taste some Cheddar Cheddar!).