5/16/05
Hey everyone! I’m back again after another great day of travels. I’ll try to catch you up, but I think it’s best to go in sequential order. I’ll stick to England for right now. I suppose that leaves Bath.
Bath, England – It’s really a wonderful city, the entire city being built around a natural spring. This was done quite purposefully. It was believed that the springs cured people of their leprosy. One man was rumored to give it a go (there’s that local color again) by throwing his pigs into the waters. Once they were healed, he attempted to cure himself…and it worked! At any rate, the Romans set up a temple to celebrate both Minerva and Sirus (a local god) in Bath. They really did a great job with the structure of the building and the surrounding city…lots of history there. The town is architecturally influenced by the Georgians. It’s great. One person told me where the people of the town were buried (in the olden days, that is). If you were wealthy and famous, you were buried in the Abbey. If you were wealthy and not so famous, you were buried in one of the quaint, little cemeteries. “So…what if you were poor?” I asked. She candidly replied, “Oh.If you were poor, you were thrown over the city walls”. Imagine, for one second, the look on my face!
Despite that one small character flaw, the people of Bath are quite lovely (local color again). The old bookstores were calling my name, as the so frequently do! The restaurants were calling my name even louder, as they so frequently do! I sat in this plaza next to the Roman baths for an hour or so listening to this red-headed chap (fire engine red!!) singing a collection of his favorite songs. “Dirty Old Town” was my favorite. Since all of the homes in Bath are made of limestone, a white stone, it used to be somewhat of a dirty old town. Even though Jane Austen hated it here, what with it being so dirty and all, they were really doing a lot to renovate. Coal-burning chimneys, which they had a lot of, have been outlawed for nearly a century. It’s not so “dirty” anymore.
The government approved a grant for £17 million to renovate the university there. Not to be rude, but that amount of money clearly doesn’t go a long way in England. The University of Bath looked like a small warehouse. Count your blessings for having a beautiful President’s mansion and gorgeous buildings to look at in between classes!