Christmas-New Years break in the UK -- Part 3 -- Bath

The main hot spring bath from the Roman days.  It was excavated starting in the 19th century.  The original Roman structure goes up to about waist high.  Everything above that was a Victorian era construction in their image of how things might have looked in the Roman days & may not be truly accurate, but it's how it is and it's how it's going to stay.  Even these "newer" parts are over a hundred years old.

The Bath Cathedral is right next to the Roman Bath.  This pictures is deceptive;  there's actually open space between the two...

Touring the Roman Era Bath that's been excavated and is now a historical attraction.  This is part of the under ground level water control system that the Roman had built.

The stone workers inscribed the stones that they carved with their own logo to show that they did the work & thus deserved to get paid for the work.

The Romans also moved the hot spring water around using lead pipes.  I some places, the pipes were routed along the surface in channels carved into the stone floors.

Excavated Roman sauna room that had a floor above the stacks of large flat bricks.  The heated moist air moved under the floor and came up through the floor.  The large spaces between the stacked bricks allowed for airflow and for workers to do any cleaning out that was needed.

These "hollow" bricks were used in some of the curved roof structures.  They allowed the roofs to be lighter and thus less likely to collapse due to their own weight, even in an arch shape.  Pretty amazing levels of engineering 2,000 years ago...

Lead pipes (fabricated from lead sheets).

Again, everything above about waist level is not Roman era but this is the original "source" pool that was used as a reservoir for distribution to the many pools and room of the Roman baths.

You can sample the hot spring water to see what it tastes like.  It's pretty bad to drink!

The food (street or otherwise) was pretty inexpensive because the Dollar is very strong against the British Pound at the moment.

In a nearby park, from the Roman Baths, they had set up a holiday outdoor skating rink.  People were waiting to get back on the ice, after the Zamboni had finished resurfacing.

There was no real parking in the central area of Bath.  Had to find and park in this public parking area several blocks away from the center.  You have to go to a parking pay machine and get a ticket to put on the dash of the car.  The machines only took cash and I didn't have any coins!  Someone told me about one machine, elsewhere in the large parking area, that took credit cards.  Fortunately, I found the machine and was able to park and pay.  Parking and parking tickets appears to be a rich source of revenue for municipalities in the UK.  Reminds me of Santa Monica...