We aim to get up early as Cathy only has a short day with us in Bath but, when I wake up at 8:45, everyone else is still asleep. There is a Tesco Express next door to our apartment, so I pop there to buy fresh croissants and pastries for breakfast. I have breakfast ready before anyone else is dressed. This is remarkable, as I am usually the last to get up.
We pre-book tickets to the Roman baths which proves very fortuitous as there are long queues for those turning up on spec. The baths are every bit as incredible as I remember them.
Rich and I went on only our second weekend away without the children to Bath well over twenty years ago.
Bath was known as Aquae Sulis in Roman times, in honour of the Celtic goddess who was originally worshipped at the hot springs in the marshes. The Romans eventually dedicated their bathhouse and temple to Sulis-Minerva, combining the local deity with her Latin equivalent. The spring itself comes out of the ground at over 40 degrees at a rate of about 1.3 million litres per day, where the Carboniferous and Jurassic limestones meet. Cathy tells me that she actually bathed in a similar bath complex in Spain and I think it’s a shame that we can’t still bathe there. It transpires that a new thermal bath spa did open in 2006, so that’s something for our next visit.
We have lunch at Dough pizzeria and Rich walks Cathy down to the railway station while Tom and I have a post-prandial rest. Later, we decide to have pre-dinner cocktails and so head back into town.
Bath is architecturally gorgeous with well-proportioned Georgian buildings, one of which we are lucky enough to be staying in. We pass along Pulteney Bridge and arrive at the famous Hideout cocktail bar, which is actually in a Tudor
cellar. By the time I’ve had a Dr Dre cocktail, Rich has had a classic martini and Tom has had a couple of drinks, one of which contained coco pops and condensed milk, we are behind the silk rope barrier as the bar is full. Rich comments that it’s the first time he has ever been this side of a cordoned off area.
We then head for dinner at the vegetarian Indian Temptation restaurant and walk back to the apartment to watch the Dr Who finale before bed.
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