John2 woke up early and hit the streets. He walked the whole end of town before 8 am and was on our doorstep a little after 9. We made one trip to the car with luggage, backpacks, and a package of water. (It’s hot here!) With the car packed and loaded, we were ready for our tour of the Roman Baths. Our whole stay in Bath has been delightful, but the really big thing here is the spring water. 

We started at the top, built by the Victorians, but retaining a very Roman theme. We walked the whole exterior with a vantage point of the abbey above us and the pool of water below. It’s a lovely green swimming pool with pillars all around. Back inside the building, we were treated to cases of artifacts, bits of Roman concrete, and the golden head of Sulis Minerva, empowering all who came here, a very rare example of gilding in ancient Roman. Bath fell out of popularity and the whole city dissolved into near ruins again until Queen Mary decided to try the water to cure her infertility (it worked), and Queen Ann came here to cure her skin problems. Suddenly, Bath was all the rage, built up again, the center of elite society with visits from Mary Shelley and Jane Austen.

On the ground floor were women in Roman costume, a patrician and her servant, who engaged me in conversation about the healing powers of the waters. I fell into the period and suggested that maybe when I bathe here later today, I might also become pregnant. I don’t know why, but the girls briefly fell out of character to laugh, then the patrician asked if I would also sacrifice a goat. I said that maybe two goats were needed for this miracle. It was a delightful exchange. The baths were extremely important to Roman society. This was a place of social interaction and was also important for general health. We saw the actual spring where the hottest water bubbles up and steam rises, gyms for wrestling and ball throwing, a scraping room (no soap), the masseuse table, and baths of varying temperatures. Even lower, we toured structures with water running through that were in the process of very slow excavation. One of these archeological areas was central to the Peter Diamond mystery, The Vault. Definitely worth reading!

For a quick tour of Bath for John2, we walked the city, end to end, finally ending at the Circus (identical houses built in a circle to the same dimensions as Stone Henge) and the Royal Crescent, another great example of the use of Bath stone. Then to the car park, and off to Wales!

The way out of town was on Lansdown Road, where we saw the golf course and the field where the battle of Lansdown was fought and reenacted, and the tree from the book Skeleton Hill, where the bones were found! I think that about completes our collection of literary sights! O, happy we.

Finding our lodging in Bridgend, Wales, took a bit of back and forth, but it is truly a lovely home. We have a quiet room upstairs, cozy and cool, a great bath, and a fridge. We will stock it later. Off to the golf course. Royal Porthcawl is a course that I found during the Pandemic. They have a webcam, so I was able to watch the first tee and the beach beyond during the pandemic. This had been a dream course of mine for two years. Manfred, from Germany, joined us to complete the foursome. We had a terrific time together, mostly bonding over the search for lost balls! (There’s nothing quite like playing a difficult course for the first time!) We played the second hole with big black cows mooing from across the fence, lots of holes with gorgeous ocean views, and twinkling sunlight on the water. Finally, the clouds lifted and we saw our next destination, Devon, across the water. But the bunkers were deep— I gathered a crowd trying to get out of an extremely deep one. Didn’t give up, though and finally succeeded, with a maximum score. (Let’s talk about the better holes.) Everyone had lots of pars and many oohs after great shots into the —oops! Another lost ball!

Luckily, we’d all had a good breakfast, because the time we’d allowed for lunch was spent nibbling toast. The kitchen was closed, and that’s all they were allowed to fix. When the game was over, we also found that this small town on a Sunday night has no open restaurants! Off to Tesco for a few supplies, then John2’s genius idea and quick calculations—MacDonald’s. Oh, for a tasty hamburger. It was already 9:30 pm! Home and to a comfy bed. Good night.