Day #4 - Bath and a Fete!

We awoke this morning bright and early because today is Bath day!  After a quick breakfast, we dressed and were on our way.  We caught a 10:30 train to Bath.  It only took about 45 minutes, but Peter managed to make himself comfortable on the train.  It was crowded, so the rest of us stood.  It's great to be a little guy.  You can fit almost anywhere!

We got into Bath around 11:15 and immediately headed towards the Roman Baths.  It was a pretty straight path, so even though I didn't have a map, we found our way pretty easily.  As we rounded the corner into the square where the Abbey and the Roman Baths are located, the plaza was FILLED with kids in uniforms and robes.  The local boarding school had graduation ceremonies that morning and was just letting out!  It was insane.  We found the end of the line for the Baths and began our wait.  We were hungry, so we Steve, Andy and Emily formed a search party for snacks.  They came back with croissants and drinks...yummy!

Once we were finally in, we were given audio guides so that we could move through the displays at our leisure.  You just needed to punch in the number at each display and hear the explanation.  The nice thing was that they had 'kid friendly' numbers to punch in for Pete!  It kept him engaged longer than it would have otherwise.

We ended up spending about two hours total touring the Baths.  They are the only natural hot springs in Great Britain, and the Romans were able to build a spa around them.  We tend to think that we have the ability to pamper ourselves in with current technology, but the Romans were able to turn this spring into a serious SPA!  They had a steam room, massage rooms, the hot springs bath, a warm bath and a cold bath.  To think that these baths existed in Roman times really boggles the mind!

Mmmmm....mineral water...

Sadly, you can't get in them anymore, but they did give us a free drink from the spa.  Emily said it tasted like blood.  I think she was tasting the iron.  They said it had 36 different minerals in it.  It's amazing that this water continues to bubble up!

Paninis in peace!

We left the baths and headed back into the square.  The kids had been replaced by tourists...it was still as crowded as ever!  We slipped into a sandwich shop overlooking the square and enjoyed a quiet lunch above the crowds.  It was wonderful to have a bit of quiet time before heading back into those crowds.  But what could I expect?  It was a Saturday in the summer!

We stopped at a chocolatier for some ice cream before heading back to a 3:30 train.  There was plenty more to do in Bath, but we wanted to get back to Pitton for the village celebration that evening!  While we had been in Bath all day, Doric and Sara had spent their day helping the village get ready.  We took a taxi home from the train station in Salisbury, regrouped, put on warmer clothes, and Doric came to pick us up.

Pitton at it's best!

Pete rode the swing.

By the time we got to the fete (prounced "fate"), it had already been going strong for awhile.  We had missed the pretty dress contest (of which Sara was a winner!), but Peter was able to ride the kiddie swing (it was a hand crank...no electricity!), hunt through hay for sweets and throw wooden balls trying to break crockery!  There was a BBQ, a beer tent, and a PIMM'S tent.  The PIMM'S was homemade, and it tasted great.  I had never had one!

After the games and food, the barn dance started!  There were kid games including a wheelbarrow race with Barnaby as his guide.

Emily and Barnaby two-stepping it!

There were also square-dance type dances.  They were really fun!  And it was a great way to meet a lot of the people in the neighborhood, even if you were do-si-do-ing around them at the time!  If you stood still long enough, you started to get cold, but right about the time you did, you were called back onto the 'dance floor field' for the next dance.  What a workout!  We held hands and danced in big circles and little circles, sometimes with eight people, sometimes with two.  The only dance I can remember was called "split the willow" and it really required concentration!

Dancing in the dark!

We literally danced until around 10:30 when they sent one of the local guys out into the field and he shot off fireworks.  He couldn't have been more than 50 yards away!  The fireworks display was really beautiful.  My photos don't do it justice.  Everyone said that they probably wouldn't be as good as we were used to, but they rivaled Frankfort's on the Fourth of July!  And isn't it funny that it took Pitton to give us the fireworks we missed on the Fourth of July back home!

It was a wonderful evening, and a wonderful night.  How sad it will be to say goodbye to our good friends, and this wonderful town tomorrow.