Bath - architecture spanning many styles and periods, sitting next to or atop one another. Discovered by the Celts in 500 BC and settled by the Romans in 43 AD, Bath is steeped in history. The Abbey (pictured below) was a more "recent" addition to the city - built in 1499 and noted for the carvings on the towers of angels climbing a ladder to heaven (notice some of them are falling!)
The Roman baths built on this spot over the hot springs were, for me, the most interesting part of Bath. And my favorite part of the baths was the display of prayer tossed into the baths by Romans. Some of the things folks prayed for were a little surprising - for example: Please make horrible things happen to the jerk that stole my good sandals. You think I'm exaggerating, but it's true! Many of the prayers were calling for bad things to happen to people that had somehow offended the supplicant.
The waters of Bath are said to have healing power, and you can purchase a drink from the spring for about 50 pence. Joanna and I paid our pence to try it out - boy is that some hard water!! It tasted like iron filings - yuck! All in all, a neat place (but don't drink the water :) )
There are LOTS of sheep in England. As we rode back to London in the bus, we noticed that many of the sheep had blue or red marks on their backs and asked the tour guide about it. Apparently the farmers tie bags of dye to the bellies of male sheep during mating season. Each season has a different color dye. That way they can tell when the ewes will give birth based on the color markings on their backs.
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