Where did I leave off? I went to Bath and Glastonbury 3 weekends ago and was in Scotland for the past 9 days.

BATH



This is one of the smaller baths. The cool part is you can see the different layers of history. The water, is of course super-ancient, the Roman put a lead liner on the bottom of the pool, so that the water would hold. The lead liner is still in use and still functions. The Victorians gave this pool the shape it has today, but they raised the water level to the top of the part that has that red stain. The level in the picture is as the Romans would have seen it. All the arch ways are from the Victorians and this particular bath was used to cure people like lepors, and the monks would take the sick people into the water where they would hold on for dear life on the edge, because the Victorians weren't overly inclines towards swimming.


This is actually just a drain pipe out of the pools to the river Avon - yes that same one Shakespeare lived on. The drain is red because the water at Bath has a really high mineral content and after 2000 years of flowing through the same drain (this drain was built by the Romans) the minerals are going to leave deposits all over it. I tasted some of the water - which is allowed and safe - it smelled funny, but tasted fine, except that it was really warm, about the tempurature of bottled water left in a car on a hot day. But the smell was really the problem. Hot minerals smell really bad and don't make me want to drink them.


This is a section of the relief that was over the entrance of the baths in Roman time. This piece shows the feet of a winged Victory standing on a ball made of bands. The ball like thing actually represents earth. I didn't know that the Romans thought the earth was round. I think that's really cool, but it begs the question: When did human thought turn around and start believeing the world was flat? Makes me feel sorry for Galileo as a historic figure.



This is a picture of the main baths. The shape of the pool is from the romans, but the colums of Victorian. At the far end of the pool, behind the columns is a piece of the brick Roman archs that supported a roof over this pool. In roman times the water was clear because the roof blocked out the sun and then the algae couldn't grow. Again, this is the water level from the Romans, the Victorians raised it.

The rest of the city of Bath looks very uniform and i think most of the buildings where built at the same time inorder to accomedate all the people coming to the baths for health reasons, when doctors still prescribed such like that.

So here are some more Cardiff Pictures.
These are from the Museum of Welsh Life. aka the Best place in the World!!!

Isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen? The houses are real. They were all actually built in the period of time they look like, or older and are furnished appropriated with really furniture. And the smoke it real too, all the houses had wood burning fire places with fires in them.
well, i guess you've got to look at this one sideways, but it is a tower from St. Albans castle threw the gate of the rose garden. The rose garden is on the other side of the gate.

I went to Stratford upon Avon today. Shakeapeare's hometown. Everything, absolutely everything tries to associate itself with shakespeare, but he's not the only good international success that came out of Startford, so did the teletubbies. I guess Billy beats the teletubbies in most peoples' books. Anyway, here are pictures.

so this is suppose to be the house of Billy's birth. He's said to have been born in the room of the window on the left. They've believed this for 400 years. However, if you look at when Billy's dad bought the parts of the house, Billy was more likely to have been born in the bit on the right, in a room actually out of picture.

these are a bunch of really cute buildings, which are original and annoying people, who would not get out of my picture - because they were there first and trying to save old greyhounds, but that's neither here nor there (actually it was there). SOOOOOOOOOOO the school little Billy went to is just up the street and the building in the middle is now a pub where 3 little dramatic writers grabbed a pint before catching the train to London. Flowers brewery is a local Stratford brewery and their beer tasted soapy, but that might have been because there could have been soap in my glass. I should have asked. But the inside is completely original and that was the really exciting part. it was soooo cute.

i have a feeling that the pink wall is not neccessary original in color. And all the other wooden beams were so old and amazing.

And poor dead Billy's cursed grave. The curse is actually carved into the stone, but the lettering goes the other way, so they've reproduced it the right way around. The flowers are real.

Cardiff

Cardiff was absolutely amazing. I didn't actually spend all that much time in Cardiff central, but everything I was in and around Cardiff was amazing. The castles are better than Disney land, and I really mean it, because they have all the elements of fantasy, but they're real.
The red Dragon is the symbol of Wales. This is a red dragon in a flower pot - new - with a roman section in the CArdiff Castle in the background.

Tis is the keep of the Castly with the Welsh flag flying above it.
THis is the tower that has been decorated in the 18oo's. The entire interior of the living areas of the castle also are decorated with massive carvings and painting, even more so than the tower, but i couldn't take pictures on the inside.

THis is from the inside of Castell Coch - the Red Castle. It was decorated on the inside by the same person who did Cardiff Castle, but here you can take picture. This was above a fireplace in one of the rooms and it is a carving of the 3 fates from Greek mythology. The one of the left is spinning the thread, the one in the center is measuring it and the one of the right is cutting it. Beneath the women are little depictions of the 3 ages of men.
This is a detail from the fireplace of the Lady of the House's bedroom. Its Psyche, cupid's wife - notice the butterfly wings - holding the family shield.

CAERPHILLY CASTLE

prounced ka-phily
The castle is huge. It was built as a strong hold to keep out invaders. Not only did they build giant walls and a moat they built 2 lakes around the castle, because what's better at keeping out invaders than a moat? A LAKE.

This is the outer gates from the bottom of the hill.

There are a lot more pictures and i'll have to put them up in the next post.