The Roman Baths

     On Sunday we traveled from our first hostel at St. Briavel's Castle to London, with two important stops on the way.  The first was in the beautiful town of Bath, England.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to explore the lovely 18th and 19th century Georgian era town.  However, we did have an in-depth tour of the Roman baths (not too deep, we didn't get to dive in!)

    Today's post features a journal entry by SLOCA High School student, Caleb C. who related the visit to his studies of the Roman baths in Mrs. Weinschenk's Latin classes.

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June 28
Aquae Sulis

(The Roman Baths)

  In the morning we (Meg, Shelby & I) got up early to see if the old church across the street was open.  It wasn't, so we went on a walk around St. Briavels. It was very quiet and calm, and it was drizzling slightly.  We headed back for breakfast, and then loaded up on the bus to leave St. Briavels. We headed on to Bath.
     We pulled into Bath with its tall beige stone buildings. (They all use a special type of limestone from the area with iron in it. It's beautiful.  The baths are next to Bath Abbey - amazing building, but I think the small church in St. Briavels is still my favorite.
     Now to the actual baths- they were SO AMAZING. There were so many connections to what I've learned in Latin class. The tour guide took us through the museum and then the baths themselves. There was a 19th century building on top of the baths. The highlights for me were the temple pediments with the Gorgons head (which I drew a picture of awhile ago in Latin class while studying Aquae Sulis) the head of Sulis Minerva (the goddess worshipped at the sacred spring and baths) and the dedication stone put up by Lucius Marcius Memor (a Roman figure who comes up in Latin stories we translate from the Cambridge Latin books.) Here's kind of what it looked like (see drawing below.)
     Of course Stonehenge was awesome too, but because I had more cultural and historical context for the baths at Aquae Sulis/Bath, I enjoyed visiting them more.