After seeing our first snowfall at Bristol, we took the scenic "A" road to go thirteen miles South East towards Bath, our first destination as a tourist in this land of Great Britain. Bath has always had interesting connotations for me. We in India are always obsessed with bathing. In 26th century BCE which is about 5000 years ago, Mohenjo Daro, the biggest city of the Indus Valley Civilisation, had a huge granary and a few other massive buildings and structures, and there was a large and elaborate public bath, which is now classified as the ruins of "The Great Bath". Those many years ago too, bathing was an important part of life. The gigantic size of the public bath may have had some special significance attached to it. This great bath measured 11.88 meters x 7.01 meters and had a maximum depth of 2.43 meters.
All good things for us Indians start with a purificatory bath, in fact our day starts with a bath. Could that be a reason for our choosing Bath as our first destination? Actually no, that was not the reason why we chose Bath. Bath was the nearest tourist destination, had historical importance and was also known to be a beautiful place.
So
off we sped on the A 4 highway towards Bath. I must tell you
that while Motorways are known for the speed at which one can travel, "A"
roads are well known for their scenic beauty. They also represent the traditionally important radial routes coming out of London. A4 is from London to Avonmouth, it is also known as the Great West Road or Bath Road.
Bath
is in the Avon Valley near the southern edge of the Cotswold. It has a
range of limestone hills and has been designated as an "Area of outstanding natural beauty".
The limestone hills surround and make up the city of Bath,
which is not very spread out. We
therefore planned to park our car in a parking lot and then walk
around the town and visit all the places of tourist interest.
We
soon reached Bath and started looking for a place to park, where the
car would be safe and the parking would not cost us too much. We
found a good spot, parked the car and Triloki went towards the
parking meter to put in some coins that would take care of the
parking charges for the day.
No
sooner had we walked a few feet away from the car, we heard some sort
of a strange siren blaring. We, who had not so long ago heard
air raid sirens during the Indo- Pak war in 1971, started wondering
what all the noise was about. Could there be an air attack? We were well trained to run for shelter in case of an air attack, so we
started looking for air raid shelters. Then suddenly one of us noticed that
there was a traffic light which was making all that commotion. The
noise was being made to draw our attention to the fact that our car
was parked covering a bit of the zebra crossing.
Aha!
I was reminded of the saying, "An Englishman's home is his
castle".
In
1763, William Pitt the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had defined the dictum as:-
"
The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of
the crown.
It
may be frail,
its roof may shake,
the wind may blow through it,
the storm may enter,
the rain may enter,
but the King of England cannot enter."
its roof may shake,
the wind may blow through it,
the storm may enter,
the rain may enter,
but the King of England cannot enter."
So
this was the land where the right of a person on his land was his
alone. A pedestrian also is given importance and has the right of way to
walk on the pedestrian crossing. In such a land, we had
trespassed over the space meant for the pedestrians walk! This
was sacrilege!
Quickly we went up to the car and parked it properly within the space marked out for parking the car. That was lesson number one that we learnt. We cannot intrude upon the space of another.
Quickly we went up to the car and parked it properly within the space marked out for parking the car. That was lesson number one that we learnt. We cannot intrude upon the space of another.
We
now marched towards the famous bath which was built by the Romans in
60 AD. This city became a spa, as there were natural hot water springs here which
had curative properties. Over time this City developed, an Abbey was
founded here in the 7th Century, in the 17th century during the
Georgian era, the Royal Crescent, Circus, Pump Room and Assembly Rooms
were built. Coming to Bath became very popular and the nobility of England spent
a lot of time taking the waters of the spa.
THE ROYAL CRESCENT |
The Royal Crescent, which was built between 1767 and 1774 is a very spectacular terrace. While the curved facade of thirty houses looks very uniform from the front, in reality the owner of every house built the rest of the house behind the facade as per his own specification.
Therefore, while from the front it looks uniform, from
the back the houses are very different with different roof heights
and juxtapositions.
Rain water in Bath and its surrounding area percolates through limestone aquifers to a depth of between 9,000 to 14,000 ft (2,743 to 4,267 m) where geothermal energy raises its temperature to between 64 and 96 °C. Under pressure, the heated water rises to the surface along fissures and faults in the limestone. Bath is the city built over the fissure where this heated water rises.
These
hot water springs are supposed to have therapeutic value and cure
illnesses. I was reminded of our own sulphur springs in India where a
lot of people go for curing themselves of aches and pains and joint problems. The
amenities that are available in our hot springs at Sohna and
elsewhere are really pathetic. What we saw in Bath was majestic and
beautiful. No one from our group was interested in getting a cure for anything as at that young age
aches and pains were mere words and were non existent for our own persona.
We
saw the spa, visited the Pump Room, Assembly Rooms, walked along the lovely open vista, peeped into the
elegant cafe and then reached the quintessential shop for
memorabilia. I have always liked this very subtle reminder at the end
of a visit to a tourist spot which says "you may like to buy a little
knick knack as a reminder of your visit". No one actually says these words, it's
not even written anywhere, yet the presence of a curio shop at the
end of a visit gives this message loud and clear. There is no escaping from this message as everyone has to walk through this curio shop to exit
from the building. I, who can never resist temptation, paid heed to the message and bought a set of coasters with the pictures of all
the beautiful spots of Bath. Yes, you are right,I still have those
coasters preserved. I used them sparingly in all these forty two years and preserved them,
so that I could tell you this story with pictures attached.
Before
leaving the spa we had to visit the cafe and have a typical English tea. A
tea is incomplete without scones, well, that is what Jane Austen said,
so we had scones with fresh cottage cream and Earl Grey tea in lovely porcelain cups with the design of the very typical English red rose on them. It's surely not the tea that I remember, what I still recall is the experience of having tea with scones in the late afternoon of a beautiful summer's day in England. Incidentally, Jane Austen lived in Bath for a fairly long time but did not really like the place.
After partaking of the tea and feeling
very delighted with ourselves, we went back to our car, the one which
we had surreptitiously taken away from the garage, and made our way
back to Cheltenham and our humdrum everyday existence.
In my next story my dear friend, I shall go back to the problem of the Driving License and share with you what happened on our journey to Stratford upon Avon. It is indeed an interesting episode and will surely keep you entertained and engrossed.
So that's it for now.
Sayonara, So long, Farewell, See you soon, Namaste, Alvida, Shabba Khair.
Sayonara, So long, Farewell, See you soon, Namaste, Alvida, Shabba Khair.
9 comments:
Sudeshna Chakraborti said in Facebook," It is. Carry on".
Man Singh said," Rich content and beautifully worded."
Gulshan Dhingra said," Loved the detailed description ! It is indeed an interesting description which keeps the reader quite engrossed. anxiously awaiting for the next episode !"
Bidisha Som "Loved it....."
Fascinating and beautiful depiction. Next chapter please
Sangeeta Azam said,"Beautifully narrated...I really like your style of ending the script...sayonara to Shabba khair."
Thank you mam for a wounderful description of the countryside of United Kindom. I have the oppertunity to visit London but due to time constrain I could not visit countryside. John Keats poem develop love for countryside
. Your writting also further increase my love for countryside. I loves your writting very much.
Ira Tandon said,"Hi ...really enjoyed reading your blog....we are just back from a holiday in UK...drove around the Cotswold and our trip ended in Bath as well....could relate ....the view ...the meadows are just the same and we also couldn't help saying ...just like a picture postcard"
Jaya Shree said in Facebook,"Your travel narrative was absolutely brilliant. Its really amazing that you have been able to travel down memory lane , and remember every detail of your visit , its almost as if you had kept chronicles of your travels! Needless to say ,it gave me endless pleasure, as I went through once again through your words, the experiences I have had, the beautiful moments I shared with my dear husband , during the early and exciting years of our marriage. We had the opportunity to visit Bath during the spring of 1972. Beautiful time. Birds chirping , the delightful experience of crocuses budding and generally the whole atmosphere waking up to the call of nature. Your description is quite vivid and so it was very easy for me to remember every detail of our visit, the memories of which I thought had become quite latent and frayed. Thanks to you dearest Varsha, reading your very descriptive article had a dual purpose . One , because for the reason that I was able to share this experience with you, which I thought was so excellently written that I neednt have even visted the place!!! Secondly our visit to Bath was very special to us, and you helped me to relive those very happy moments again. Thank you dear.
I also liked the way you have added a few very important and relevant references which I think is brilliant. Your article is brilliantly and thoughtfully written . Very knowledgeable too! Well done Varsha, very proud of you. Thank you for making it possible for me share this article with you."
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