This morning we started the day off with a visit to the spa again to sit in the sauna and float in the thermal baths.  Boy was it much busier this morning compared to yesterday afternoon and it wasn’t even the open time for the rest of the hotel. I’d hate to think what 10-12 and 5-7 look like.  It wasn’t too bad with the exception that it looked like people just didn’t give to craps and were leaving their towels and robes everywhere, oh and the crushed ice was all taken and the cute lion couldn’t keep up with producing.  Lastly, no hot chocolate this morning, I guess that is just an afternoon delight.

With a planned walking tour at 10:30 am, we got ready and headed down to the lobby to inqire about the starting point to find out what we thought was a tour arranged through our hotel to be a free public walking tour.  We joined around 80 others right outside the Roman Baths and were split into two groups, ours would head off with Jeff.  Jeff and friends are retired Bathonians who lead these public tours daily, which are free and insists on no tips.  

We made our way through the streets of old and new Bath learning all about it’s history and historical figures.  Nick did not always agree with Jeff’s comments about the architecture, but nonetheless it was a well spent two hours learning new things.  We visits Georgian Gardens, the Circus, learned how they used to heat the homes and how they do now.  We also learned about Sedan chairs, which used to be a way of transportation for the women, where two men would carry them around.  

After two hours, our tour concluded back by the Bath Abbey.  Last night the bellhop had recommended a Turkish restaurant, which we happened to walk by on our tour, we headed back there for a bite to eat and warm up.  Nick has commented almost every day how it seems to get chillier as the day goes on, and he is not wrong about that observation.  

We shared a chef’s appetizer for two, it was a plate full of both and cold options, pita bread, and olives and we shared a bowl of red lentil soup.  All was very good.  Nick had a cup of Turkish coffee before we headed back to the abbey for a tour.  

We spent time enjoying the stained glass windows and the Gothic architecture. They even had a nice display downstairs that gave a great historical tour of the church.  

Coming out of the abbey it has started to spit rain.  There were limited tickets left for the next entry of the Romans Baths, right around the corner from our hotel we decided to head back to warm up and rest our feet.  We went ahead and booked the last entry to the Roman Baths at 4:45 pm, hoping that the crowds might be less then.  

Of course in true Megan fashion, I couldn’t just sit in the room and wait for 4:45 to roll around, we made our way back down to the spa where we enjoyed a little circuit but I was sad to see that the infrared sauna was out, so I enjoyed more hot chocolate, the lavender cold towels and floated in the main pool. Nick returned to the room and I lounged on the relaxation terrace which was not relaxing at all with the staff filling the water dispensers with ice and the newbies testing out all the spas water features.

We arrived to the Roman Baths at exactly 4:45 pm to find zero line, we walked right in, grabbed our audio guide devices and took our good ole time making our way through the various areas. It was so refreshing to not have tons of people in our way and even got some photos with no one else in them. I had remembered being enamored by the baths when I visits many years ago, but did not remember how large they were, the audio tour was quite nice.