Bath time

The houses of Bath winding up the hillsides.
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Now this is a charming city, reminiscent of a New England college town.  After parking at one of the pay-lots, we decided to tour on foot.  There was a handy map dispenser nearby, so I dropped in a clunky 1-pound coin for a full-color map and we were on our way.  Of course, even with a map, it can take a bit of time to get oriented in a strange town.  What surprised us was the willingness of the locals to volunteer to help us on our way every time we opened the map!  There was this level of friendliness to strangers that lent itself well to the overall feel of the city.  Bath is built into a huge bowl of land with streets winding up steep hills and houses seemingly stuck right into the hillside.  After hiking about like this for a while, we decided to give our feet a rest and take a bus tour, sitting on the top deck of a double-decker.  The driver was expert at maneuvering through the narrow, winding streets - no small feat for such a large vehicle.  The bus ended at the Roman Baths, for which the city is famous.  The baths were a miracle of ancient engineering, and the accompanying audio tour provided a good insight into the technology from all those centuries ago.  You can still see the lead pipes that fed the baths in the 1st century A.D.

A tour boat sails down the river Avon [as seen from the top of a double-decker].
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You can still see the lead pipes that fed the baths 2000 years ago.