Bath, England (2 July) -- and just wait 'til you hear about cuffed pants

I don’t know why, but I can write forever. Somehow this blog about an average day of sightseeing has gotten very long. If you’re not interested in reading the whole thing, at least read the last paragraph—it will give you a reason to laugh, I hope.

Today I went for a run along the River Avon and then got ready to go to Bath.

We started our day in Bath with a two-hour walking city tour. Two hours is a long time, but it went quickly because our guide was awesome. We learned about when the Romans were in Bath and then about the 1700s in Bath. 

Look what I found on our city tour! Precious.

The only hot water spring in Britain is found in Bath. It was said to heal people. It was warm and contained about 42 different minerals. Of course the water would do some good for people in the 1700s because they didn’t usually bathe anyway, they wore and ate things with lead and arsenic in them, and they never drank water because the rivers were so filthy. So a mineral bath and mineral water definitely did them some good. Oh, and you can pay 50 pence (about 80 cents) to drink a glass of it, so Lori and I split one. It was really warm and minerally and it left an odd aftertaste, but it wasn’t as terrible as some people had said (perhaps because I like drinking warm water anyway). And the bonus is that now I’ll be cured from all my ailments. A good deal for 50 pence.

The magical healing waters of Bath. Cheers!

Bath was a party town—a social place to spend holidays. The city buildings are made out of beautiful honey-colored limestone and are reflective of ancient Roman architecture (and I love Roman architecture!). We learned about the gambler Richard Beau Nash who is credited for inventing the polite society; he was respected and came up with rules of dress and interaction as well as curfews, etc., that we still feed off of today.

We also learned about ladies hair in the pre-French Revolution period. The women would add extensions on to their hair and do it up with different designs. It was called a coiffeur (I hope it is spelled right) and the most fashionable ladies would wear them up to four and a half feet high. They’d keep it in for a long time. At night they’d wrap it in wire or mesh to keep out the bugs and the mice, but it didn’t work completely. So when they’d finally take their hair down, out would come the bugs and mice. They’d use the mice fur to make fake eyebrows. Mmmmmm. All of this info made me grateful for my life today. After the French Revolution, these signs of status were no longer very sought after—another reason why that time period fascinates me.

Anyway, I learned a ton on that tour. For the rest of the time Lori and I walked around the city, visited a Quaker meetinghouse, ate our lunches, walked down the river, visited a few little shops, and retraced some of our steps from the tour. It was relaxing. Then the bus took us back to our hostel in Bristol.

I pretty much worked on homework for the night. I still need to finish my book for the History of the English Language class and prepare a presentation on it. I was actually able to find a place where I could be kind of alone and focus on reading (definitely a challenge on a trip like this). I enjoyed it.

I’d like to mention a funny language experience I had today. It was a pretty warm, sunny day and we were getting hot on the tour. Lori rolled up her pant legs and asked me if it looked stupid. I said it was cool and told her that I remembered hearing a friend once use the following sentence to describe a guy she thought was stylish: “He cuffed his pants before cuffing pants was cool.” Our tour guide, Cheryl, turned around aghast and said, “He WHAT?” And I repeated it and Lori showed her the cuffed pants. Afterward, I whispered to Lori, “Does ‘cuffing’ mean something bad in British English?” “I have no idea,” she responded. It wasn’t until about 30 minutes later that we realized why the situation was funny: in British English, “pants” means underwear! If they were to talk about what we call pants, they’d say “trousers.” Ha ha ha. So it sounded like I said, “He cuffed his underwear before cuffing underwear was cool.” I don’t really know what cuffed underwear would be like, but I hope that’s NEVER cool.