Roman Baths

The Beauty of Traveling and the Roman Baths

By: Danielle Wenger

Abroad in England for only ten days? What all should you see? The trip of a lifetime in just ten short days was amazing and something I’ll never forget, we were able to witness so much. Some of my favorites included: The Tower of London, Big Ben (or really the Tower of Elizabeth), Buckingham Palace, Stonehenge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and the Roman Baths.

It’s so hard to put into words what it was like to experience all the tourist sites and landscapes England is known for. With all the gorgeous sites that we were able to visit in England, I really enjoyed seeing the Roman Baths. This site really stuck out to me for some reason. Whether it was the great architecture that was created so long ago, the fact that most of the building was still standing, or the history behind it, it was truly beautiful to see.

Before visiting the city of bath I had only heard about the roman baths once or twice. I imagined it as something that might look like the Trevi fountain in Rome, who knows why, maybe because I’ve seen that fountain in so many movies and just automatically thought of it when first thinking about it. Anyway, the Roman Baths was unlike something I’ve ever seen before. The way the Romans were able to construct a building in which the hot water was spread to different bathing rooms and different parts of the building to heat the floor was crazy to think about.

As beautiful as the baths were it was interesting to learn about the culture and lives the Romans may have lived by. I do suggest reading about the history of the Roman Baths before visiting but the way the museum is set up you are able to learn by walking around and the audio tours. The museum also usually has an actor playing a role as a Roman. Our group that went was lucky enough to learn a little more about a slave’s daily routine for her mistress, including how she was to do her hair, her makeup and clothing.

Overall, the thing I love most about this trip and traveling in general is learning about other’s culture and daily activities. Having the opportunity to visit some of the well-known locations and streets of England made it easy to understand some of the differences between the two cultures. British culture isn’t too different from our culture but there are some differences I noticed to name a few: the importance of time, their means of transportation, and their investment in their history and architecture. The Roman Baths is a great example of how the city of Bath decided to preserve the architecture of the building and tell the story of the Romans history. They are still to this day trying to find even more artifacts to piece together the Romans lives.