day 302 | july 15, 2009 | Roman baths and Jane Austen

this beautiful place developed into a city more than 2,000 years ago solely because of the hot springs and the roman spa built around it. named by the romans "aquae solis," it was considered as a place of worship and healing, dedicated to the goddess minerva. in the georgian era (during the days of jane austen), this was a place to be seen, Britain's most fashionable health resort.


it's amazing how much history a bath house can hold. beyond the rich history though, "northanger abbey" made me more curious about bath than any wikipedia entry. i wanted to see the place, and compare against my personal impressions from the novel. of course, once there, wide-eyed-me forgot to check if there is a jane austen house in bath (which there is), and just went about our merry way walking about, hitting up the historical tour of the spa, and drinking a glass of the "medicinal" waters.

in homage to austen, i managed to pick up a classic copy of "pride and prejudice" in one of the bookshops, as well as kazuo ishiguro's "nocturnes." i found it strange that none of the 5 bookstores we sifted through had "darcy's passions" or any book that represented mr. darcy's perspective in the story "pride and prejudice." granted, it's written by an american, but i thought it would complete the tribute to austen. the same story, in his and her eyes.





3 comments:

Nicholas Leong said...

i want to visit UK too :( Need to earn more money.

Josiet said...

Love your travel photos!

libpuritan said...

nick, watch out for airasia promos too. we got our airfare really cheaply when they launched the london route.

josiet, thank you thank you.

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