Adults only – sampling southern England COMPLETED - Page 40 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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The areas around the river are just beautiful. I can't believe they charge now for the gardens. I always thought of that as a city park.
It is a city park in terms of it's owned by the city council, but I guess they decided to charge for access to it to make some money. I don't know the background in fairness - there may be a good reason, like they've had to have it only open at certain times because of problems at night. I'm speculating here, but that wouldn't surprise me. If they had issues like vandalism , it may be easier to charge people to go in and close it the rest of the time...
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The spa building does look a bit out of place, but I think they did a pretty good job. I like that the old buildings are reflected in the new. You have to build something new sometime and I'd rather have new and interesting than a fake Restoration-syle building just trying to fit in.
I thought they did a good job with it architecturally. They really did have a challenge on their hands, given the location....
Water, especially flowing water, can be so calming, and I can see being mesmerized by the weir. Beautiful! What an interesting history for Bath and its spa. I love learning that kind of stuff.
That river is very mesmerizing. I could stare at that little pool/waterfall for a loooong time.
Interesting history on the bath of Bath.
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Friday 9 May – part three: enjoying everything the spa has to offer!
From the reception area, you go up a few steps into the changing room. The changing rooms were very similar to the ones we encountered in the spas we visited last year in France and Switzerland, with the same sort of idea for the door release mechanism – i.e. there’s a door on both sides, you lock it while you’re inside, then you release it when you want to come out. All the lockers were on the other side of these cubicles, which was a slightly bizarre design, as if all the cubicles are in use, you can’t actually get to the lockers. Fortunately, we didn’t have that issues, but strange all the same…
Another slightly odd thing was that this level has the changing rooms, but no toilets or showers, although they are on the other floors. That’s something I’ve never come across before, and it just seemed like a weird way to do things.
Although it didn’t bother me, it’s also worth saying that the changing rooms, showers and some of the toilets are unisex. It’s not an issue, as the changing room has individual cubicles, and the showers are lockable cubicles, and there are some toilets just for women. Interestingly, there were no toilets just for men… I used both the female only and the unisex ones and I couldn’t see any difference in them…
We weren’t sure how to find our way around, as the changing rooms were massive. I later worked out why. When you were near the reception, which we were, you needed to follow the walls by the lockers all the way round to find the stairs and the elevators at the back. As it was, we just headed for the elevators by reception.
We usually work on the theory “start at the top and head down”, and it was no different here. My friend, who’d been here before, also said she’d started with the rooftop pool, and that’s what she recommended we did, so we headed up to the third floor. The elevator door opened, and the first thing I noticed was how bright it was. Almost instantaneously, the second thing I noticed was how cold it was with the wind whipping around. The third thing I noticed was how utterly packed the pool was. Ok, maybe not such a good idea right now then… We did no more than got straight back in the elevator, and headed straight down to the next floor.
The second floor is home to the aroma steam rooms (click the link for a photo from the spa website’s gallery). Essentially, there are four huge circular steam rooms, each with a different aroma. I can’t definitively tell you what they were, because while there was a guide outside the steam rooms, I couldn’t photograph it, and I can’t find it online anywhere. I know one was sandalwood, and of the other two, one smelt like citrus, and another like eucalyptus. The steam rooms weren’t overly hot, meaning I could stay in there longer than I usually manage, which was nice. From time to time, there were sound effects, although I thought some of them were a bit over the top. In the eucalyptus one, they had a thunderstorm, and my goodness, it was one violent thunderstorm!
In the middle, there’s a central “waterfall” shower, which would come to life every few minutes. It was quite entertaining to then see the rush, as people headed out of the steam rooms to go and enjoy that. There were also cold showers in one corner (and boy they were cold! ) and then warm ones in the opposite corner. These were Ok, but lacking in power, shall we say?
After we’d been in there a while, we headed all the way down to the lower ground floor, which is home to the Minerva Bath (again, click on the link for a photo). Named after the Roman Goddess of health and wisdom, this is the largest of the thermal baths in the complex. As you can see from the image, it’s lovely and airy, even though it’s on the lower ground floor. They obviously put a lot of thought into this to ensure that it had high ceilings, so that they could put windows in to let the light in.
We managed to snag a couple of chairs when we arrived, so we put our stuff on them, and then headed into the water, which was lovely and warm. The way it worked here, half the time, there’d be a current running through the water, which was much stronger on the right hand side of the pool than the left hand side. There was a little area to the right which was surrounded by a wall, where you could just go and stand and watch the world go by. Outside it was swirling water, which you could float or swim through, and the current was quite strong here. Think Stormalong Bay, if you’ve been lucky enough to go in it – there’s an area just like that in there.
Then the other half of the time, the current would stop, and instead there’d be one jet that you could swim towards, which sent water into the pool. It was very strong, and could be hard work to get near it, but I managed it a couple of times, and you could then use the water to massage your neck, although you had to have a strong constitution to do that, as the water was very powerful!
I noticed not long after I got in that literally everyone seemed to have floats. I was about the only one swimming. When I tried them later, I could understand why, as it did make it easier, as they really do help you to float, but I was determined to try and do some exercise while I was here.
We probably stayed in the water for maybe half an hour, then Mark noticed a couple literally prowling around trying to find a chair or a bed, and he spotted them heading for ours, even though our stuff was on them, so we quickly got out, and bagged them. Sure enough, they literally did prowl around, and found nothing. Mark heard them complaining to the member of staff here about the fact they couldn’t find anywhere. While part of me has sympathy with them, part of me didn’t, Just do what everyone else was doing, and bag one when you arrive, and if there isn’t one, head into the pool and enjoy yourself…
Finally, they found one lounger. I loved the way the woman took it and left her husband to stand up. Then they found two loungers near us. The thing that really made me laugh about them was the fact that he had an e-reader with him. Now, all the time we watched them, at least one person stayed out of the water, which was fair enough, but in a way, they needed to do that, as there was no secure storage anywhere, outside of the changing rooms, and I wouldn’t want to leave something like that lying around.
We sat there, and both read for maybe half an hour or so. We also people watched and saw “Putin”, as Mark christened him. He looked like Putin, and spoke what sounded like Russian, and my goodness, he really fancied himself! He had the tightest set of shorts on ever. Seriously, I don’t think we saw any other man wearing anything like that, and if you do decide to wear something like that, you obviously want people to notice you.
Eventually, I figured we’d better go and get some lunch, as that was included in our spa day. We headed up to the first floor, where the Springs Café Restaurant (click on the link for a photo) is. Here, you’re escorted to your table, and then order from the menu. As we were on the package, we could have two items, either an appetiser and an entrée or an entrée and a dessert. We both opted for the latter.
I went for the leek and feta tart, which is accompanied by a grape and walnut salad with a sherry vinaigrette, and it was a lovely dish. Mark had the chicken and chorizo, served with beetroot and tomato lentils. Apparently someone didn’t read the menu fully, and was pretty appalled when lentils turned up as part of the dish. Despite that, he still seemed to enjoy it…
For dessert, I went for the chocolate cheesecake with an orange compote, and this was beautifully decadent. I loved every mouthful. Mark had the cherry crème brulee with homemade almond shortbread, and amazingly, this also turned up just like the crème brulee he’d had a couple of nights ago at Littlecote House. Maybe this is the new way to serve it?
Once we were done with eating, we headed back up to the open—air rooftop pool (click on the link for a photo). This time it was a lot quieter, although my goodness, the wind was really whipping up here. It was quite a shock to the system! We quickly stowed our stuff, took our dressing gowns off, and got into the pool as quickly as we could. The temperature was lovely and warm in the water, although you did not want to stick your arms out, as they quickly got cold – trust me, I speak from bitter experience here!
Once again, these are naturally warm, mineral-rich waters, but unlike the Minerva Bath, it had some really fun additions that I’d personally have liked to have seen down there too, like air seats and bubbling jets, reminiscent of what we found at the spa at Bad Ragaz. Now this is more like it!
After a while, I decided I was going to brave the cold air, and head down to the steam rooms. I told Mark, and he said he’d be down in a few minutes’ time. Well, I managed time in all the four steam rooms, time under the warm showers, and a bit of time sitting down, and still no sign of him. I headed back upstairs, and there he was, where I’d left him, enjoying the rooftop pool. He spotted me and came out, and it was lovely to see his reaction as the cold weather hit him!
Fortunately for him, the elevator arrived, and we headed all the way back down to the lower ground floor, and the Minerva bath. We spent a bit of time in the water, but the time was ticking away until we needed to be ready for our spa treatments.
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Sounded like the place was busy. What a view from the rooftop pool! Very glad you were able to get up there eventually and enjoy it. Despite the cool exit.
Lunch sounded delicious - even without photos. I can very much picture it all in my head!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
It was pretty busy. I dread to think what it's like at a weekend...
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What a view from the rooftop pool! Very glad you were able to get up there eventually and enjoy it. Despite the cool exit.
Lunch sounded delicious - even without photos. I can very much picture it all in my head!
I'm so glad you said that - it was quite a challenge describing everything without photos for once...
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What an interesting history for Bath and its spa. I love learning that kind of stuff. 
Fortunately, we didn’t have that issues, but strange all the same… 
I used both the female only and the unisex ones and I couldn’t see any difference in them… 
) and then warm ones in the opposite corner. These were Ok, but lacking in power, shall we say? 
Seriously, I don’t think we saw any other man wearing anything like that, and if you do decide to wear something like that, you obviously want people to notice you. 
Mark had the cherry crème brulee with homemade almond shortbread, and amazingly, this also turned up just like the crème brulee he’d had a couple of nights ago at Littlecote House. Maybe this is the new way to serve it? 
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