Bath trip part two: Roman baths and outfit

After visiting the Marilyn Monroe exhibition, we headed into the centre of Bath, to visit the Roman baths - after all, it'd be rude not to. The city is named for it and I have no doubt that many people were worked half to death to build it. There was way more to see than is depicted in these photos, some of my favourites being the ancient curses scratched into lead sheets and thrown into the waters, asking the gods for retribution against bathing suit thieves! Built to the godess Sulis Minerva, the baths are a world heritage site and one of the finest Roman historical sites outside Italy.


The first part of the Roman baths were built over 2000 years ago on the site of a natural hot spring (the water exits the ground at 46C (115F) at a rate of 15,624 gallons (18,764 US gallons) per day), with the ground level being built in the latter part of the first century AD. In the picture above you can see the bases of the pillars of the original Roman roof, which collapsed around the fourth century AD when the spread of Christianity forced ancient Pagan places of worship to fall into disrepair.


Here is the terrace around the great bath, built by the Victorians who added to the centuries-old Roman architecture to meet demand for access to the waters by those seeking to relax or soothe their ailments.


Statues of the great Roman emperors were added between 1894-97. Here I am touching Julius Caesar's bottom, like a naughty wee scamp. The Japanese tourists did not approve.


The Gorgon's head, entrance archway to the original Roman temple whose pieces were retrieved from the bottom of the hot spring.


This is what happens when you aren't meant to go into the water but also fail to equip your curators with one of those pool-scoops for fishing out leaves, sticking plasters, floating turds etc. not that any of those things are present in the baths, but this piece of paper was giving the man great cause for concern and he stood there willing it to come nearer to him for at least fifteen minutes. I thought he might explode from the concentration.



Little ceramic dog effigy found in the baths, it looks just like my dog, Scamp! Apart from the enormous cock, that is. Actually...


Manmade waterfall inside the baths building, channeling hot water from the source pool to the rest of the baths.


Outfit post! Fruit hat by me at Kalandra Jane Designs, sweater - TK Maxx, Skirt - made by me, one of my pieces for my Autumn wardrobe project, Bag - Lux De Ville at Rockers. I was also wearing brown low-heeled T-bar shoes from Peacocks.



Finally we ate before heading home. We had planned to go to Bath's only vegetarian restaurant, Demuth's, but found ourselves turned away. They advertise an 'earlybird special' starting at 5pm, we arrived a little after that only to be told that we could not be accommodated despite there being four people in the whole place, because they were holding all the tables for a large group coming in later. Don't offer a god damn earlybird special if you can't be bothered to honour it! Also, I don't particularly think £15.90 per person for two courses is good value, in Manchester two of you could eat for that price. In the end we went to The Real Italian Pizza Co., where I had a delectable pepper, artichoke and olive cheeseless pizza and Paul devoured an enormous pancetta salad bowl.

Bath trip part one: Marilyn Monroe and the American Museum

This week we made the 400-mile round trip to Bath to see the Marilyn Monroe exhibition at The American Museum in Britain, and it was fantastic. There were amazing costumes from her films, the highlights for me being the Red sequinned gown from 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', the highly embellished pink and white show costume from 'There's No Business Like Show Business' and the risqué sheer black beaded dress she wears whilst singing on the piano in 'Some Like it Hot'.


There were also original film posters, clothing and jewellery from her private collection, and personal effects from her childhood and film career, most of which were very interesting but some of which were a little upsetting, such as her prescription pill bottles.


Photography was not allowed in the exhibition, so Paul tried to sneak a picture for me on his phone, but as you can see the focus did not work at all! Considering we took some great pictures on the day with the same camera, it's a shame this one didn't come out.


I would highly recommend a visit to this exhibition for any Marilyn fan. It runs until the 30th October, after which all the items will return to Jersey where they reside in a private collection. I loved seeing the costumes in person, examining the details of their construction and getting to see a glimpse of Marilyn's personal life.

The rest of the American Museum is well worth a look too, with exhibits on early US folk art, Native American artefacts and beautifully recreated period rooms from various eras of American history.


Native American beaded waistcoat, showing clear influence of French and British design style.



The display of traditional patchwork quilts was lovely, many of them came with stories attached such as the rather sad one above. This was my favourite quilt of all the designs, the fans were made from such luxurious fabrics - a contrast from some of the cotton designs or Amish quilts in the museum's collection.