Rub a Dub Dub (PART 2)...

Sorry for the craziness with this tour of Bath. Blogspot has been especially temperamental as I've tried uploading pictures. So, to pick up where we left off:

The English society folk in Bath were all about keeping up with the Joneses, but they still tried to pinch pennies. It was all about appearing wealthier than you actually were so that you could marry a person from the next wrung up the ladder. (Seems to me that inevitably one person would always get the short end of that stick. You can't both marry someone richer.) So, to save money, they would fill in some of the uneccessary windows in their homes. The first 6 were free, but there was a tax on each one after that; hence, you will see buildings like this one.

Annoyed by the ridiculous pretenses of high society, Jane Austen wrote her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion during the years she lived in Bath. On the second floor of this building, where that lit streetlamp is, was her residence. There is a hokey Jane Austen museum complete with costumed tour guides. I did not get any pictures of it. Sorry.

There are two famous architectural elements in Bath. The first is The Circus, which was erected before the US was even a country. It is basically a circular neighborhood, and if you live here, you have really made it. Some famous people who have called this home: Thomas Gainsborough, renowned English landscape painter; General Robert Clive, the man who claimed India as a British colony; and, I can't remember his name, but the missionary who 'discovered' Rhodesia, which later became Zimbabwe.

These trees in the center of The Circus were huge and really beautiful. You can kind of tell how big they are by the vague outline of people on the far left side.

The Circus was built with the same height/width proportions as Stonehenge and was inspired by the Colosseum in Rome. It is very classical. We passed by an open window on the ground floor and saw a kid sitting in the most ornate kitchen in the world. I think the ceiling was gold-leafed. It was ridiculous.

The second well-known architectural element is the Royal Crescent. It is a Grade 1 Listed building, meaning that it receives the highest protection possible from the British government. You cannot add or remove anything without permission. If you do, you have to pay to have it redone in exact historical specifications. On the off chance that someone is willing to sell their portion of the Crescent, be prepared to shell out about 5 million euros per address. Or, you could stay for one night in the hotel located in the center-most portion of the buildings for a measly $480. Maybe we will go back and splurge. Yeah right.

A friendly Venezuelan couple took this one for us.

The park across from the Crescent and the awesome view overlooking the city are also protected by the government. I thought this lamp and bench in the park were particularly Chronicles of Narnia-ish.

As you can see, the Royal Crescent is a very large semi-circle, inhabited only by those driving luxury motor carriages.

These pretty vines were all over someone's front doorstep. I liked them. Not quite flowers, but I'll take it.

And here are two random things we learned from tour guide Matt that I could not find a proper segue for among the other pictures: 
1. The Brits pay for an annual television license because there are no commercials on British tv. Apparently they are happy with the quality of their programming and gladly pay to avoid having to watch bazillions of "adverts."
2. During WWII, Germany and Britain had a gentleman's agreement that they would not bomb the historical cities in each other's countries. Well, I guess Britain broke that, and Hitler retaliated by bombing Bath, York, and a bunch of other places. However, he did not bomb Cambridge, which was clearly listed as a historical city. Rumor has it that Hitler used the eagle from St. John's College as the design for the eagle of the S.S. police badges. Supposedly Hitler was planning on using Cambridge as his capitol city once he took over the UK, so he wanted it preserved. Of course, there is no historical evidence to back up this theory, but the question remains unanswered...why was Cambridge spared?

Nazi Secret Police eagle

St. John's College eagle...they are similar....

Well, that finally concludes the tour of Bath. You could probably have flown over here and taken the tour yourself in the time it took for me to complete this dang post. Stupid blogspot. Whatever. I hope you liked it! In happy news, Christmas is only 52 days away!!! Jolly good.