Goings-on in Bath

[SongsOfDragons]

Bath is a town in England where there is the only geothermal spring in the country. The Romans built a bath and temple around it, thinking it coming from the gods and naming it Aquae Sulis. They’ve done it all up and now the actual baths is a museum.

And yes, they still get SC’s here. I saw two interesting specimens, one potentially meaning well and another simply irritating.

1: You get those little phone things to go around, where the information signs give you a number, you punch it into the machine and hold it to your ear, and a pre-recorded voice gives you some nifty intel or carries on some plot they have going for kids here.
At the end of the tour, near the gift shop, there are signs everywhere directing you to put the phones in the wall of pouches. If you don’t, and you go up the stairs to the shop, a very loud alarm will go off from both the phone and the things you find on shop exits.
I saw at least seven people do this in the time it took to go round the rather pathetic and over-priced gift shop. I’m sure I saw one who thought they were complimentary gifts, and didn’t want to let it go. Um, hello? Outside the museum there ain’t much use to them, and they’re rather babyish anyway…

2: Past the gift shop, there’s a door to the Pump Room, the posh café to end all posh cafés. Seriously, they have a string quartet providing entertainment, tablecloths, myriad cutlery, napkins, everything. If your kid misbehaves here you will get chuched out. But the main attraction here is the Spring Water Fountain, attended by a man in a nice 16th Century uniform, which comes with the job. You see this fountain earlier, it looks lovely and so does the water bubbling from it. You pay 50p and you get a glass of it to try.
Er…only then do you realise something. The water’s crystal clear, and indeed it is pure and has avoided all the Roman lead pipes (the reason the baths are unusable), but many people fail to realise this is straight from the spring. It tastes funky, it certainly smells funky, and it’s warm.
Well I wouldn’t be surprised if so many people yell at them for this. I saw loads who looked like they wanted to, but it seems part of this job description is how to deal with those who declare, loudly, that it tastes like piss. He does it marvellously, but it must be hard when people are yelling for their money back and upturning the glasses on the polished wood floor.

[Asarelah]

Bath is a town in England where there is the only geothermal spring in the country. The Romans built a bath and temple around it, thinking it coming from the gods and naming it Aquae Sulis. They’ve done it all up and now the actual baths is a museum.

That sounds interesting. I wonder if Bath, Maine is named for it...(although I would think it would've been "New Bath" instead...)

[Rapscallion]

Well, you have a Bradford, a Halifax, a Manchester, and several other town names that aren't preceded by 'new', so it's a good chance it's to do with the original.

Rapscallion

[SongsOfDragons]

Well, you have a Bradford, a Halifax, a Manchester, and several other town names that aren't preceded by 'new', so it's a good chance it's to do with the original.

Rapscallion

You even have several 'London's.

[Knightmare]

...You pay 50p and you get a glass of it to try.
Er…only then do you realise something. The water’s crystal clear, and indeed it is pure and has avoided all the Roman lead pipes (the reason the baths are unusable), but many people fail to realise this is straight from the spring. It tastes funky, it certainly smells funky, and it’s warm.
Well I wouldn’t be surprised if so many people yell at them for this. I saw loads who looked like they wanted to, but it seems part of this job description is how to deal with those who declare, loudly, that it tastes like piss. He does it marvellously, but it must be hard when people are yelling for their money back and upturning the glasses on the polished wood floor.

Over in St. Augustine (Florida, oldest city in USA) there is the Fountain of Youth, the one fabled by Ponce de Leon. Now, it's a big tourist attraction, of course, but also a historical landmark. You take the tour, look at all the old sites and sounds, see the peacocks.... anyway, under a building is the fabled fountain. Talk about a sulphur smell! Rotten egg smell. And the taste? Not horrible, but it is safe to drink. Good thing you don't have to pay for it. (You pay enough just to get inside). So far, the few times I have been there, I haven't seen anyone get sucky and spit it out or berate the people working there, but you never know.

[Cia]

Artisian well water - nastiest stuff known to mankind. If you are driving through South Dakota on I-90 and stop at the Belvidere restarea don't drink the water.

Considering Artisian's have 6 arms you would think that they would be able to produce better tasting water. On the other hand maybe it isn't water at all, hmmm.

[SongsOfDragons]

I've tried real mountain spring water - filled up my water bottle from a spring on top of Pen-Y-Fan in Wales. Absolutely gooooorgeous.

I just think it's the Roman geothermal-ness that gets to people. That and that the water's warm. It's kind of off-putting.

[protege]

I've tried real mountain spring water - filled up my water bottle from a spring on top of Pen-Y-Fan in Wales. Absolutely gooooorgeous.

Spring water is awesome. My grandmother's farm didn't have city water until recently. There were once many springs on the property. The main one was halfway up the hill across the road from the house. Because it was high enough, we never had a loss of pressure. That was, until some idiot was working on the road and snapped the line. After being without water for 2 days, Grandma had enough, and switched to city water City water sucks. It's not as cold, and tastes *totally* different because of the chemicals.

What bugs me about that fiasco, is that after the line was repaired, the water started flowing again. However, she still has city water

[Antisocial_Worker]

Whew... the spring water in Hot Springs, Arkansas is delicious (and comes out of the ground at a warmish 147 degrees Fahrenheit). The water pours down from Hot Springs Mountain, and used to run into Hot Springs Creek (pick a good name and stick with it, I suppose), which has since been entombed beneath Central Avenue. The springs are the reason there's a line of palatial bathhouses along the avenue. Some of them are preserved as museums, though two still offer spa treatments.

Hot Springs was the resort of choice for Prohibition-era Chicago mobsters, and was a wide-open, wild town pulsing with money, which is still evident from all the historic art deco buildings -- including one shortish skyscraper -- the bathhouses and hotels, the parks and gardens, the many fine homes, all the trappings. Hot Springs is absolutely lousy with statues and fountains. I suppose when you're home to the nation's first national park, people want to gather 'round.

SC's are a truly pervasive lot, however. As you walk around Hot Springs you'll notice dark green metal structures sprouting up here and there like alien mushrooms. Theyr'e everywhere -- in people's yards, in parks, in the middle of sidewalks and parking lots. There are informative signs around town that solve the mystery, however. These structures are caps built over the springs to keep people from dumping their trash into them.

[wagegoth]

When I was a teenager, we lived in the country, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. We had a spring-fed well. (The story we were told was that the spring was used by the Pony Express. I don't know if that's true, but I used to find square nails about the property). The water was wonderful, but, because the well was so shallow, it would get muddy in winter.

My parents ended up having another well dug, over a hundred feet through the granite. Now that water was incredible. I had the most beautiful, clear skin all through high school.

Then we moved to Nevada, where the water is poison, literally, the town we lived in had water with double the government limit of arsenic, among other vile chemicals. So much for my skin. It's never recovered.