The Roman Town of Bath

After seeing what the prehistorics did with their bare hands in Stonehenge, we also went to see what the Romans did when they had their chance to have a go at things in the nearby Roman town of Bath.

The Romans had better building techniques and modern tools for stone cutting. They also took advantage of two important inventions: They understood the weight-bearing ability of arches (probably a “discovery” more than an “invention”). And they developed a modern concrete mixture of cement, lime, sand, volcanic ash, and finely crushed rock or brick.

Like today’s concrete, Roman concrete hardens even under water, which is important when you need to build pools, drains, bridges, dams, and aqueducts. The Romans used all these features during their occupation of England to build the famous baths at the naturally-occurring hot spring in today’s English city of Bath.

The location of Bath was originally a Celtic town before Romans wandered in. But the Romans made it famous for the alleged medicinal power of the waters. They used the water from the hot springs to fill the bath house. And nearby, they build a Temple to the Roman goddess Minerva (Sulis Minerva).
Similar to today, the combination of bath house and Minerva temple attracted tourists and religious pilgrims from around the Empire, which in turn brought wealth and prosperity to the town.

Various authorities have called Minerva the goddess of intelligence, creativity, poetry, and wisdom. Some claim she was the goddess of domestic skills, handicrafts, and commerce. Others claim she was was the goddess of warriors or medicine. At least one myth says she was the inventor of music.

Like most Roman gods, Minerva was copied from the Greeks, where she was known as the Greek goddess Athena. And the copying didn’t stop with the Romans. My kindred Californians copied her again when they designed the Great Seal of the State of California.

Adopted in 1849, the Great Seal was designed by Major Robert Selden Garnett of the United States Army, and it was introduced to the new state at California's constitutional convention, where it was described as follows:

"The foreground figure represents the Goddess Minerva having sprung full grown from the brain of Jupiter. She is introduced as a type of the political birth of the State of California without having gone through the probation of a Territory. At her feet crouches a grizzly bear feeding upon clusters from a grape vine emblematic of the peculiar characteristics of the country. A miner is engaged in a rocker and bowl at his side, illustrating the golden wealth of the Sacramento upon whose waters are seen shipping typical of commercial greatness and the Snow-clad peaks of the Sierra Nevada make up the background while above is the Greek motto 'Eureka' (I have found it) applying either to the principle involved in the admission of the State, or the success of the miner at work."

Global political and religious connections are everywhere. It makes us Californians feel welcome among the Roman ruins.

But it also illustrates how our own country was once much more religiously tolerant than we are today. I can imagine the extreme religious right getting all incensed today if the legislature proposed symbolizing our state as a female pagan goddess sprung from the brain of another pagan god. 

The Romans and their gods were eventually forced out of England in the 5th century. Not by the religious right, but buy the Saxons. The Saxons were subsequently forced out by the Normans, who abandoned the city of Bath after trashing the place. The hot springs of Bath were forgotten until rediscovered in 18th century and restored in the Victorian period.

Today Bath is a modern English city. There is a museum on the site of the original Roman Baths and the temple to Minerva still stands. At some point, the British recovered the original head of the "Sulis-Minerva" statue and returned it to the site.

Adding to the religious diversity, the Christian Bath Abbey sits across the street from the original Roman pagan temple.

But even the Christians never agreed among themselves who’s religion was best. The first church was built by the Anglo-Saxons in AD 757. When the Norman’s forced them out, they tore down the Saxon Abby and replaced it with a massive Norman cathedral. Unfortunately, the cathedral was so big that the monastery could not afford to maintain it, so it fell into disrepair and ruin like the original roman temple. The current Abbey church was built in 1611.

Today, same as then, the temples and baths continue to attract tourists from around the world, bringing wealth and prosperity to the town.

Taste Test Challenge

English food has a terrible reputation worldwide. Why? Well I can give you at least one example. The last time we were in England, we had a breakfast in our hotel. It consisted of eggs and sausages boiled in grease. Yes. Not fried. Boiled. The grease wasn't hot enough to fry, just sort of a warm simmering pan of week-old oil. Boiled long enough to absorb the greasy flavor of everything else they cooked in the same oil that week, but not hot or long enough to actually fry the egg or fully cook the sausages. If you accidentally cooked this at home, you would throw away and start over.

But to be fair, that was hotel food. And it was a very cheap hotel at that.

Is the rest of English food all that bad?

One way to find out is to do a taste test. Based on my previous experience, I didn't want to set the bar to high. So I had to find some type of food to give England a sporting chance.

So my taste test challenge is English Food vs. Airplane Food. It seemed like an obvious match-up of historically bad cuisine. And I didn't have access to other obvious contenders: hospital food or high school cafeteria food.

But it is not fair to represent all of England by one cheap hotel breakfast. So to find a better ambassador for the Empire, I went to a traditional pub in the afternoon and ordered one of the specials off their hand-written chalkboard menu.

Please meet today's contestants:

English Food	Airplane Food
click to enlarge	click to enlarge
The Defending Champ: On the left, representing England, a traditional pub meal from an inn in Wiltshire county.	The Challenger: On the right, representing the air travel industry, from Singapore Airlines Flight SQ-318
Weighing In With: Grilled sausages, potatoes, carrots, peas, gravy on everything, a basked of pre-buttered sliced bread, apple pie (not shown), and a pint of cold beer.	Weighing In With: Grilled beef, potatoes, carrots, crackers, cheese, one bread roll, shrimp salad with packet of thousand-island dressing on the side, and a tiny plastic cup of water.
Scoring: Visual Appeal: 8 Ambiance: 8 Taste: 9 Beer: Yes	Scoring: Visual Appeal: 3 Ambiance: 1 Taste: 5 Beer: No

The winner by unanimous decision: English Pub Food. No contest really. A meal with only a tiny plastic cup of water will never compare to anything with a pint of beer. There is nothing better than a generous country farm meal served with beer in a traditional English pub.

In fact, everything we ate in England was good, and with generous western-sized portions and friendly, but never overly persistent waiters.

As much as I've enjoyed all the variety of Asian food back in Singapore, noodles and rice can get old now and then. It is fabulous to get back to the west where you can enjoy a hearty meat-and-potatoes supper. Congratulations England!

Stonehenge

Our trip to England got a bit further out when we visited Stonehenge.

This is one of those nearly mythical places that you hear about all your life. But I never expected to ever see it in person.

You have to drive several hours from London to see Stonehenge, or take a bus as we did, to the English county of Wiltshire. But to visit such an enduring icon, the journey is well worth it.

There is no end to the speculation about who built it, why they built it, or how they built it.

Stonehenge has been credited, at one time or another, to the Phoenicians, Celts, Romans, Sumerians, Druids, extraterrestrials, wizards, and all sorts of other paranormal beings. It has been called a solar calendar, a Buddhist shrine, a temple of animal worshipers, or altar where defeated soldiers were sacrificed for blood offerings to heathen gods.

Archeologists continue to argue over which race or culture is responsible for building it, and how old it is.

Not to diminish its mystery, but I don't see the need to create any big cultural or spiritual explanation for why someone would want to build a big circle of stones.

Guys do this stuff all the time. Just hanging out, having reached some tacit group understanding to dig a big hole and half-bury some rocks in it.

Add beer (invented long before Stonehenge) and repeat. And Stonehenge is not the only evidence of group drinking spots in England. There are over 900 stone rings in the British Isles, and scholars say that twice as many may have existed before modern men started knocking them down. Also frequently the result of beer drinking.

I'm guessing building it was a lot more work in the old days. But ancient civilizations built a lot bigger things using only manual labor. It doesn't seem much different than any gathering of able bodied men with access to simple tools, alcohol, and a lot of free time. Well, at least until the "clever" one decides to go all artistic and line up a few rocks with the sunrise and sunset.

Whatever the reason they decided to build it all those thousands of years ago, they certainly captured the imagination of many generations.

And rightfully so. It is a very impressive monument. And it gets even more impressive the closer you approach.

You used to be able to walk right up and touch it, and climb on the rocks. Not anymore. But keeping people out of it makes it a more powerful experience to see up close. It doesn't need any ancient magical powers to be a place of wonder. There is no question that Stonehenge is (and was) a site of great awe and wonder.

London England and Windsor Castle

We spent a long weekend visiting England, the political motherland for our great country.

We started our weekend in the City of London, where we ran all around the city on the bus and underground, but also took a tour bus out to Windsor to see the Castle.

This is supposed to be the oldest and largest "occupied" castle in the world. Apparently, at least one English royal sometimes lives there, justifying its more formal name, "The Official Residences of The Queen And The Official Residence of The Prince of Wales."

Nobody explained why the "residences" are plural for the Queen but singular, "residence," for the Prince. Maybe the Prince only has one room? Or maybe it’s related to the fact that the Queen really does stay at Windsor Castle on the weekends, but the Prince does not?

Other than her statute, we didn't get to see the actual Queen during our visit. But our tour guide insisted that the Queen really does stays in Windsor Castle for the weekend. Apparently she commutes back to London for the workweek, where our guide says she works just like you and me.

I doubt that the Queen's job is much like you or me. Start with her job title, "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith." Put that on your business card.

With a job title like that it nearly justifies earning nearly as much money as JK Rowling.

What can you say about the Queen’s place in Windsor?

Well, it’s a castle, and thats always fun. And it’s guarded by blokes in ridiculously impractical hats.

Our guide said these guards are actual live British soldiers, who rotate in and out from their various soldiering jobs. Not many left, she commented sadly, since so many have died in America's war in Iraq.

Of course, we road all around on the London Underground for sightseeing. I took a couple of morning runs through Hyde Park and Regent's Park.

We visited the mythical offices of Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective, at 122b Baker Street.

We also took advantage of London’s cultural diversity to purchase black hair care products, which are not generally available in Singapore.

Oh, and I got my picture taken in an English phone-booth.

Of course, we did a bunch of other fun stuff too. Its too much to write about here, but I have pictures posted online in our flickr account.